The Next Great Political Movie

Here’s a working title for a script about the proper role of the federal government and the inspiring president who fights for personal liberty: Less. The script would be all blank pages, evoking a return to political restraint and maximum freedom. In action scene after action scene, the President — and he need not be the square-jawed hero of yore — will simply unleash his veto pen, cut entitlements, revive federalism and . . . walk away, to return to his life as a private citizen.

Sadly, Hollywood’s version of an energetic president involves attacking evil corporations or Republicans (the two are often interchangeable), while clamoring for some special bill that – surprise! – the nasty CEOs or “other side” (those pesky conservatives, again) want to derail. For only liberals value human rights and the environment, and only they can unearth freedom by enacting a momentous wave of legislation that summons a paranormal return to all those fabled Washington deals: Square, New and Fair. Which is to say, filmmakers combine arrogance, naivete, paranoia and political groupthink to make the same tired movies about government.

It’s not that Hollywood fails to recognize the dangers of concentrated power. The misdeeds of multinational corporations receive harsh criticism, the actions of abusive law enforcement agencies come under appropriate attack, even individual members of the executive branch are fair game — but these villains are selective enemies because they are the antagonists of a liberal president, not foes of limited government or the sanctity of the Constitution. And Hollywood’s heroic president, when he’s not evading the denizens of Big Tobacco or escaping the clutches of some sadist in the bowels of an undisclosed location, always manages to expose the grand thievery of these right-wing nuts.

Maybe if Hollywood got rid of these stock villains and humanized things – maybe if directors and writers actually portrayed the day-to-day inanities of politics and the petty depravities of a million bureaucrats – we could have a real conversation about the state. Forget the CIA or FBI or the racist Southern sheriff — the next great movie about an assault against freedom should be filmed at the DMV.