25 best election movies ever

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Star Wars fans point to floppy-eared space rabbit Jar Jar Binks as the point at which the Star Wars franchise went off the rails – but equally perplexing was Episode I's focus on the numbingly tedious politics of the Galactic Senate. On the plus side, you do get to see Ian McDiarmid's machiavellian Senator Palpatine schmooze his way into the Chancellorship – and lay the groundwork for his eventual coronation as Emperor.

Bulworth (1998)

Warren Beatty's disillusioned senator hires an assassin to kill him – and feeling rather more liberated, starts speaking his mind at campaign events. Co-written by The West Wing's Aaron Sorkin, the film's a political riff on TV satire Network – the establishment figure who snaps and starts telling it like he sees it becomes a media sensation. It also features the frankly terrifying spectacle of Warren Beatty rapping.

Citizen Kane (1941)

Although media magnate Charles Foster Kane's bid to become governor of New York State is a relatively short interlude in Orson Welles' masterpiece, it's the turning point of the film. The failure of Kane's political ambitions – and the shattering of his assumption that he can control the electorate – marks the beginning of his decline and retreat into the isolated splendour of his mansion, Xanadu.

Primary Colors (1998)

John Travolta plays Governor Jack Stanton, a Southern Democrat possessed of folksy charm and a voracious sexual appetite who is absolutely, definitely not based on Bill Clinton. As he embarks on his presidential campaign, Stanton's campaign staff struggle to smooth over his past indiscretions – of which there are many. The story may be focused on the backroom boys, but it's Travolta's slick operator who lingers in the memory.

The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

American soldiers are captured by Chinese communists and brainwashed into being fifth columnists and assassins in this paranoid political thriller. At the heart of the conspiracy is McCarthyite politician Senator Iselin – who's aiming to take the Presidency and hand the country over to the Reds. A sly dig at McCarthy's scaremongering demagougery, The Manchurian Candidate suggests that political witch hunts play directly into the hands of America's enemies.

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