What I Learned About Democracy From the Movies
Seven films that paint a portrait of America in all its contradictions, inconsistencies and outright delusions.
Credit.Najeebah Al-Ghadban
May 13, 2021, 5:00 a.m. ET
In the past few years I’ve found myself questioning my assumptions and doubting what I thought I knew about my country. What if the good guys don’t always win? What if people can’t find a way to get along in spite of their differences? What if the flawed heroes were really the villains all along? What if the arc of the universe bends toward chaos? I wonder sometimes why I ever believed otherwise. Maybe because I’ve seen too many movies, or maybe I misunderstood what I saw.