Just because many screenwriters, directors and stars are way to the left
doesn't mean that films with libertarian themes and messages don't get made.
Here are 5 great movies made over the past 25 years that any libertarian will enjoy.
This Pixar film directed by Brad Bird is so full of speeches
extolling individualism, personal greatness and self fulfillment,
it sometimes sounds like it was scripted by Ayn Rand.
You sly dog, you got me monologuing, I can't believe it.
In fact Rand is clearly part of the inspiration for the character of Edna Mode.
No capes!
The libertarianism of the film exists on at least two levels:
one obvious and one a little more hidden.
But even the super villain in The Incredibles is a creature of self invention and self improvement.
While the Incredibles are born with their powers,
Syndrome is a normie who worships Mr Incredible
and is desperate to be his side kick.
I know all your moves, favorite crime fighting style, favorite catch phrases, everything!
I am your number one fan!
When Mr Incredible dismisses young Buddy,
he uses that disillusionment to fire his ambitions
to create weapons and powers via innovative technology.
Like an animated version of Richard Nixon, syndrome's ambitions ultimately get the best of him.
I mean, after all, I am your biggest fan.
But he just may be the real hero of the movie,
at least for those of us without naturally occurring super powers.
The Incredibles are returning after a 14 year hiatus with a sequel hitting theaters in June.
So we'll see them again soon.
French Canadian director Denys Arcand's brilliant sequel to The Decline of The American Empire
is the single best depiction of the depredations of socialized medicine.
The healthcare system in the movie is so sclerotic,
that the movie's protagonist, a retired academic named Remy,
cannot even score the drugs he needs to commit suicide,
until his estranged banker son buys them on the black market.
Even more disturbing is the moment when the terminally ill Remy
and his former university colleagues
admit that their intellectual faddishness
led them to embrace every awful left wing ism of the past 30 years
despite their often massive human toll.
None of those drugs have been approved by the FDA.
Screw the FDA, I'm gonna be DOA.
This based on a true story movie about a rodeo rider and a drag queen
riding around the US Food and Drug Administration
brought home Oscars not just for it's two leads,
but the film's makeup artist who reportedly worked on a budget of just 250 dollars.
Set in the 1980s Matthew McConaughey plays Ron Woodroof
a boozy roughneck who is given 30 days to live after being diagnosed with AIDS.
Faced with such a death sentence, he schools himself on a wide variety of treatments
first in Mexico and then all over the world.
With the help of a cross dressing party girl named Rayon,
Woodroof skirts FDA prohibitions against importing, using and selling unapproved drugs
by creating a buyer's club in which members pay a monthly membership
and assume all risks.
I'm afraid that you are nothing more than a common drug dealer,
so if you'll excuse us, we would like to-
Oh I'm the drug dealer?
No you're the fuckin' drug dealer, I mean goddamn people are dying!
The depiction of indifference to patient's suffering
and bureaucratic quashing of medical freedom
even for people who are certain to die is unsparing, deeply moving and totally inspirational.
Especially now that even Donald Trump has endorsed right to try legislation
that would allow terminally ill patients access to non approved medicines.
My name's Joy by the way.
Jennifer Lawrence became a mega star
playing the anti government rebel Katniss Everdeen in the Hunger Games movies.
And while there's no shortage of libertarian sentiment coursing through that trilogy,
it's actually a quieter movie starring Lawrence that fully embodies libertarian virtues
of hard work, commercial innovation and dogged entrepreneurship.
In Joy, Lawrence plays real life Miracle Mop inventor Joy Mangano
who helped make cleaning your floors a little bit easier and better
while becoming wealthy at the same time.
The film is nothing less than a paean to capitalism's genius at allowing self expression.
As the story begins, Joy is supporting a wide variety of family layabouts
while barely making ends meet.
But she's firm with her daughter about what really counts.
In a dramatic scene with Bradley Cooper who plays an executive at a home shopping network,
Joy summarizes in a few sentences
what it took Joseph Schumpeter, Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman whole books to say.
You said to me that David Selznick the son of immigrants
married Jennifer Jones an all American girl from Oklahoma
because in America all races and all classes can meet and make whatever opportunities they can
and that is what you feel when you reach into people's homes with what you sell.
As former Reason editor Virginia Postrel wrote of Joy:
The film acknowledges the wealth creating value of incremental improvements
even in the most mundane items.
When it was first released in 1984,
Ghostbusters quickly became the most successful comedy in film history.
In many ways the film was perfectly in sync
with the Reagan revolution's valorization of business and demonization of government.
You've never been out of college, you don't know what it's like out there.
I've worked in the private sector, they expect results.
Ghostbusters begins with a team of paranormal investigators
getting kicked out of Columbia university for, well,
being bullshit artists.
They're forced to start their own risky business venture,
filling what they believe is an undeserved market niche.
We're ready to believe you!
Even though New York is literally being invaded by evil spirits,
the true villain of the movie is not the otherworldly demon Gozer,
but an Environmental Protection Agency bureaucrat named Walter Peck.
I want this man arrested!
Captain these men are in criminal violation of the Environmental Protection Act
and this explosion is a direct result of it.
Your mother!
But of course the Ghostbusters ultimately persevere, save the city
and turn a good buck in the process.
We're gonna have to ask you for four big ones, 4000 dollars for that,
but we are having a special this week on proton charging...
Well what do you think?
That was totally wicked!
It's by no means an exhaustive list,
so add your personal favorites in the comments.
And don't forget to tell us just how wrong we are either.