I’ll throw in “All The President’s Men” for best political movie.
Although politics is in everything, I’m gonna give a shot for best apolitical movie:
Kill Bill.
Not because it’s void of any political messages, but because it’s a straight forward revenge story with one man army set pieces.
It doesn’t try to say that much about society, its focus is about the relationships of a few people. Everyone can agree betrayal is a bad thing and the movie doesn’t really try to justify revenge, but just to show it in an outlandishly cool way.
Mr smith goes to washington.
Its clearly from 1939, but if you watch it and even mildly pay attention, you will see how very very relevant it still is.
Political - La Haine
Best political movie: The Matrix, it's a clever allegory for lived Trans experience and the oppressive system of capitalism.
Best apolitical movie: The Matrix, it's a fun visual smorgasbord that redefined how action movies were made for decades. Just a fun story about a boy and a girl with lots of guns and explosions.
Political: Lincoln, DR. Strangelove, 12 Angry Men.
Apolitical: The Mummy obviously.
I prefer Fail-Safe over Dr Strangelove. Really drives home the reality of nuclear exchange for me
For me:
-
Political - Spotlight, but 12 Angry Men is also excellent
-
Apolitical (like that exists) - Inception, I guess? The Lord Of The Rings trilogy?
Given your parenthetical, I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir here, but I'm gonna dispute that the series of novels about the fractured and imperfect nations of "the West" uniting against an alliance of barbaric monsters and uncivilized men in "the East" is apolitical at all.
Not to mention it's a text which presupposes the divine mandate of kings, which is an explicitly political stance.
Which is not to say any of this is bad, necessarily, though I do think it would be a fun exercise in fan fiction to rewrite Aragorn's arc. Instead of it culminating with him accepting his "birthright" and becoming king, he winds up fucking off back to the woods with his hot elf-wife and telling Gondor to sort their own shit out.
Oh yeah, that's all there, and more; don't even get me started on The Silmarillion.
-
1 - Starship Troopers, or V for Vendetta (flip a coin on that one)
2 - The 51st State ... I don't think there's any way to say that's political. Apart from the first 5 minutes ... and the stupid Nazis ... and post- credits scene ... and some commentary over the industrial decline of the UK ... and some other stuff ...
Trying to think of a nonpolitical film is nearly impossible :-/
- The Ides of March, Clooney, 2011
- The Manchurian Candidate, Frankenheimer, 1962
The original Manchurian Candidate was a brilliant film.
