2. Dances With Wolves
The Politics: Where there's smoke, there's fire. Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves is a left wing film because of the extremism in its messaging. Based on a fantastic novel by Michael Blake, Dances With Wolves presents a story about a suicidal soldier unsure of where his allegiance lies in the fight against the Native American. Eventually, Kevin Costner's Dunbar is accepted by a group of Native Americans and becomes apart of their tribe taking on the name Dances With Wolves. He comes to turn on his own country and people and accept his place among the Native American. It's a great story. The politics only come from the fact that the film paints a one sided view of history that would make Oliver Stone blush. In the film, the Americans or the white man are all evil. They are racist and blood thirsty. Dunbar is really the only one with redeemable qualities. The film also seems to have the message that Dunbar is only redeemable because he turned away from his country completely and threw all his duties and loyalty to the wind and took up with the "victims." It's an extreme move to make and seems to be more apt to be considered left wing than right.
Is It Any Good? Dances With Wolves is a hands down masterpiece. It's become more common for people to poke fun at Costner and his three hour long Western, but it does not change the fact that Dances With Wolves is one of the greatest films of its decade and perhaps ever. Politics be damned.