The 20 Best Socially Conscious Movies of the Decade

[babylonsister]

One man's opinion, but interesting.


The 20 Best Socially Conscious Movies of the Decade


Posted on Dec 31, 2009

By Peter Z. Scheer

2009 was a record year at the box office, but there are those who worry that Hollywood has gone into decline over the last decade. Moviegoers are reportedly much more interested in gimmicks than substance, and people supposedly would rather watch talking robots than talking humans, let alone stories about the human condition. But the oughts turned out to be a vibrant decade for politically and culturally enlightened movies, after all.

The last 10 years were abundant with films that pushed limits and attacked real issues in real time. The documentary and the foreign film both gained unprecedented mainstream acceptance, the studios experimented with edgier independent movies (though many have now given it up) and even the biggest blockbusters sometimes needled the Establishment.

Of course it helps to have had a frenemy as president for the majority of the decade. There was no love lost between George W. Bush and Hollywood, and there are dozens of movies illustrating the nature of the relationship. But that’s too simple an explanation for all the politics in cinema these past years, and besides, a lot of those on-the-nose current-event movies were just plain uneventful.

Here are 20 of the best socially conscious, topical, progressive movies from a crazy decade. It is an imperfect list, as these things inevitably are. Feel free to make corrections or suggestions by contributing to the readers’ comments section at the end of this article.


list here:

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/the_20_best_socially_conscious_movies_of_the_decade_20091231/

[saltpoint]

1. Life is short but the Arts are long, and that is an impressive list of

films.

A good mix of independent and studio films and no lack of talent across all settings either.

babylonsister. Great post & Happy New Year.

[asdjrocky]

3. Life is shor but the Arts are long.

Is that you? That's good.

[saltpoint]

5. Them old-timey Greeks knew their stuff.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ars_longa,_vita_brevis

I steal from the best!

Now if I could just start hanging out in better bars...

[asdjrocky]

6. I learned to sing by stealing from Neil Diamond,

believe it or not. Acting, was all Tom Hanks. I also realized, while watching the Twilight Zone marathon, that I've probably stolen at least 6 short stories from that show.

[saltpoint]

7. Now that you've brought up the Twilight Zone, I'm thinking of the

set-yer-crotch-on-fire terrorist guy and the new heightened security frenzy and wondering if that demon on the plane wing in that one Twilight Zone episode would ever have made it thru TSA monitors.

It's one thing to body search Bill Smith and Mary Jones from Omaha, but demons?!

Hannity: "The Obama administration is soft on demons!"

[asdjrocky]

8. William Shatner over acting at his best.

That scared the hell out of me when I was a kid.

[saltpoint]

9. Same here -- it is STILL kind of unnerving.

One of the classic episodes of a successful series.

[babylonsister]

10. Happy New Year, saltpoint!

I'm expecting great things for us in 2010! :toast:

[saltpoint]

11. I'll raise a glass to that wish, babylonsister.

Cold beer and good tidings for a great 2010.

:toast:

[marmar]

2. Hard to argue with that list.....I might add "Food Inc." and "SiCKO"

nt

[asdjrocky]

4. They also missed-

This Is What Democracy Looks Like