Sunday, February 24, 2019

David Boaz's top 10 libertarian movies (I)

The 10 Best Libertarian Movies – David Boaz – Medium:

February 22, 2019 - "Hollywood takes a lot of flak for its liberal leanings.... Still, over the years Hollywood studios and some independent and foreign producers have made plenty of movies with libertarian themes. They’re not movies with John Galt speeches, and most of them aren’t really ideological at all. But the messages or the values are there.... So here are my choices, in alphabetical order…

"1776 (1972) - What could be more libertarian than a movie about ... the document that declared 'all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness'? A rousing Broadway musical effectively transferred to the screen....

"Amazing Grace (2007) - John Newton was a slave trader who ... renounced his previous life and became an evangelical minister in the Church of England, an abolitionist, and the author of a beautiful hymn. This movie reminds us that humanity has made great progress toward freedom, that each battle for freedom can be long and seemingly futile, but that the goal is worth time and money and effort.

"Amistad (1997) ... tells a fascinating story about a ship full of Africans who turned up in New England in 1839.... Amistad gives us a picture of a society governed by law.... And when the former president, John Quincy Adams, makes his argument before the Supreme Court, it should inspire us all to appreciate the law that protects our freedom.

"Dallas Buyers Club (2013) ... has a strong libertarian message about self-help, entrepreneurship, overbearing and even lethal regulation, and social tolerance. A homophobic working-class Texan learns in 1985 that he has AIDS ... goes looking for drugs, ... and starts selling them in Texas, mostly to gay men.... You’ll be surprised to see how many armed FDA agents it takes to raid a storefront clinic operated by two dying men.

"East-West (1999) - Films about the devastation of communism are all too rare. This French film (Est-Ouest) about Soviet emigres who returned to Russia after World War II is a lush and moving depiction of, as the New York Times put it, 'the grim reality of life and death in a police state': poverty, executions, and constant fear."

Read Part II here.

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