I like movies as much as anyone else, but I need your help. Please send me your favorite movies, and a brief sentence or two saying why, and I'll put 'em up here. Reader-contributed reviews are in quotes.

To Kill A Mockingbird
An unjustly accused black man is defended against charges of rape by a white lawyer in a Southern town.

Bob Roberts
A scathing parody of modern campaigning, this movie tells the story of an ultra-conservative country-western singer who runs for Congress against a liberal incumbent using every dirty trick in the book

Dead Man Walking
A thoughtful look at the issue of capital punishment. This movie doesn't take the easy way out by making the criminal unjustly convicted or anything. Also, it focuses on the victims families and how they dealt with their horror. A good movie all around.

Schindler's List
Beautifully shot in black and white, this movie shows the ultimate height of both human evil and redemption in the story of how a German facotry owner saved several hundred Jews from the Nazi Holocaust.

Roger and Me
A humorous and trenchant look at "corporate killers," the executives who destroy thousands of jobs while padding their own pockets.

Soylent Green
An overpopulated world of riots, processed food, and steaming heat where a euthanized death is all that's worth looking forward to.

Handmaids Tale
Perhaps the best illustration ever at what an America governed by Pat Roberson of Pat Buchanan would look like. A violent and oppresive theocracy governs, women are officially slaves to the State, and a hideous perversion of Christianity is the ruling ideology.

Apocalypse Now
A good illustration of the horrors of war and how it can drive some men insane.

Dr. Strangelove
A biting parody of cold war fear and loathing. Features the famous "riding the bomb" scene.

The Birdcage
A good comedy making fun of the the conservative notion of family values, as the gay family has them, the far-right family does not.

Metropolis
An early silent film where the oppresed workers toil for the technocratic elite. Maybe made 80 years too early?

Dances With Wolves
A film sympathetic to the American Indian movement, showing how they were pretty ruthlessly mowed down by our government 100 years ago

Citizen Kane
The breathtaking story of the life of a captain of industry...all his wealth couldn't buy him peace.

1984
The story of life in a futuristic totalitarian dictatorship where love is subservient to ideology, and freedom of thought is a crime.

Blade Runner
A good dystopic movie about the near future. Familiar elements (technocratic elite, suffering masses, dirty fearful streets) is played out in this story of a paid assasin stalking rogue robots

Lord of the Flies
An excellent movie for libertarians/anarchists and others who feel that the absence of laws is a good idea. Freedom becomes survival of the fittest. The weak die. Society crumbles.

Harold and Maude
"Part black comedy, part love story, this film lampoons the rich, the warmongers, and the dogmatic. It celebrates a non-traditional but very pure love, and also a non-traditional but joyous way of looking at life."

Norma Rae
Sally Field plays a determined textile worker trying to form a union. Good feminist, worker's rights theme.

Harlan County U.S.A.
Academy Award-winning documentary by Barbara Kopple about a coal miner's strike in Kentucky.

Fried Green Tomatoes
"A woman rescues her best friend from an abusive husband, and the two of them raise a child and run a successful business together. (I haven't read the book, but I understand that in it, Idgy and Ruth were lovers. It's a shame that the moviemakers felt it necessary to mask this aspect of their relationship, but overall the movie is still very strong.) They also have an enlightened attitude, for their time, toward the black men and women in their lives. The frame story includes themes of female friendship and mentoring, a woman taking control over her life for the first time, and the treatment, respectful and otherwise, of senior citizens."

Inherit the Wind
The story of the famous Scopes "monkey trial" of the 1920s where a schooltecher was put on trial for teaching evolution. Contains some powerful statements in favor of truth and knowledge and some great trial scenes. Not to be missed!

Testament
"Jane Alexander's Oscar-nominated performance in a powerful commentary on the real, personal impact a nuclear war could have."

Fern Gulley
"An animated movie about three-inch tall people living in the woods battling a big logging company. This movie did tend to be a bit loud with its enviromental themes; nevertheless, it is worth the video rental fee."

On the Beach
"One of the most important anti-nuclear movies, and from the 1950s to boot!"

The Children's Hour
"Audrey Hepburn and Shirley MacLaine's story about lesbianism and intolerance -- made in 1960!"

The American President
"One movie that I think should be included in "Liberal Movies" is Rob Reiner's film "The American President." A story about a widowed liberal President (Michael Douglas) who falls in love with an environmental activist (Annette Benning), and the conservative rants of his opponent (Richard Dreyfuss) on their relationship and "family values," the final speech the President gives is the best part of the film. He eloquently defends his opposition to a flag desecration amendment, favors strong gun control and environmental laws, and exposes the real weakness of the conservative strategy to solve national problems--"[Let's] first make you afraid of it, then tell you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win elections." "

A Family Thing
"(Robert Duvall & James Earl Jones) - story of a man forced to confront his own prejudices; beliefs largely borrowed (without much thought) from the society in which he was reared. A must-see for those who believe in the old adage about walking a mile in another's shoes to gain 'insight' and understanding, and gaining a higher level of humanity in the process."

The Grapes of Wrath
"One of the best films ever to come out of Hollywood, coming close to the essence of Steinbeck's masterpiece about the plight of those at the mercy of the 'job-providers' who pitted them against one another in their need for the barest of necessities - food. It parallels this third "laissez-faire" trickle-down fiasco that was Reaganomics."

Field of Dreams
"I probably don't need to remind you of the film's political layer, but I will: Ray Kinsella, a Berkeley graduate turned Iowa farmer, goes on a visionquest of sorts in search of the reason he plowed under his corn field to build a baseball diamond after having heard voices urging him to do so. Along the way, he befriends Terrence Mann, the 60's liberal activist and author who's life seems to have lost meaning with the onset of Reagan's 80's but rediscovers the desire to write after he visits Ray's field and sees his long-dead baseball heroes playing there. There are also several scenes that are most decidedly sending a liberal...even anti-establishment...message here. The "evil" bank threatens to foreclose on the farm throughout the film and the US Constitution is strongly defended against pro book-censoring parents at a school board meeting.

Best of all (at least to me...I, too, am a huge Cubs fan and baseball fanatic), America's pastime is tied emotionally, passionately, and realistically to family values (reunion with Ray's dead father) and the Liberal Ideals that the lead characters seem to be looking for throughout the film. They've recorded the great and hopeful history of America in terms of baseball and its status as it parallels American history throughout time. The best example of this is in Terrence Mann's (James Earl Jones) soliloquy near the end of the film, "The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. Its been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game, its a part of our past, Ray. It represents all that once was good, and that will be again."

The Candidate
"The Candidate starring Robert Redford. It was a wonderful movie about a grassroots liberal candidate who spoke his mind and was able to overcome his unscrupulous oponent."

In Search of Bobby Fischer
"A touching story about how winning isn't everything (try explaining this to conservatives)! How friendship defeats racist stereotypes! How treating people like humans and not rivals is important for our own survival (explain this to the Christian Right)."

Matewan
John Sayles' account of the formation of a union in an Appalacian coal town and its battles for worker justice. A suspenseful, harrowing, compassionate drama telling an important story in American economic history - Sayle's best film. His second best is LONE STAR, a sometimes obvious and earnest look at the collision of cultures, police corruption, and family life in a contemporary Texas border town.

Chinatown
Roman Polanski's brilliant story about a tough, streetwise PI(Jack Nicholson) taking on the immensely powerful Noah Cross (John Huston), the ultimate self-interested land baron who controls water, real estate, and politicians in 30's L.A. (before environmental regulation and widespread citizen awareness of corporate corruption.) The fictional Cross and men like him used brutal tactics to create the alienated landscape of 20th century boomtown Los Angeles, which suburban America emulated.

The Magnificent Ambersons
Orson Welles tells a story about what America lost when it surrendered itself to the automobile and technology in general. The Ambersons of the title are a once proud auto industry family who are ruined by greed and the societal changes they helped create. This film in its original form would have surpassed Kane as a political statement.

Tragically, the studio drastically edited and shortened the film because preview audiences said it was too dark. Welles was off in S. America making a documentary at the request of his friend FDR. That it remains a great film and retains some of the power of its message is a testament to the genius of its creator.

Ragtime
Based on a Doctorow novel, Milos Forman tells a powerful and tragic story about a black man's stand against racism in late 1800's urban America.

Days of Heaven
A love story about poor migrant farm workers struggling to break free in the early 20th century midwest. Stunning photography, music, brilliant cinematic style and setting make this one of the greatest underappreciated American films ever made. Directed by Terrence Malick.

Little Big Man
Arthur Penn's classic of revisionist history, using the story of a 121 year-old man (Dustin Hoffman) who tells how he became involved with the incompetent, haughty and arrogant General Custer. Skewers myths about the old west.

Heaven's Gate
Once a Hollywood joke due to huge price tag (but perhaps also due to its politics). Michael Cimino tells the story of the brutal Johnson County Wars in Wyoming, where ranchers declared war on immigrant farm laborers in their struggle to survive their oppressed existence. An incisive, heartfelt, and powerful look at American values, greed, and corruption. Long, but has incredible period detail (hence the cost.)

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
It stars Sydney Poitier, Katherine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy. It is about two families coming to terms with an interracial marriage. The way they use the word "liberal" in the movie, you'd think that it was cool at one time to be liberal. Excellent movie. Wonderful, wonderful speeches. My favorite part of the movie is when Hepburn tells off and then fires one of her employees for her disapproval of the marriage. I'm surprised it wasn't already on your list. It might be called Look who's coming for dinner, I don't remember.

Planet of the Apes
Planet of the Apes, another one I think any liberal who has battled creation "science" being taught in schools would see as relevant. The "bad guy" apes are verrry similar to our own Religious Reich. It also has an anti-nuke message that I attribute more to liberalism than conservatism. This also brings up a good question: why has Charlton Heston been in so many movies that seem to have liberal messages (Planet of the Apes, Omega Man, Soylent Green, possibly even Ben Hur), yet is such a staunch Republican?

A reader opines...

"You ask why Charlton Heston, a staunch Republican, has appeared in so many movies that carry a liberal message. Perhaps it is because Heston has migrated from a left to right over a span of some 40 years. In 1961, while visiting a friend in Oklahoma City, Heston - without prompting and without calling in the media - appeared at the head of a group of demonstrators protesting the Jim Crow laws that forbade blacks to sit at Woolworth and Rexall lunch counters. In an interview in the late 1970s, after his rightward movement was already well underway (he had supported Mixon in 1972), he told me that he was proud of that gesture in Oklahoma City, thought it had to be done, and did not think it was inconsistent with his post-Watergate anti-McGoven position."

Night of the Living Dead
It became a cult classic because it broke the racial barrier of having a black man as prominent hero. It also opened up the industry to ratings due to graphical nature (something Dawn of the Dead did a better job of in 1978). Hey, it's not about the violence. It's about whether or not we have a choice to see what we want to see.

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and The Media
"Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and The Media" is a three hour bio-documentary about the linguist and political activist. It's won something like 14 international awards, and received a 15 minute standing ovation during one screening. It's not heavy-handed or tedious like a lot of documentaries can be. It's simply a terrific piece of art, and it's what turned me on to left-liberal politics.

Europa Europa
The dramatized story of a Jewish teen who survives World War II by first becoming the perfect Communist, then pretending to be a "pure" German and joining the Hitler Youth. The most insidious liberal message is simply that there are no true villains in this story. All the characters--Jewish, Polish, Russian, and German--are presented as three-dimensional humans with both good and not-so-good sides. The viewer can sympathize with them all to some extent. Totalarianism seems even more insane when its supporters and advocates become real people rather than cartoon-like caricatures.

Running on Empty
Roger Ebert lists this film as one of his ten favorite liberal films. The story is about a left-wing couple with their two sons on the run from the FBI. In one town they settle in, the older son makes plans to go to college and falls in love. Its liberalism comes largely in its portrayal of this radical family's values, from the strong love that binds them to the respect the father (Judd Hirsch) eventually gives his quietly rebellious son (River Phoenix). It's kind of a quiet left-wing answer to the religious right's stranglehold on "family values." Christine Lahti and Martha Plimpton also give powerful performances, and Phoenix's acting earned him an Oscar nomination. Sidney Lumet directed.

My Own Private Idaho
A rather poetic depiction of the lives of two street hustlers, one of them (River Phoenix) a gay narcoleptic from an extraordinarily dysfunctional family, and the other (Keanu Reeves) the rich son of the mayor of Portland, Ore., who plays the role of Prince Hal. The film holds few punches in its depiction of street life, though it's probably less grittily realistic than some films. It contains several twists on the themes of family and love that would surely turn a right-winger's stomach. Perhaps the best scene is the campfire scene where Mike (Phoenix) declares his love for the bisexual Scott [Reeves]. This could be the late Phoenix's finest performance.

Being There
Staring Peter Sellers, is a great movie, I think also the last with Peter Sellers, about a gardener making a carrier in politics. Nice parody on the upper-upper-upper-class in Washington. The film is based on a book, the autor of eventually commited suicide. What can be a better liberal film? Also with Jack Warden and Shirley MacClain.

12 Angry Men
I would like to nominate the movie 12 Angry Men, starring Henry Fonda. This 1950's black and white movie is about a jury deciding a supposedly "open-and-shut" capital murder case. One member refuses to allow an immediate guilty verdict and proceeds to convince the entire jury that there was enough reasonable doubt to acquit the defendant. The movie stresses the importance of reasonable doubt and innocence until guilt is proven. It also exposes the prejudice and self-interest of the "get tough on crime" crowd. This is one of my favorite movies of all time.

JFK
It does an excellent job of examining how involved the anti-Kennedy clan was successful in assassinating him. It portrays a defeat for the liberals, but arouses questions of how it would have been if Kennedy had not been assassinated by the anti-liberals of that period, such as much less involvement in Vietnam and the advancement of civil rights.