10 films fighting power this July 4th.

This is the 4th ^{July 1945 in America – which my British friends call "Yankee Aggression War" jokingly – and that means a few things. Waves of heat. Pool parties. Time with family and friends. Beer. Brats. Barbecues. And of course, fireworks and patriotism of Americans from all walks of life, brightening the night sky like the red lightning of the rocket for Francis Scott Key all these years ago when & ### 39, he wrote "The Star Spangled Banner."}

The easily recognizable event will permeate the American night with all these other things: the sound of police sirens where fireworks are illegal in this country and even where they are legal. Our first responders still have their hands full on July 4 by enforcing these laws and taking care of people who are partying and making stupid decisions

Our first responders are vital to our national fabric and our heroes even though the laws they enforce are often onerous – it's our prerogative as Americans to use our freedom and individual freedom to elect lawmakers who will change or behave these unjust laws and will resist them as best as possible in a peaceful context. way. That's what the 4 July is about – the spirit of America is a spirit of skepticism about power: to resist and fight when it is necessary to resist and fight.

It's in our DNA and our collective unconscious as Americans fight the power. From the American Revolution to the Civil War, the suffrage of women, legally fighting World War II and II to the civil rights movement (and other rights movements) and at the age of Trump, resistance and struggle for what is right, what we believe in. in our bones. It defines our heritage as a people.

We hope you enjoy this list of 10 films (in no particular order – just a few favorites) on resistance and the fight against power, fighting for what is right. May they light (or revive) you in the spirit of what it means to be an American at the birthday of our nation

Good Night and Good Luck (2005) – Watch It Here

Good Night and Good Luck tells the true story of cross-reporter Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) while he was leading a crusade to topple Senator Joseph McCarthy in the middle of the hunt to the Senator's Communist witches in the 1950s who gave birth to "McCarthyism" and McCarthy Era "as terms during the Cold War, fueling a" red alert "- not to mention the many violations McCarthy and his committee of anti-corruption activities US House (HUAC) committed against the constitutional rights of individuals they thought communists George Clooney directs

The last television response of Edward R. Murrow to Senator McCarthy, 1954.

Thomas Jefferson has once said that "the only security of all is in a free press". This is as true now as in 1823 when Jefferson told the Marquis de Lafayette, despite shouts of "false news" and politicians calling the press a " enemy of the people " , while a gunman targeted a Maryland newsroom for his carnage this week. Good Night and Good Luck is only a journalism film on this list, but it's a good and necessary one. The pioneering example of Murrow's fight against power is a source of inspiration for all of us.

Milk (2008) – View Here

Milk of 2008 tells the true story of the first openly elected elected gay in California Harvey Milk and his assassination in 1978 at the age of 48 by the city's supervisor Dan White (played by Josh Brolin in the film), a conservative who campaigned on the law and order and family values. "White's defense was suicide in 1985. Sean Penn won the 2009 Oscar for his performance as company leader Milk San Francisco, entrepreneur and civic leader in a community of which he is Gus Van Sant directs

Harvey Milk knew that his chances of being murdered were high, so he recorded a tape that would only be played if it happened. Listen to this recording above

Milk is a film that will inspire all of us to do what we can to change our section of the planet Earth, fight for what is right and be a example for others. the same.

Inheriting the Wind (1960) – Look here …

Spencer Tracy is a lawyer who defends the right to think of his client ("he wishes to think!") is one of my favorites in any movie of any subject, and is included below. Tracy's famous speech in the audience room always gives me chills whenever I have the chance to see him again. Stanley Kramer

The film is based on the 1955 play which is in turn based on the very real Scopes "Monkey" lawsuit in 1925, where the accused John Scopes was arrested for teaching the subject. evolution in his class at the Tennessee Public School. violation of the state law at the time, for which Scopes was convicted on July 21, 1925.

Tracy's speech against fanaticism and ignorance.

Detective Virgil Tibbs of Sidney Poitier is an eternal example of true wickedness in the cinema – a fighter thoroughly against the rampant injustice and racism that surround it , and not your typical action star: the man who wears that bad ass quality because of who he is and the kind of man he is, not the type of shots of fist that he gets (though Tibbs does this when he has to). Smarter than any cop in the small Mississippi town where he is reluctantly enlisted to investigate a murder, Tibbs is stubborn and he does not take racist shit the white cops (with Rod Steiger playing their leader) continue to jump on him, Tibbs finally returns with an unprecedented (and unwritten) slap to the face of a rich white man (played by Larry Gates) on the film. Norman Jewison conducts.

The improvised slap that was controversial because it was a black actor slapping a white actor, who was essentially invisible until then. Poitier managed to convince Jewison to keep the slap.

In the heat of the night was not only revolutionary for these reasons – it was also essentially the first Hollywood movie history to actually turn on a black actor accurately. See more about this incredibly innovative film at 51 in my article here, including stories of Poitier racism clashed and why production was to have its headquarters in southern Illinois, not Mississippi.

The Great Dictator (1940) – Watch It Here

1940 The war had already broken out on the European continent when Germany had invaded Poland a year earlier. Still, the United States will not go into the fray for another whole year.

He is both the execution and the zeitgeist he was executed in which made the author, director and performer of Charles Chaplin The Great Dictator a satire pieces the brighter and braver than ever filmed. Chaplin plays both a Jewish barber and dictator Hynkel in the film – both are talking parties.

Chaplin as dictator Adenoid Hynkel, obviously borrowing exaggerated mannerisms from Hitler's speech patterns.

At the end of the GRAND DICTATOR. Lenny Bruce, comedian and warrior of freedom of expression, once said, "Satire is a tragedy over time: you give it time, the public, the critics, allow you to satirize it. Which is rather ridiculous when you think about it. "Chaplin showed how satire can be brave and powerful when he showed the very explicit satire of The Great Dictator directly and unequivocally to Adolf Hitler – even before he was at war with The film also has one of the most powerful speeches of any cinema you can look at above.

All Men of the President (1976) – View here

Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford bring to life this true story of press freedom by keeping the power of the president as journalists Carl Bernstein ] (Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Redford) discover and fight to publish the original details of the Watergate scandal in the Washington Post Watergate has finally caused the resignation of President Richard Nixon Alan J. Pakula directs [19659002] All Men of the President is another example of the importance of a free press and the First Amendment in the fight against the excesses of power.

The Patriot (2000) – Watch Here

It would not be Independence Day without a movie on the American Revolution, is not it? Roland Emmerich tells how the Revolution operated a fictional family – a concept based on the fact that all too often the war affected real families, tearing them literally and figuratively (along lines of loyalty). Mel Gibson and Heath Ledger stars

Joy (2015) – Look here.

You did not expect to find a film like Joy on this list. Jennifer Lawrence embodies Joy Mangano, inventor of the Miracle Mop (see below an infomercial of Joy) and president of Ingenious Designs, LLC. David O. Russell Directs

Joy is a tale of resistance to social tyranny that can arise through things like rigid gender expectations. The joy as a character was to fight these and use his incredible sense of training, his intellect and his work ethic to live his dream and forge paths for women everywhere.

Joy Mangano Miracle Mop Infomercial of 1996.

If this is not an example of an incredible and inspiring story to fight for what you believe in, I do not know what c & # 39; is.

1984 (1984) – Look here

The tale of George Orwell of a dystopian future where "the war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength "seems to be all about modern world thinking where the government seeks to regulate everything we do and constantly looks at us with Big Brother (an Orwell expression coined in "1984"), just look at the espionage of the NSA .. Despite its name, 1984 is unfortunately still a timely tale of tyranny and those who dare to fight.

Clip of 1984.

Michael Radford directs this iteration of Orwell, with late John Hurt and Richard Burton in the limelight. Watch my interview with Radford here where he talks about the movie, especially its special effects and the infamous scene of the helicopter.

Mr. Smith goes to Washington (1939) – Look here.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington did a great deal to put star James Stewart and director Frank Capra on the map. In it, Stewart plays a naive man who is appointed to fill a senator's seat and sent to Washington DC where he soon runs into the entrenched and corrupt political machine. Yet our titular hero does not retreat in his stubborn and fortuitous search for change.

Personally, I am not a big fan of Jimmy Stewart very early (I prefer it around 1954 and 1958 when he was probably a different Stewart in Rear Window and Vertigo respectively), Mr. Smith's tireless quest for what is right, combined with Capra's artistic direction, make it an inescapable and inspiring American classic that reminds us all why we are fighting.