With the 2023 General Election just a few days away, it’s time to get into a voting mindset even if you don’t have big ticket races on your local ballot. (Local elections are often more impactful on your day-to-day life than federal ones.) Thankfully even if you aren’t feeling too civic, we have movies to inspire us, with uplifting fictional stories about the government, as well as dramatizations of great presidents of the past and defining political moments in American history. We have a long tradition of great political movies.

Here are 40 political movies to watch before the Nov. 7 General Election. And don’t forget to vote! 

Best movies about politics

1. The American President (1995)

With a snappy script from West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin, this political romance imagines what would happen if a widowed president (Michael Douglas) up for reelection fell in love with an environmental lobbyist (Annette Bening). As his rival (Richard Dreyfuss) tries to use the relationship for his advantage, President Andrew Shepherd must decide how to handle the political fallout. His rousing finale speech alone is worth watching for.

2. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

This Frank Capra classic will restore your faith that a good person can take on corruption in government—and prevail. Naive Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is picked to replace a deceased U.S. senator. With little experience, he’s taken under the wing of a more powerful politician, whose corrupt nature is soon revealed. Will Mr. Smith’s filibuster stop his former mentor’s crooked scheme?

3. All the President’s Men (1976)

Intrepid Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (who’s still making headlines today, here played by Robert Redford) investigate the break-in of the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters at the Watergate Hotel in 1972 Washington, DC. This taut political thriller shows how their investigative reporting helped uncover a money trail that led to President Richard Nixon, in perhaps the biggest political scandal of the 20th century.

4. Selma (2014)

With civil rights unfortunately still an ongoing issue, viewers can learn more about the movement’s history with this moving film from director Ava DuVernay. Although the Civil Rights Act had been passed the year before, in 1965 Alabama Blacks were still facing obstacles to voting. A civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery was organized by Martin Luther King, Jr. (David Oyelowo) and led by future Congressman John Lewis (Stephan James) and Hosea Williams (Wendell Pierce). As the demonstrators cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, they’re met with violence from state troopers. The “Bloody Sunday” conflict garnered national attention, leading to the signing of the Voting Rights Act by President Lyndon Johnson (Tom Wilkinson).

5. Lincoln (2012)

A hundred years before the events at Selma, President Abraham Lincoln (Daniel Day-Lewis, who won an Oscar for the role) is trying to ensure the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment to end slavery in this masterful biopic by director Steven Spielberg. While attempting to get the votes he needed for the amendment as well as secure a Union victory in the Civil War, Lincoln also dealt with family matters as his son decided to enlist, all leading up to the President’s April 1865 assassination.

6. based on Sex (2018)

Honor the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg by learning more about the Supreme Court Justice’s life and accomplishments with this dramatic film, which was recently re-released in theaters. In the early career of the not-yet-notorious RBG (Felicity Jones), she faces discrimination, becomes a law professor, and finds her calling to fight for gender equality and an end to discrimination in the law based on sex. The movie is also a love story, as it depicts the mutual respect and support between Ginsburg and her husband, lawyer Martin Ginsburg (Armie Hammer).

Related: Gloria Steinem on Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s Death and The Glorias

7. Wag the Dog (1997)

This political satire from director Barry Levinson may sound far-fetched—but then again, nothing is too outlandish when it comes to political PR. After the president is caught in a sex scandal, a spin doctor (Robert De Niro) and a Hollywood producer (Dustin Hoffman) team up to create a fake war in Albania to distract the media. Things get a little out of hand in this dark comedy, as the behind-the-scenes political machinations lead to more coverup and even murder—but the public never catches wind of it.

8. Milk (2008)

This biopic of gay rights activist Harvey Milk won Sean Penn an Oscar for the role. In 1970s San Francisco, Milk became the first openly gay elected public official in California when he was voted to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He fights against discrimination in the city based on sexual orientation and becomes a gay rights icon—but he and mayor George Moscone (Victor Garber) are later assassinated by another city supervisor, Dan White (Josh Brolin), who has a complicated personal and political relationship with Milk.

9. The Contender (2000)

The double standards for women in politics, and the glass ceiling they inevitably come up against, are front and center in this dramatic film. Fictional senator Laine Hanson (Joan Allen) is nominated for vice president after the sudden death of the former veep. As confirmation hearings begin, though, a story about a sexual episode in Hanson’s college days is unearthed—which her rivals claim is prostitution and which Hanson refuses to address on principle.

10. Election (1999)

High school elections can be just as vicious as real ones—and also, real elections can be just as childish as high school ones. This dark comedy pokes fun at the whole political process as ambitious teen Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) runs for student body president. One of her teachers, Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) holds a personal grudge against her and enlists his candidate. Hijinks ensue, and after some ballot tampering, the real winner is announced.

11. Dr. Strangelove (1964)

Alternately titled, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, this 1964 political satire from director Stanley Kubrick aims the Cold War. When a crazed general orders an unauthorized nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, the president (Peter Sellers, in one of four roles in the film) has to figure out how to call the bombers back to avoid mutually assured destruction. Light spoilers: Along with an army major riding an H-bomb to its detonation and a nuclear apocalypse set to the World War II-era ballad “We’ll Meet Again,” the groundbreaking film also features the classic line, “Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!”

Related: These 50 Election Quotes About the Importance of Voting Will Get You to the Booth

12. Seven Days in May (1964)

Make it a double feature of Cold War movies with this political thriller often overshadowed by fellow 1964 film Dr. Strangelove. With the president (Fredric March) about to sign a disarmament treaty with the Soviet Union, an anti-Communist general (Burt Lancaster) plans a coup to oust him from office. But another general (Kirk Douglas) tries to stop the plot and prevent an overthrow of the government.

13. Malcolm X (1992)

Spike Lee’s look at the life of the Black activist is as complex as Malcolm X himself. With Denzel Washington in the title role, the film explores his beginnings as an orphan and thief who then converts to Islam, and later becomes a prominent spiritual leader and controversial human rights activist before his 1965 assassination. The film’s opening alone is powerful, as it intercuts one of Malcolm X’s speeches with the then-current (and sadly, still timely today) 1991 beating of Rodney King by LAPD officers.

14. JFK (1991)

Dramatization of a real-life coverup or conspiracy theory gone wild? Viewers have to decide for themselves when watching the first movie in director Oliver Stone’s political trilogy. This film, which explores the investigation into the November 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy, serves as a good reminder that even when historical events are dramatized, liberties may be taken; and that the best directors are artists who interpret real life through their own literal and metaphorical lens.

15. Nixon (1995)

If you’re up for some Stone binge-watching, check out his second presidential movie. Although it didn’t make headlines the way JFK did, this film is a purportedly balanced look at “Tricky Dick,” the only president in U.S. history to resign. As with many of Stone’s films, he was accused of playing fast and loose with facts, but Anthony Hopkins’ portrayal of the ex-president turns the movie into the fall of a tragic anti-hero.

16. W. (2008)

The last film in Stone’s political trilogy, this portrait of President George W. Bush (Josh Brolin), released during the twilight of his two-term presidency, is surprisingly sympathetic. Tracing “Dubya’s” life from his hard-partying college days to his rise to Texas governor, and then president, the movie also looks at his response to the attacks of September 11, 2001, and his controversial decision to invade Iraq in search of weapons of mass destruction. Viewers also get a look inside the Bush family, and the weight of the legacy of his father, President George H.W. Bush (James Cromwell).

17. Vice (2018)

The second film featuring George W. Bush (Sam Rockwell) stars a nearly unrecognizable Christian Bale as Bush’s VP, Dick Cheney. It follows Cheney’s life and career from his start in the Nixon administration to serving under Presidents Ford, Reagan, and the elder Bush before becoming a powerful vice president under the younger Bush. The film’s unique structure involves a mock epilogue in the middle of the film when Cheney retires from politics during Bill Clinton’s administration; as well as an ending monologue delivered directly to the camera; and a mock focus group that calls the film “biased” during the end credits.

18. Iron Jawed Angels (2004)

It’s hard to imagine it was just a century ago women got the right to vote. This film takes a look at the efforts of women’s rights activists, including Alice Paul (Hilary Swank) and Lucy Burns (Frances O’Connor), founders of the National Women’s Party, to get the 19th Amendment passed. Although their means are nonviolent, organizing marches and hunger strikes, some women are arrested and sent to workhouses. But public pressure on President Woodrow Wilson finally became too much, and the amendment was ratified in 1920, with the tie-breaker coming from a young Tennessee delegate whose mother asked him to vote yes (true story).

19. Dave (1993)

There’s so much to make fun of in politics, sometimes a little light-hearted humor is just what we need. When the president suffers a stroke, an impersonator (Kevin Kline) who bears an uncanny resemblance to him pretends to be the commander-in-chief. Can a fake prez run the government better than the real one?

20. Marshall (2017)

The late Chadwick Boseman portrays the man who would become the first Black Supreme Court Justice, Thurgood Marshall, at the beginning of his career in this drama about racism in the legal system. In the film, NAACP lawyer Marshall takes on the defense of a Black man accused of rape in 1940 Connecticut, over a decade before he would successfully argue against segregation in the landmark 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education.

Related: Everything to Know About Presidential Debates: When to Watch, Dates, and More

21. The Manchurian Candidate (1962)

In this political thriller, prisoner of war Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) is unknowingly brainwashed into becoming a Communist agent while in captivity. Returning home as a hero, he finds himself under the thumb of his overbearing mother (Angela Lansbury), who uses him to advance her senator husband’s career, while another army officer (Frank Sinatra) uncovers the plot to use Shaw to assassinate a presidential candidate. The classic film was remade in 2004 with Meryl Streep and Denzel Washington.

22. Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)

This film based on a true story explores the beginnings of America’s involvement in Afghanistan in the 1980s, as Congressman Charlie Wilson (Tom Hanks), moved by the plight of the Afghan people fending off an invasion from the Soviet Union, raises U.S. funds and support for the freedom fighters. But, the movie’s ending also raises the question of whether the lack of U.S. help in rebuilding the war-torn country may have contributed to the rise of the Taliban and the attacks of September 11.

23. The Post (2017)

Make it a Tom Hanks movie night with this sort of prequel to All the President’s Men. In this Spielberg-directed true story, the first female publisher of a major U.S. newspaper, The Washington Post’s Katharine Graham (Streep), and editor Ben Bradlee (Hanks), grapple with the decision whether to publish the Pentagon Papers, classified documents about the U.S.’s involvement in the Vietnam War, in 1971. The movie shows the importance of a free press. And in a cheeky nod to the events the Post would later uncover, at the end Graham says she hopes they never have to go through that again—only to cut to a security guard discovering the Watergate break-in.

24. Primary Colors (1998)

Based on the anonymous Roman á clef (later revealed to be written by a Newsweek reporter), this Mike Nichols-directed dramedy is a thinly veiled account of Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign. During the primaries, charming candidate Jack Stanton (John Travolta) and competitive wife Susan (Emma Thompson) dodge sex scandals and engage in mud-slinging with political rivals on their way to a successful ticket to the White House.

25. Irresistible (2020)

Written and directed by former Daily Show host Jon Stewart, this political comedy couldn’t premiere in theaters due to COVID-19, and didn’t make quite the splash it otherwise might have in an election year. Still, it’s worth checking out this somewhat sweet story about a DC campaign manager (Steve Carell) who convinces a conservative veteran to run for mayor of a small town on a Democratic platform, which he hopes will win over the heartland. Unfortunately, his nemesis in Washington (Rose Byrne) shows up to run the campaign for the opposition.

26. Miss Sloane (2016)

Cold and calculating, the always amazing Jessica Chastain plays the title role as an anti-hero in this fictional political thriller about a DC gun control lobbyist. Even if her cause is just, she’s not above using whatever means necessary to get results, which lands her in some ethical and legal trouble—plus, her enemies are just as ruthless as she is.

27. All the King’s Men (1949)

This Best Picture Oscar-winner follows the career of fictional Southern politician Willie Stark (Best Actor winner Broderick Crawford), who bears a resemblance to real-life controversial Louisiana governor Huey Long. Although Stark starts out fighting corruption, he eventually becomes corrupt himself, ruining the lives of those close to him as well before he meets a violent end. The movie, based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, was remade in 2006, a version poorly reviewed despite an all-star cast that includes Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and Anthony Hopkins.

28. Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013)

Inspired by a true story, this poignant film looks at the presidents and political events of the 20th century through the eyes of a butler (a moving Forest Whitaker) who served in the White House for nearly 35 years. The movie also explores his relationship with his wife (Oprah Winfrey) and his sons, one who goes to Vietnam and the other who becomes a civil rights activist.

29. Frost/Nixon (2008)

Filmmakers sure do love the controversial Nixon, who figures prominently in several movies on our list. But given that Watergate was such a watershed moment in recent American history, it’s not exactly a surprise. In this movie directed by Ron Howard and based on the Broadway play, real-life British journalist David Frost (Michael Sheen) interviews the ex-president (Frank Langella) in 1977, in a cat-and-mouse game of trying to get Nixon to confess his crimes three years after his resignation. But will Nixon admit to wrongdoing, or clear his name instead?

30. Bulworth (1998)

What would happen if a politician just suddenly started being completely, painfully honest? That’s the conceit of this dark comedy written, directed, and starring Warren Beatty, in which a has-been Senator arranges a hit on himself. With nothing left to lose before his imminent death, Bulworth starts speaking his mind and telling the truth about the campaign process, and his constituents, in very un-PC ways—which ends up reinvigorating his career as well as his love life.

31. Thirteen Days (2000)

This dramatization of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis depicts the tense two weeks the Kennedy administration spent trying to avoid an armed conflict with the Soviet Union over missiles they had sent to Cuba—the closest the Cold War ever got to being an actual war. President Kennedy (Bruce Greenwood), his brother Bobby (Steven Culp), and another close advisor, Kenneth P. O’Donnell (Kevin Costner) can’t let the missiles stay there, but they also want to do everything possible to avoid war.

32. The Ides of March (2011)

With a title referring to the date of Julius Caesar’s assassination by his backstabbing senators, you know the events of this political thriller can’t be good. Directed, co-written, and starring George Clooney, the film takes a bleak look at the shady maneuverings behind the scenes of a political primary campaign. Thrown into scandal coverups, quid pro quo, and other questionable dealings, a young junior campaign manager (Ryan Gosling) loses his innocence—and his morals—on the campaign trail.

33. The Distinguished Gentleman (1992)

Crooked politicians also make for good comedy in this farce about a con man (Eddie Murphy) who decides to run for Congress in a ploy to get rich. But when he gets elected, he finds he cares about the causes he’s receiving donations for—and that Washington is full of con men (in the guise of politicians) who are preventing real change from happening. So, he decides to fight against the corruption the only way he knows how: with a con.

34. The Candidate (1972)

Bulworth wasn’t the first politician to be given the liberty to say whatever he wanted. In this political comedy, a long-shot senatorial candidate (Robert Redford) is expected to lose badly, so his manager gives him license to speak his mind. That only serves to make him more popular—but when it looks like he might have a shot at winning, he has to decide whether to compromise his positions to gain the necessary votes.

35. The Long Shot (2019)

Considering Seth Rogen also made a comedy about two hapless journalists recruited to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (2014’s The Interview), this movie might seem tame by comparison. When a former journalist (Rogen) becomes a speechwriter and love interest for his former babysitter, now U.S. Secretary of State (Charlize Theron), he gets pulled into the high-stakes world of DC politics. But this silly rom-com keeps it light, and you may find yourself laughing despite yourself.

36. The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

Written and directed by Aaron Sorkin, this drama based on a true story is more relevant now than ever. When Vietnam War protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention turned violent, seven protestors were arrested on federal conspiracy charges. Bolstered by strong performances from Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, and others, the film is a compelling look at the nature of protest, freedom, and justice in America.

37. Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

This black-and-white film directed and co-written by George Clooney is set during one of the darkest periods in American history, the McCarthy Era of the early 1950s, in which Senator Joseph McCarthy attempts to uncover Communist party members and sympathizers in America with largely unproven accusations. Veteran journalist Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and his team at CBS News take on McCarthy (who only appears in archival footage) to make the American public aware of what’s going on, and McCarthy’s actions eventually come to an end.

38. A Face in the Crowd (1957)

The dark side of celebrity influence in politics is explored in this drama. Andy Griffith is no Mayberry sheriff in his film debut; rather, he’s a nobody who becomes a famous television personality, discovering he can wield great political power in the process. The public loves him, but his oversized ego eventually threatens to destroy the name he’s made for himself.

39. All the Way (2016)

Bryan Cranston, reprising his role from the Broadway play of the same name, gives an amazing performance as one of recent history’s most complex presidents, Lyndon B. Johnson. As LBJ meets with Martin Luther King, Jr. (Anthony Mackie) and struggles to pass the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he also must contend with different factions of his party—and it’s hard to please everyone—in his bid to win the 1964 presidential election.

40. Dick (1999)

It’s back to Watergate one more time—but not in the way you’d expect. This outlandish comedy has two teenage girls (Kirsten Dunst and Michelle Williams) happening upon the Watergate break-in and later serving as the secret source nicknamed Deep Throat for Woodward and Bernstein’s Washington Post investigative report. The real Deep Throat was revealed in 2005 to be former FBI assistant director Mark Felt, but imagining how a president could be taken down by high schoolers is amusing just the same.