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From post-war America to modern politics, join us as we examine films that perfectly capture each presidential era! We're looking at movies that reflect the social climate, political tensions, and national mood during each administration. These cinematic time capsules show how Hollywood has chronicled America's evolving identity through the decades.
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00:01I'll remember that.
00:03Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at 15 films for every president following World War II.
00:09For this list, we'll be going chronologically through each president's term and selecting one film that defines each era.
00:15We thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world.
00:21Harry S. Truman, The Best Years of Our Lives.
00:30Following FDR's death during the final year of World War II, his former vice president, Truman, oversaw the country's return to peacetime and witnessed the transition of its veterans.
00:44Those coming home, and Truman himself, would have to adjust to the new status quo, and no film better captured that whiplash than The Best Years of Our Lives.
00:52The movie followed three veterans returning and readjusting to their civilian lives and the unexpected struggles that came with the transition.
00:59The performances of the returning men, as well as the families they returned to, struck a chord with audiences at the time, and the film won seven competitive Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for non-professional actor, veteran, and amputee Harold Russell.
01:23No, don't, I'll carry it.
01:25What's the matter, Ma?
01:26It's nothing.
01:27It's just that your Ma's so glad to see you home.
01:28Yeah, I know.
01:29Dwight D. Eisenhower, On the Waterfront.
01:30I could have been a contender.
01:31I could have been somebody.
01:32By the time Eisenhower was sworn in, the Cold War was in full swing.
01:48With tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union reaching a boiling point, McCarthyism had swept the U.S., and distrust and tensions between citizens was at an all-time high.
01:58This was especially true in Hollywood.
02:00Testimonies were made at the House Un-American Activities Committee outing supposed communists, with people like director Ilya Kazan naming names.
02:07The backlash from these actions led to Kazan directing on the waterfront, a tale of corruption and weighing the benefits of standing up to powerful organizations.
02:14Listen, if I were you, I would walk, right? Never mind. I'm not asking you to do anything. It's your own conscience that's got to do with the asking.
02:26As the CIA was enacting coups and installing dictatorships across the world, with Eisenhower's go-ahead, the film mirrored the loss of trust in institutions that many felt.
02:35They got Charlie.
02:37Terry, I'm frightened. Let's get out of here, please. First Joey and then Dugan, and now Charlie and next...
02:44Please, Terry, someplace where we can live in peace.
02:47John F. Kennedy, To Kill a Mockingbird.
02:49All men are... created... equal.
02:55Although it was set decades earlier, the trial where Atticus Finch, played by Gregory Peck, defends a falsely accused black man, Tom, perfectly captured the tensions present in the civil rights movement.
03:05It's not difficult to draw parallels between Finch and JFK, who would become a pioneer for civil rights and an icon of hope for the country at large.
03:13Both classically handsome men and talented orators, the fictional story involving Atticus and the real-life presidency of Kennedy ended in tragedy.
03:21Atticus!
03:27Hey Atticus.
03:29Jim, go home. And take Scout and Dill home with you.
03:34Son, I said go home.
03:37No, sir.
03:38Just as calamity befell Tom after the trial, Kennedy was assassinated before the civil rights acting champion was passed in 1964.
03:45I'm no idealist to believe firmly in the integrity of our courts and of our jury system. That's no ideal to me. That is a living, working reality.
03:58Lyndon B. Johnson, in the heat of the night.
04:00Did you question this man before you brought him in?
04:02No, sir.
04:07Do you mind taking a look at that?
04:13Yeah! Oh, yeah!
04:16After unexpectedly succeeding JFK, Texas Democrat LBJ continued the latter's racial reforms.
04:22This came during a time when much of his native south was fighting these reforms.
04:26Perhaps no actor better captured the moment during the civil rights era than Cindy Poitier.
04:31His film, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?, saw him in an interracial couple and the struggles that came with older generation accepting that.
04:37Well, I don't think I'm going to faint, but I'll sit down anyway.
04:46In the same year, he portrayed Philadelphia detective Mr. Tibbs investigating a Mississippi murder in In the Heat of the Night.
04:53Seen as lesser because of the color of his skin, Tibbs refused to back down in his pursuit of justice, working with racist cops and delivering one of the most famous slaps in cinema history.
05:02Richard Nixon, The Conversation.
05:12Come on, Harry. Show and tell. How'd you do it?
05:15Well, what are you going to do about it?
05:22I don't know.
05:24Richard Nixon, The Conversation.
05:27Come on, Harry. Show and tell. How'd you do it?
05:30For God's sake, Harry, tell him!
05:32Following a surveillance expert played by Gene Hackman, The Conversation was a twisting thriller that came out at the perfect time to capture what the nation was experiencing.
05:41Hackman's character, Henry, accidentally stumbles across a crime, leading to a crisis of conscience about what to do with damning evidence.
05:48He'd kill us if he got the chance.
05:54Despite being written years earlier and wrapping filming before many details about the Watergate break-in had come to light, the parallels between the film and the scandal were eerie.
06:03Facts about how Republicans had illegally wiretapped and how Nixon had covered up the evidence during his 1972 campaign were coming to light during the film's theatrical run.
06:11Ironically, even the audio equipment used in the film was the same used at Watergate.
06:16He got you, Harry.
06:18And if you loved him and you were patient with him, even though he didn't dare ever tell you anything about himself personally, he might be a Jew.
06:29A Jew.
06:30How did you go?
06:31Gerald Ford, All the President's Men.
06:34Cover-up had little to do with Watergate. It was mainly to protect the covert operations.
06:40It leads everywhere.
06:46Get out your notebook. There's more.
06:49Thanks to Nixon's resignation, as well as former VP Spiro Agnew's own due to separate corruption charges, Gerald Ford became the first person to ever become president without being elected to either office.
07:00He stepped into the presidency as trust in the institution was at an all-time low, as Watergate, along with the final days of the Vietnam War, had eroded public faith.
07:09I see. Were there any other checks, sir, that you might be aware of that could have come?
07:12That's all I had to say.
07:15Mr. McGregor.
07:17Mr. Dauper.
07:18I'm sorry. Thank you very much.
07:20This was reflected in the films of the time, particularly Network, which followed the machinations of a fictional TV studio.
07:28I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell, I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!
07:39Commenting even more directly on corrupt offices, however, was All the President's Men, detailing how two real reporters were instrumental in breaking the Watergate scandal.
07:48The film stood as an example of the power of the press to fight corruption.
07:52The cover-up had little to do with the break-in. It was to protect covert operations and the covert activities involving the entire U.S. intelligence community.
07:59Did Deep Throat say that people's lives are in danger?
08:02Yes.
08:03What else did he say?
08:05He said everyone is involved.
08:07Jimmy Carter, Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
08:10Lock the door!
08:11Lock the door!
08:12They're coming!
08:13They're coming!
08:14Help! Help!
08:15They're coming!
08:16While the 1956 original played on American fears of outsiders, namely communism and the Soviet Union, the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers played on paranoia about our own neighbors.
08:26Over the decades, many Americans began to feel as if they had lost their sense of individuality, while the revolutionaries of the 1960s slowly conformed.
08:42Jimmy Carter's single term was marred by stagflation, as inflation and consumerism ran rampant, a phenomenon harshly criticized by the film.
08:51The former hippies, many of whom would have voted for Carter after decrying Nixon and Ford's conservative policies, had lost their drive, something made explicit in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, where they were replaced with actual pod people.
09:10Ronald Reagan, Robocop.
09:12What did you think?
09:14That you were an ordinary police officer?
09:18You're our product.
09:20And we can't very well have our products turning against us, can we?
09:23In Office from 1981 to 1989, former actor Ronald Reagan defined the 80s with his economic ideals and conservative values taking hold of the nation.
09:32His policies, which drove income inequality and corporate greed, were reflected in films like Wall Street, which famously coined the phrase, greed is good.
09:40Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.
09:45However, the films of the 80s were louder, more violent, and action-driven than the largely auteur new Hollywood films of the 70s.
09:52The decade was perfectly summed up in the hyper-violent Robocop, with his condemnation of Reaganomics, corporate greed, gentrification, and police overreach.
10:01Thank you for your cooperation. Good night.
10:04However, its perfect satire and political commentary were far from the only thing it had going for it.
10:09Robocop was one of the best and bloodiest action films of the decade.
10:13Dead or alive, you are coming with me.
10:16George H.W. Bush, Do the Right Thing.
10:21Hate.
10:23It was with this hand McCain iced his brother.
10:27Love.
10:29These five fingers, they go straight to the soul of man.
10:33Unlike In the Heat of the Night, set in the rural south, Do the Right Thing focused on racial tension and inequality in a major metropolitan area, New York City.
10:41Spike Lee's film, which also saw the director in the lead role, focused on the strain between black and Italian-American residents on the hottest day of the year.
10:49Anyway, Minister Farrakhan always talks about the so-called day when the black man will rise.
10:56We will one day, what does he say, we will one day rule the earth as we did in our glorious past?
11:01That's right.
11:02What past you talking about?
11:04What did I miss?
11:05We started civilization.
11:06The tension and tragedy seen in the film reflected circumstances for many Americans in large cities that had to deal with gentrification, racism, and police brutality,
11:16that were intensified by Bush Sr., keeping policies in line with his predecessor.
11:20Life would imitate art later in Bush's term, when, after Rodney King was beaten and officers using excessive force were acquitted, riots erupted in Los Angeles.
11:29Hate!
11:36Bill Clinton, The Truman Show.
11:39He's back to his old self.
11:49Oh my god.
11:50Thanks to the recent rise of reality TV, and the early days of internet access, distorted information was on the rise during the Clinton years.
11:57People began to question if what they were seen, and told, could be believed, and a number of films in the late 90s ran with that theme.
12:04Many featured men questioning the seemingly idyllic suburban life around them, and none did this more perfectly than The Truman Show.
12:10Why don't you let me fix you some of this new mo cocoa drink?
12:13All natural cocoa beans from the upper slopes of Mount Nicaragua, no artificial sweeteners.
12:17What the hell are you talking about?
12:21Who are you talking to?
12:22Living his entire life as the star of a reality TV show he wasn't aware existed, the film chronicles Truman's search for the truth.
12:29While being a grounded critique of the times media landscape, it's also an existential journey about self-discovery, religion, consumerism, and so much more.
12:37Who are you? I am the creator of a television show that gives hope and joy and inspiration to millions.
12:49Then who am I? You're the star.
12:52George W. Bush, Zodiac.
12:55The handwriting is the closest that we have ever come to a match.
12:59Rick didn't draw any posters.
13:01No, he drew this one.
13:02Mr. Graysmith, I do the posters myself.
13:07It's my handwriting.
13:09No president's tenure was as defined by a single day as George W. Bush's was by September 11, 2001.
13:15The events of that day, and the response to it, defined the nation during Bush's two terms.
13:21Bush's war on terror saw the country grappling with an enemy that was nebulous and with an ideology for inflicting violence that they did not understand.
13:29Don't move.
13:31I want your money and your car keys.
13:32Okay.
13:34We're not going to do anything, okay?
13:36We're going to cooperate.
13:37Just tell me what you want us to do.
13:39Despite being set decades earlier, the hunt for the nefarious serial killer, known only as the Zodiac,
13:43showed the paranoia and obsession the country experienced.
13:47Zodiac featured a talented ensemble cast, headed by Jake Gyllenhaal in a career-defining role as Robert Graysmith.
13:53The film details Graysmith falling further into his single-minded desire to catch the killer as the world largely moved on.
14:00I'm not the Zodiac.
14:03And if I was, I certainly wouldn't tell you.
14:06Barack Obama, The Social Network.
14:08You're going to go through life thinking that girls don't like you because you're a nerd.
14:14And I want you to know from the bottom of my heart that that won't be true.
14:18It'll be because you're an asshole.
14:21By the 2008 presidential election, the media landscape had changed forever, and Obama's willingness to utilize social media paid dividends for him.
14:33Thanks in large part to he and his team building engagement on sites like Twitter, and of course, Facebook, he captured the primary and eventually the general election.
14:41A million dollars isn't cool. You know what's cool? You?
14:47A billion dollars.
14:49The way we engaged with not just politics, but other people, had changed forever as a result of these social media sites.
14:56Thus, The Social Network became a defining film of the era.
14:58Not just because of how it chronicled the rise of Facebook.
15:01It also showed how people started to see each other.
15:03By telling a story of betrayal, the rise of tech bros, and the cult of personality that dominated those spaces.
15:09You better lawyer up, asshole.
15:11Cause I'm not coming back for 30%.
15:13I'm coming back for everything.
15:16Donald Trump. First term. Get out.
15:19Now you're in the sunken place.
15:35Released just weeks into Trump's initial term, Get Out captured the fear and unease that many, particularly minorities, felt.
15:41However, the horror film was not simply critical of conservatives, but of progressives and white liberals seeking to commodify and use black bodies.
15:50Where are those keys, Rose?
15:55You know I can't give you the keys, right, babe?
15:58With elements of body horror and psychological thriller, it followed a black man, Chris, visiting his white girlfriend's family, where he was in danger of losing his identity and becoming a prisoner in his own body.
16:09What I want is deeper.
16:14I want your eye, man.
16:20I want those things you see through.
16:22The original ending, where Chris was arrested, was even changed.
16:25Director Jordan Peele realized it was truer, but that audiences needed a little hope with a happy ending.
16:30We handle shit. That's what we do. Consider this situation. F***ing handle.
16:41Joe Biden. Oppenheimer.
16:43Chronicling the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who helped create the atomic bomb, Christopher Nolan's epic was powerful and harrowing.
16:56The film is non-chronological, alternating between the exciting and hopeful time in Oppenheimer's life and the hearings years later, where he was stymied by bureaucracy.
17:04Would you have been opposed to the dropping of a thermonuclear weapon on Japan because of moral scruples?
17:09You said to me if I would, sir.
17:10Would you oppose the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima because of moral scruples?
17:14We set forth our arguments against dropping it, but I did not endorse them.
17:22Those elements were reflective of a country that was embracing science in order to claw its way out of a pandemic, but that was met with challenges from those acting in bad faith.
17:31While initially hopeful that his life's work had prevented evil, the film ends with a sense of dread for Oppenheimer that something even worse was coming.
17:38A feeling familiar to many who saw what was on the horizon for US politics.
17:42When I came to you with those calculations, we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world.
17:52I remember as well. What happened?
17:59I believe we did.
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18:19Donald Trump. Second term. One battle after another.
18:23I need a weapon, man. All you got is damn nunchucks. You know I can get a gun.
18:29Almost immediately, Donald Trump's return to the presidency was marked by seemingly endless attempts at an expansion of executive power alongside mass deportations.
18:37Have some of these raids gone too far?
18:40No, I think they haven't gone far enough because we've been held back by the by the judges, by the liberal judges that were put in by Biden and by Obama.
18:49One battle after another is about those resisting the overreach and oppression of the administration as a washed up revolutionary and his daughter are targeted.
18:57What time is it?
18:59Uh, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't remember that part.
19:03All right. Let's just not nitpick over the password stuff. Look, this is Bob Ferguson. All right. You just called my house.
19:08As military troops led by a would-be white supremacist leader descend on a sanctuary city, aggressively agitating and kidnapping people to cover their own agenda, the people fight back.
19:18It accurately portrays the power grabs and abuses of current times, as well as the spirit of those fighting back, while being one of the best action thrillers in years.
19:26Me and mom, we used to run around and do some real bad shit. They got hurt. Now they're coming after us.
19:34Which films do you think perfectly describe these presidential terms? Let us know in the comments below.
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