Top 5: Favorite Conservative Moments
by John NolteWith National Review’s John J. Miller counting down the 25 best conservative movies of the last 25 years, it got me to thinking about conservative “moments” on film. This is not a preview of any upcoming films on the NRO list. You’ll have to keep an eye on the Corner for those. These are just clips [some with adult language] that stand out for the reasons stated below:
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1. “I’m not your best friend; I’m your only friend.”Other People’s Money (1991): One of the reasons Leftist films have been bombing at the box office (even with Leftists) is due to a one-sidedness that insults the intelligence. In just a couple years, between narratives and documentaries, there have been over a dozen anti-war films that have all flopped, and one of the reasons is that at no time was a single character allowed to stand up and point to the elephant in the room:
But wait a minute… What about the Iraqi people? There are twenty-five million innocent people there and we’re the only thing between them and annihilation. You just want to abandon them? You’re arguing we feed millions of women and children into a terrorist meat grinder? Haven’t you seen “Three Kings?” Once upon a time, even George Clooney thought that was wrong.
As a general rule, for over a decade now, no conservative has been allowed to make an intelligent case for their beliefs in a high profile studio film – whether it’s gun control, abortion, the environment, taxes, or the war in Iraq. And the reasons are obvious. When presented intelligently, conservative ideas appeal to those possessing both common sense and compassion. In other words, these arguments are persuasive and Hollywood knows it.
In 1991, a number of things had started to awaken me from my liberal slumber. Maturity, a job… and watching Danny DeVito’s Larry the Liquidator turn “Other People’s Money” completely on its ear with his brilliant speech about the realities of how an effective, and yes, compassionate, economy should work. For some context, check out the speech Gregory Peck’s character gives beforehand.
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2. “Tough guys deep fry chicken.” Stand and Deliver (1988):
These inner city students had all kinds of reasons to fail but Jaime Escalante (Edward James Olmos, in one of the best performances of the 80s) refused to give them excuses. This scene crystallized the attitude of the entire film. No Ebonics, no multi-cultural nonsense, no woe is me. Escalante presented the world to his students as it is and prepared them to succeed in it by demanding their very best.
To produce narcissists you need only teach self-esteem based on identity instead of accomplishment.
Escalante produced adults.
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3. “This reading will not stop.” A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945):
There are a few interesting things in this clip. The obvious one being that such a simple truth about the greatness of America would never make it into a studio film today. And if it did there would be so many asterisks about Indians, global warming and trans fat, you’d think MSNBC wrote it.
The grandmother as the wise one is interesting, as well. Today, she’d be presented as senile, horny or both. The only people Big Hollywood allows to be The Teller of Deep Truths anymore are either lunatics or the homeless.
The second part of the speech is as important as the first. For the film, the grandmother is setting up the central theme, but she’s also reminding all of us that in America success and compassion are not mutually exclusive.
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4. “We’re going to what home was always supposed to be.” We Were Soldiers (2002):
This ranked #19 over at NRO, and for good reason. When it comes to Vietnam, we’ve gotten to a point where being apolitical (like this film) is, in fact, political. If a filmmaker doesn’t portray the mission as misguided, the troops as unstable, and America as imperialist there must be right-wingery afoot.
The conservative aspect of Gibson’s moving speech is in his character’s focus on our similarities while still respecting our differences. “…All Americans,” he says. Not “all one people.” Not “all stewards of Mother Earth.” Not “all the same.”
We are all Americans. No one on the left said this, until, you know, Obama won.
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5. ”Thank you for bringing democracy to Iraq!” Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo (2005):
Deuce Bigalow + Pro-American + Tweaking the Europeans = Sublime.
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45 Comments
Re: Other People’s Money.
In today’s political economy, the fact that employees are being paid twice as much as ten years ago, and the stock worth 1/6, are the correct priorities to the Democrats in power, and the people that voted for them.
Sad, but true.
Personally, I like the moment in “Ghostbusters” when they’re kicked out of Columbia, and Aykroyd tells Murray, “You haven’t worked in the Private Sector — they expect results…I like the University. They give us money.”
Then they fight the bureaucratic EPA, who are content to let the ghosts run wild.
Ahead of its time, I tell ya.
Other People’s Money blows the Wall Street speech out of the water.
[...] a break: Don’t dispair. But take a breather. John Nolte has 5 great “conservative” moments in film. Some of them I’d never seen. 4:00 [...]
You had me until Deuce. And where are the Braveheart “Freedom!” speeches? It’s not American, but it’s absolutely Conservative in the Classically Liberal sense…
Good list, though. I love Stand and Deliver, and haven’t seen it in years. May have to pick it up again.
It would help to have some context to go with it but I would submit this clip for the Federalists and Browncoats out there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCoo08z_f30
The idea that the elderly must all be senile kooks wouldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that today’s elderly are still the last holdovers from the greatest generation would it?
I wonder how quickly the senile elderly meme will change when today’s boomers start officially classifying themselves as elderly and grandma can sit in her rocking chair speechifying about America’s horrible Imperialistic oppression.
I hope the President’s speech (Bill Pullman as President Thomas J. Whitmore) from ID4 (Independence Day) is on that list. Wow what an inspiring speech it was.
The war on Iraq is NOT a conservative stance. No, you neocons will not convince us your wars for Israel are in any way conservative or good for this country. Pat Buchanan, Ron Paul, Paul Craig Roberts, Joe Sobran, Charlie Reese – THESE are conservatives. Neocons are like the alien in “The Thing.”
How about this one as a response to the terrorist threat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSRsBdRhM20
Randy, I heard Pat Buchanan on the Adam Carolla show calling Gaza a “concentration camp.” Yup – THAT’S conservative, if you’re conserving anti-semetism and absurd moral relativism. Careful – I heard this site is owned by the CFR and/or the Bilderbergers, and will be hunting you down any minute! BoogedyboogedyBOOOOO!!!
Elizabethe, fair enough. I don’t know if these are the top five, but it’s the first that pop to mind:
1. The Braveheart speech – “Would you trade each day from this one to that for one chance – ONE CHANCE – to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but THEY’LL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM!!!!”
2. Patton’s opening scene.
3. The scene in Casablanca where the Nazis are singing “Die Wacht am Rhein,” and the people in Rick’s stand up and start singing “La Marsielles” in counter point. (Many of the extras were WWII refugees, and the tears in their eyes were real. Every time I watch it and think of that, so are mine.)
4. In Transformers (don’t laugh) when Optimus Prime explains to Ironhide why they protect the humans. Optimus Prime’s motto from the original toy line is “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.” That is the very essence of conservatism, and was not a small part of my childhood formative thinking (thank God).
5. All three Spider-Man movies, where he in each instance is brutally reminded that HE is ultimately responsible for his actions, and for making the world a better place. Some might say this is Obama’s theme, but that would only be true if instead of going after bad guys, Spider-Man spun a large protest sign out of webbing agitating for crime to be outlawed while cheating on his own taxes and not actually lifting a finger to help the cops.
There are so many examples from Hollywood’s Golden Age (called that for a reason), but what comes to mind today is the scene in Best Years of Our Lives, when the couple’s daughter has decided to “break up” an unhappy marriage. The parents are quietly horrified and try to dissuade her, so she, in all her youthful ignorance, explains how they have never known any trouble, so how could they understand? Mom says to Dad something like “How many times have I told you I hated you and meant it.” “And how many times have I told you we’re through” etc. Wisdom…from parents…who have experienced life.
jp – February 10th, 2009 at 2:12 pm
Murray Rothbard and Ron Paul: “Ronald Reagan is a Warmonger” and “traitor”
Perhaps they are referring to his promises of changing government (by slashing federal departments that should never have been created by people like CARTER) and ending up creating much more government – a whole NEW federal department, no less! He didn’t legislate like he spoke that much.
Yeah, Randy. THAT explains the “warmonger” thing. ‘Cause once Reagan got into office, he TOTALLY worked to appease the Soviets and go all isolationist. And he NEVER talked about confronting the Soviets before he was elected.
Ron Paul was more concerned with Secret Societies and the New World Order than he was with Soviet Communism. That makes him a nutter. That you fawn at his feet makes you a nutter, too. Sorry.
jp – February 10th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
He was more worried about the US Govt. as the Evil Empire and not the Soviets, amazingly enough.
What is so amazing about that? Sounds like what the Founding Fathers would say. Try reading “None Dare Call it Treason.”
The biggest threat to your freedom and well being is your own government.
Actually, the greatest threat to my freedom and well being is the nuke that the Soviets (then) or the Jihadists (now) would blow me up with if the government I pay to provide security for me fails to do their job.
If government were THE BIGGEST threat, we would all be happier and more productive under a system of total anarchy. If our founders thought what you claim they thought, they wouldn’t have written a Constitution or built the Capitol.
Orrin – you seem to think our government is adhering to the Constitution. How naive of you…
Morgan Freeman as the judge in “Bonfire of the Vanities.”
Great call on The Wind and the Lion, Lola.
I hate to say it, but I haven’t been able to look at an Eagle the same ever since I saw that film.
I have to second the Optimus Prime speech in The Transformers, Rocky’s response to his son in Rocky Balboa, and Patton’s speech, among others.
Some scenes that come to me (in no particular order of importance) are:
5. Sam Neil imagining what life would be like in America in The Hunt for Red October
4. The main theme in Rambo (2008), which is standing up for others when you have the strength to do so — but what do I know … I’m just a crazy Neocon.
3. Linus quoting Luke2:8-14 in A Charlie Brown Christmas — it gets me every time.
2. Admiral Adama’s “why we fight” speech in Battlestar Galactica: Razor
1. This is for the Neocon-hating people out there: The end of Delta Force when people at the airport are waving American and Israeli flags … I love it! That’s right, haters — America and Israel standing side by side.
2
@ Nolte-
Awesome post man.
Don’t forget about the scene in Goonies in which Mikey argues against the redistribution of One Eyed Willy’s treasure.
Two of ‘em *Beware of spoilers*
One: Howard Roark’s courtroom speech from The Fountainhead (excerpts in the link above.)
And two: Dr Strangelove is anti-bomb, yes, but aren’t we all, when you get down to it, against them going off nearby? Doesn’t mean we can ban them, though. In the movie, Armageddon is caused by a couple of bureaucratic foul-ups, one on each side (SAC’s Attack Plan R, exploited by the madman general, was shuffled among papers for the Prez to sign, and the Doomsday Device was activated by the Reds but official announcement was saved for a Party Congress.) And nukes going off over the tune of “We’ll Meet Again” is so over-ironic as to be inspirational.
But I always thought of this as a conservative moment: The Russkis need US help to shoot down the bombers. One of them still gets through. Unfortunately the US president must apologize to a drunk Soviet premier about the B-52 crews being so good: “Dimitri, I’m sorry they’re jamming your radar and flying so low, but they’re trained to do it. You know, it’s it’s initiative!”
I’m surprised out how I have almost every film they have chosen and also that some of these are my favorite films. (Gattaca and Master and Commander for example) I have never looked at them through an obvious conservative prism but rather that they are extraordinary films.
I would include the scene from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in which Ransom Stoddard (Jimmy Stewart) gives the people of Shinbone a civics lesson. John Marini wrote a brilliant essay about John Ford’s westerns a few years ago, which the Claremont Review of Books excerpted. (Here’s the link: http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.888/article_detail.asp)
Marini leads up to his discussion of the scene this way:
“There is no effectual law in Shinbone. The residents in town, some of whom are illiterate immigrants, know little of what the obligation of citizenship entails. Consequently, Ford literally takes us into the classroom. He provides a lesson on the principles of democratic government, showing how private individuals are transformed into a public, how passion is subordinated to reason, and how the rule of law replaces the deeds of those outside the law.”
“Liberty Valance” is a great film for many reasons, not least because John Ford, Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne remind us again what it means to be American without apology or equivocation.
I think that my favorite moment, at the moment, is the “Dollhouse” ad that’s running on hulu just now where the guy says, (about a gun), “You know how to use that?” And the girl says, “Four brothers. None of them Democrat.”
I hope the show is good. It sounds interesting.
The scene in “Red Dawn” where the russians are going to machine gun the civilians and they all start singing “the Star Spangled Banner”. Also when Swayze is about to execute a captured russian trooper, and answers the liberal whine “what is the difference between them and us?” with the succinct (and morally defensible) “WE live here!”.
The courtroom speech scene in “Boondock Saints”
The scene in “the Abyss” where the guy was reviving his (kinda dead) wife after swimming back from the sinking sub. (Yes, that was a very leftist movie, but it did have redeeming qualities)
“The Incredibles” when the mom tells her son “Everyone is special…” to which he replies “That’s just another way of saying nobody is.”
“Conan the Barbarian” when Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones)is explaining to the captured Conan the secret to the riddle of steel.
“Steel is not strong boy, flesh is stronger….”
Neoconjedi – February 10th, 2009 at 5:56 pm
1. This is for the Neocon-hating people out there: The end of Delta Force when people at the airport are waving American and Israeli flags … I love it! That’s right, haters — America and Israel standing side by side.
All we need to do to expose you parasites is ask you in public “who are you loyal to, Israel or the US?” and watch you flub. EVERYONE will know and see you for what you are.
It’s late, so how about this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oKwg6W05MU
The ONLY way to negotiate with Terrorists…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDvpPGvMEY4
they’re not people, they’re the ACLU
Alan said:
“All we need to do to expose you parasites is ask you in public “who are you loyal to, Israel or the US?” and watch you flub. EVERYONE will know and see you for what you are.”
If it comes to a decision between Israel and the US then it will be the US every time. However, this is not a choice we have to make because the interests of Israel and the United States are currently much the same.
Alan, there are websites for what you say. This is not one of them. You have said nothing to advance your argument except yell “look around you! It’s a conspiracy!” We are looking around and we do not see any black helicopters or mind control rays. Maybe it’s the floride in the water poisoning our precious bodily fluids that blinds us to this. Maybe you’re just crazy.
“They’re not people, they’re the ACLU.” Great clip.
And Dennis Hopper, “Try not to lead ‘em so much.” Wow. From Easy Rider to American Carol. Who’d a thunk it?
One of my favorite movies that has a Conservative theme, to me at least, is Serenity.
Two scenes stand out:
1.One of the characters, “River”, as a young girl talking to her teacher:
Young River: People don’t like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think, don’t run, don’t walk. We’re in their homes and in their heads and we haven’t the right. We’re meddlesome.
2. The main characters have finally unraveled the mystery behind what the government has done to the older “River” that has basically made her stark raving mad at times. They tried to put drugs in the system of a planet with disastrous results:
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: [RE: What they found on Miranda] This record here’s about twelve years old. Parliament buried it and it stayed buried until River here dug it up. This is what they were afraid she knew. And they were right to fear. There’s a universe of folk who’re gonna know it, too. Someone *has to* speak for these people.
[pause]
Capt. Malcolm Reynolds: Y’all got on this boat for different reasons, but y’all come to the same place. So now I’m asking more of you than I have before. Maybe all. Sure as I know anything, I know this – they will try again. Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean. A year from now, ten? They’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people… better. And I do not hold to that. So no more runnin’. I aim to misbehave.
Love this movie, and the series it came from, for so many reasons!
Conservative moment from a TV show:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzjMMw9uToM
If you don’t get a little teary, you have no soul.
I saw Mrs. Miniver years ago, and as soon as I saw this item, my favorite came to mind – the speech of the Rev. Wilocoxon addressing the congreation in the bombed-out Church on the local people killed in the attack:
And why? Surely you must have asked yourself this question. Why in all conscience should these be the ones to suffer? Children, old people, a young girl at the height of her loveliness. Why these? Are these our soldiers? Are these our fighters? Why should they be sacrificed?
I shall tell you why.
Because this is not only a war of soldiers in uniform. It is a war of the people, of all the people, and it must be fought not only on the battlefield, but in the cities and in the villages, in the factories and on the farms, in the home, and in the heart of every man, woman, and child who loves freedom!
Well, we have buried our dead, but we shall not forget them. Instead they will inspire us with an unbreakable determination to free ourselves and those who come after us from the tyranny and terror that threaten to strike us down. This is the people’s war! It is our war! We are the fighters! Fight it then! Fight it with all that is in us, and may God defend the right.
The original version of “Sabrina” with Humphrey Bogart and Audrey Hepburn. Bogart’s character has a great speech about how private business benefits communities:
“What’s money got to do with it? If making money were all there was to business, it would hardly be worthwhile going to the office. Money is just a byproduct. A new product has been found, something of use to the world, and so a new industry moves into an undeveloped area. Factories go up, machines are brought in, a harbor is dug, and you’re in business. It’s purely coincidental, of course, that people who had a dime before suddenly have a dollar, and barefooted kids wear shoes, have their teeth fixed and their faces washed. What’s wrong with the kind of urge that gives people libraries, hospitals, baseball diamonds and movies on a Saturday night?”
Naturally this speech was conspicuously absent from the Harrison Ford remake.
Doug Drury: I was thinking the same thing. The Wilcoxon Speech is something I find very powerful when thinking of the War on Terror today as it applies to us. Here is the youtube link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92IkddsjtAA
I agree with Reec on Serenity, but actually the best conservative moment is the recorded speech by the government scientist on Miranda, who explains how she and her colleagues released the chemical that killed or mutated everyone. She tearfully explains how the chemical was supposed to make everyone less agressive, and it’s a great statement on how intrusive government can, with the best intentions, make things much, much worse.
I would also add the Tremors movies. The first two were a bit conservative with the gun-owning, big government-loathing Michael Gross character, Burt. But the third movie was particularly conservative- when the monsters start eating people, Burt isn’t allowed to hunt them by government bureaucrats, who declare the monsters to be a protected endangered species.
They come up with a foolish plan to capture one of the monsters alive, and when this causes them to get attacked and suffer casualties, Burt volunteers to capture the monster himself. When the bureaucrats ask what they should do, he says, “do what you do best- find something simple and complicate it!”
I donno, Kevin.
But it does lead one to wonder why it’s liberals, and not conservatives, who are so hot to push mandatory volunteer labor for students.
I don’t know anyone who advocates that people should work without pay other than liberals or universities… but I repeat myself.
Free market means that if a worker doesn’t think they’re getting paid enough they walk. Free market means that the employer-employee relationship is a voluntary one in both directions. If an employer won’t make a profit from hiring someone they don’t have to do it. If the employee doesn’t think they’re getting a fair wage for their labor, they go elsewhere.
That might not always work out smoothly but how does it become the case that a person can’t decide for him or herself if a low entry wage is worth it, or if offering free labor in order to learn a trade is worth it?
@KIWIKIT – Thanks for the heads up. I was looking into Netflix just for A Tree Grows IN Brooklyn. No way am I waiting for a year.
So I did look it up on Amazon. They have it! Just do a search and it came up as number one on the list.
Blessings,
Texas girl
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