Like I said in a previous post, I'm posting my own list of the best liberal movies in response to Daily Kos' very inadequate list. Here it is:

10. Dead Man Walking (1995)
Directed by Tim Robbins

Key liberal issues
- Anti death penalty.
- Anti poverty.
Liberal hero
- Sister Helen Prejean (Susan Surandon).
Most liberal line
- “I just don't see the sense of killing people to say that killing people's wrong.” – Sister Helen Prejean.
Why it’s on the list…
- Tim Robbins’ powerful film manages to be persuasive in its opposition to the death penalty without being pedantic. Also, Tim Robbins should be commended for approaching this film primarily from a moral perspective. In this, he confronts the difficult issue of the death penalty at its core, and although he finds points of agreement on both sides of the debate, the film undoubtedly comes to the conclusion that it is not moral for an advanced western democracy like the United States to execute its prisoners.

9. Good Night and Good Luck (2005)
Directed by George Clooney

Key liberal issues
- Freedom of dissent.
- Freedom of association.
- Anti corporate control of news content.
Liberal hero
- Edward R. Murrow (David Straithern).
Most liberal line
- “We will not walk in fear, one of another, we will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason.” – Edward R. Murrow.
Why it’s on the list…
- George Clooney’s superbly crafted Good Night and Good Luck was released in 2005 at the height of the Iraq War, a period during which the Manichean Bush administration aggresively maintained that anyone who opposed its policies was “un-American” or was giving “comfort to our enemies”. It’s easy to see how Clooney’s dramatization of the Edward R. Murrow/ Senator Joe McCarthy feud was specifically intended to mirror and criticize such patently un-democratic actions. That being said, though, Good Night and Good Luck is not overly topical, but rather a thoughtful and exhilarating statement on the importance of free speech and expression, especially during times of crisis or rupture. Also, the film’s peripheral condemnations of corporate manipulation of the news media seems particularly relevant.

8. JFK (1991)
Directed by Oliver Stone

Key liberal issues
- Anti-war, anti covert operations.
- Anti military industrial complex.
- Anti corporate interest groups which exert influence on the government.
- Pro government transparency and accountability.
Liberal Hero
- Jim Garrison (Kevin Costner).
Most liberal line
- “What kind of national security permits the removal of fundamental power from the people… and validates the ascendency of an invisible government in the US? That kind of national security is… when it smells like it, feels like it, and looks like it… you call it what it is: Fascism!” – Jim Garrison.
Why it’s on the list…
- No film communicates militant liberalism better or more vociferously than Oliver Stone’s JFK, a thrilling cinematic experience that does not simply ask, but demands citizen action in government. Although the film fiercely and correctly attacks the Johnson administration’s specious Vietnam policy, its strongly anti-corporate and anti-war message can not be denied.

7. 12 Angry Men (1957)
Directed by Sidney Lumet

Key liberal issues
- Anti death penalty.
- Anti minority targetting by the justice system.
- Pro civic activism.
Liberal hero
- Juror #8 (Henry Fonda).
Most liberal line
- “Ever since you walked into this room, you’ve been acting like a self-appointed public avenger! You want to see this boy die because you personally want it, not because of the facts. You’re a sadist!” – Juror #8 (Henry Fonda).
Why it’s on the list…
- As a rule, anything that favors the defense over the prosecution is generally liberal, and Sidney Lumet’s stirring, socially consious drama is no exception. Not only does the film promote reason over rashness in the justice system and call for active citizen participation in the democracy, but it also shines a light on the inequities that minorities in the justice system.

6. Boys Don’t Cry (1999)
Directed by Kimberly Peirce

Key liberal issues
- Equality for the GLBT community.
Liberal hero
- Brandon Teena.
Most liberal line
- “You know, I told Brandon… that nobody has a right to do that to you.”
Why it’s on the list…
- Brandon Teena’s death was legally only the fault of a few bigoted psychopaths (and a cruelly insensitive police department), but the hard truth of the matter is that the conservative evangelical culture that persistently demonizes the GLBT community also bears a critical amount of responsibility. Kimberly Peirce’s remarkably tender and nuanced film illustrates this not through dealing with explicitly political subject matter, but through simply showing the tragic journey of a person struggling to be themself.

5. The Constant Gardener (2005)
Directed by Fernando Meirelles

Key liberal issues
- Concern for global quality of life.
- Opposition to corporate control of health care distribution.
Liberal hero
- Tessa Quayle.
Most Liberal line
- “But this is someone we can help now.” – Tessa Quayle.
Why it’s on the list...

- Concern for the well-being of the global community has become an increasingly important principle of modern liberalism-raising the masses out of poverty and establishing international frameworks to purse peace and social justice are key aims in this regard. Fernando Meirelles’ dazzling thriller gives these issues a bracingly human face and demands that we help whom we can, even when the personal toll is great.

4. The Insider (1999)
Directed by Michael Mann

Key liberal issues
- Consumer protection.
- Corporate regulation.
- Anti corporate control of media content.
Liberal hero
- Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino).
Most liberal line
- “I mean, he's got a corporate secrecy agreement - give me a break! I mean, this is a public health issue! Like an unsafe airframe on a passenger jet or some company dumping cyanide into the East River, issues like that! He can talk, we can air it! They've got no right to hide behind a ‘corporate agreement’!” Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer).
Why it’s on the list…
- Conveyed brilliantly in The Insider is a modern day hero’s journey, except instead of slaying a dragon, the hero must stand up to the new post-modern leviathan, the corporation. Despite the tremendous odds that the film’s heroes-whistleblower Jeff Wigand (Russell Crowe) and 60 Minutes producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino)-face, the film shows that an activist commitment to our democratic values and need for capitalist regulation can triumph over corporate America.

3. Kinsey (2004)
Directed by Bill Condon

Key liberal issues
- Support for progressive attitudes toward sexuality and alternative lifestyles.
Liberal hero
- Alfred Kinsey (Liam Neeson).
Most liberal line
- “Everybody’s sin is nobody’s sin, and everybody’s crime is no crime at all.”- Alfred Kinsey.
Why it’s on the list…
- On the surface, Bill Condon’s rich and illuminating film merely depicts the personal life of Kinsey and his scientific research into human sexual behavior, but the heart of this full-fledged examination is a statement attacking conservative America’s paranoia over sexual freedom. Although Kinsey himself may have been sexually permissive to a fault, the film shows how his work sought to normalize attitudes toward homosexuality and those who live alternative lifestyles.

2. Salvador (1986)
Directed by Oliver Stone

Key liberal issues
- Anti Nixon, Ford, Reagan foreign policy.
Key liberal hero
- Richard Boyle (James Woods).
Most liberal line
- “Is that why you’re here, Colonel? Some kind of post-Vietnam experience, like you need a rerun or something? You pour a hundred twenty million pucks into this place, you turn it into a military zone, so what, so you can have chopper parades in the sky?” – Richard Boyle.
Why it’s on the list…
- No film provides as thorough and convincing a rebuttal to the corruptly right-wing foreign policies of Nixon, Ford, and especially Reagan (in fairness, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson also supported similiarly interventionist policies). These presidents’ support for brutal right-wing regimes simply because they were friendly to capitalist-corporate interests was reprehensible and led to incredible suffering. Oliver Stone’s film portrays this vividly through the eyes of cynical war correspondent Richard Boyle.

And number one is….

1. Milk (2008)
Directed by Gus Van Sant

Key liberal issues
- Equality for GLBT community.
Liberal hero
- Harvey Milk (Sean Penn).
Most liberal line
- “You’ve gotta’ give ‘em hope. You’ve gotta give ‘em hope.” – Harvey Milk.
Why it’s on the list…
- A brilliantly unflinching work of social advoacy, Milk was released in 2008 shortly after California voted to ban gay marriage and stood as a defiant statement against the outright bigotry and intolerance of the evangelical right, who lobbied for the ban. This is a rousing film that gives fully-formed dimensions to the fight for homosexual rights in the United States and champions the trailblazing Harvey Milk as one of the fights’ great heroes and martyrs.