Ethics on Film

Nothing brings concepts and events to life more vividly than a good movie. Carnegie Council is pleased to present a list of films that deal with ethical issues in international affairs and that illuminate historical events, policies, and conditions.

Of the hundreds of movies on politics and international affairs, this list is limited to those that staff members have seen and would recommend. It is also confined to films that are widely available.

The films in the Full Review section include an overview, ethical issues and discussion questions, and related resources, while the rest are synopses only. Whether you are a teacher, a student, or a concerned citizen, we hope that these films will stimulate thoughtful and enjoyable debate. See you at the movies!

This is a work in progress and will be updated from time to time (last updated August 2017). We welcome your suggestions and comments.

The Act of Killing (Documentary, 2012)

It is not hyperbole to call this documentary an epochal film. It brings viewers into the minds of mass murderers, illuminates a horrific piece of recent history that few know anything about, and could end up ushering in a new era in Indonesian politics and identity. Read more.

Argo (2012)
This film, which tells the story of a creative and daring escape from revolution-era Iran, won the Oscar for Best Picture and was a resounding commercial and critical success. Yet Argo has angered diplomats and governments from New Zealand to Iran. Was the film too well done for its own good? Read more.

The Battle of Algiers (1966)
Shot in documentary style, this classic about the Algerian struggle for independence from France in the 1950s has become a learning tool both for rebel movements and those fighting them. The film graphically raises issues of what is justified in an asymmetrical guerrilla war: Bombs killing innocent civilians? Torture of presumed terrorists? Read more.

Blood Diamond (2006)
Set in Sierra Leone in 1999 in the midst of a civil war, Blood Diamond draws attention to the responsibility of citizens and businesses in the developed world to ensure that the diamonds they buy have not been used to fund conflicts abroad. It also highlights the plight of child soldiers. Read more.

The Fifth Estate (2013)
The Fifth Estate tells the story of Julian Assange and his Wikileaks organization. Since the story is still ongoing, was it too early to make this film? What are Assange's motives—ethics, self-agrandizement, or both? How accurate is the film? At this point, perhaps only the two main characters know for sure. Read more.

Fire in the Blood (2013)
With the tagline "Medicine, Monopoly, Malice," this powerful documentary tells how Western drug companies fought to keep discounted AIDS medications from reaching HIV-positive citizens of the developing world. Read more.

Food, Inc. (2008)
This documentary takes a close look at the U.S. food industry and finds that cheap food is costly and sometimes deadly to the environment, consumers, and workers in farms and factories. Taking aim at the U.S. government and big corporations like Monsanto, this film reveals disturbing truths about our fast food-obsessed society. Read more.

Gandhi (1982)
This film is a textbook on Gandhi's political philosophy and the Indian quest for statehood. And for many, Ben Kingsley's performance in the title role, which won him an Oscar and worldwide fame, is THE definitive portrayal of the man. Read more.

Hotel Rwanda (2004)
Based on the true story of a Rwandan hotel manager who saved the lives of over 1,200 refugees during the 1993 genocide, this film points blame at the international community and the UN for doing almost nothing to intervene. Read more.

In My Lifetime (Documentary, 2011)
This deeply moving documentary tells the history of atomic weapons and the anti-nuclear movement. From Hirohsima and Nagasaki to nuclear tests in Nevada to the START Treaty and other international agreements, this film gives a comprehensive account of these weapons, "the very end point of logic." Read more.

An Inconvenient Truth (Documentary, 2006)
Al Gore explains the science of global warming, describes its present-day effects, and forecasts what the future may hold in store. We can reverse this trend, he declares, but we are running out of time. Read more.

Iron Man 3 (2013)
So what can a blockbuster movie about a superhero tell us about current American attitudes towards U.S. foreign policy, PTSD, racial stereotypes, the War on Terror, and more? Read more.

The Island President (2011)
As The Island President makes clear, it is impossible to overstate the catastrophic effect global warming will have on the Maldives. Read more.

Malcolm X (1992)
Malcolm X is seen by some as a symbol of the enduring struggle for equal rights for all human beings; but for others his legacy is tainted by his embrace of the Nation of Islam's dangerous rhetoric. Spike Lee's epic film explores all incarnations of the civil rights icon and shows how and why he evolved. Read more.

Selma (2014)
This stirring film gives a behind-the-scenes look at the Selma-to-Montgomery march and illustrates how and why King's strategy worked. It also shows the devastating consequences of this civil disobedience and the countervailing forces on both sides. Read more.

Schindler's List (1993)
It's almost impossible to grasp the enormity of the Holocaust, and there's also the danger of regarding it as a one-time occurrence in the distant past. Schindler's List is a powerful tool for teaching about the Holocaust, genocide, good and evil, and the question of individual accountability. "What would I have done?" "What am I doing now to stop injustice?" Read more.

Timbuktu (2014)
An extraordinary film, Timbuktu chronicles a brief period during the 2012 occupation of the ancient Malian city by the militant Islamic group Ansar Dine. What do these stories tell us about how extremism plays out on the ground, for both the occupied and the occupiers? Read more.

Why We Fight (Documentary, 2005)
In 1961, Eisenhower warned that the interests of the increasingly powerful "military-industrial complex" might one day determine the direction of U.S. policy. Has that day come to pass? Read more.

Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
A fictional adaptation of the CIA's hunt for Osama bin Laden, this blockbuster has reignited the debate surrounding the CIA's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques." Read more.

COLONIALISM AND ANTI-COLONIAL MOVEMENTS

Avatar (2009)
This Academy Award-winning film about a mining expedition to a dangerous, undeveloped, alien moon populated by a nature-embracing humanoid tribe can be seen as a thinly veiled allegory against Western colonialism. Ethical issues like the resource curse, the conflict between technology and ancient traditions, and how far soldiers must go in following their orders are also explored.

The Home and the World (1984)
The story of a love triangle between a rich, English-educated Bengali, his wife, and a radical nationalist politician, this film dramatizes the political, cultural, and religious differences among Indians under British colonial rule at the turn of the 20th century.

Khartoum (1966)
After a messianic leader and his troops massacred a British-led Egyptian force in Sudan in 1883, the British sent General Gordon to Khartoum to evacuate British and Egyptian citizens. But Gordon disobeyed orders and stayed on to fight. It was his last stand. "A good example of Eurocentrism in filmmaking, as well as a cautionary tale about the perils of imperialism," says Gregg.

The Mission (1986)
In this visually spectacular film, Spanish Jesuits and Portuguese colonizers struggle over a group of Guarani Indians. It tells of clashes between cultures, between faith and greed, a struggle for redemption, and well-meaning efforts that go badly wrong. Of course, the biggest losers are the Guarani.

Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
From about 1870 to 1970, the Australian government forcibly took many aboriginal and mixed-race children from their parents and brought them to boarding schools where they were taught to forget their past. Rabbit-Proof Fence is based on the true story of three girls who escaped from one such school in 1931 and trekked 1,500 miles home. For an article on this topic, see "The Stolen Generation."

The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006)
In 1920s Ireland, two brothers join the IRA, which is fighting a guerrilla war the British. Both sides behave brutally and become brutalized. With the announcement of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in 1922, there is initial rejoicing. But the situation soon turns into a civil war: idealism against pragmatism, brother against brother.

Zulu (1964)
Based on a true story, the film shows the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift, when around 100 British soldiers stationed at a remote missionary outpost faced an assault from 4,000 to 5,000 Zulu warriors. Though seen from the British point of view this is a rousing tale of heroism on both sides, as well as a portrait of individuals, both good and bad, who did the work of imperialism in far-flung parts.

TOTALITARIANISM

The Last King of Scotland (2006)
Seen from the point of view of Idi Amin's Scottish personal physican, this piece of historical fiction explores the complexities of the Ugandan dictator and his paranoid, all-encompassing reign over the African nation in the 1970s. Forrest Whitaker recieved an Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Amin.

The Lives of Others (2006)
Taking place in East Berlin both before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, this subtle and gripping film tells the story of a playwright and his actress girlfriend and the Stasi agent assigned to spy on them. It lays bare their secrets, moral choices, and compromises, and the changes they and their society go through.

Triumph of the Will (1934)
Probably the most famous propaganda movie ever made, this film documents the Nazi Party Congress and in Nuremberg in 1934. Hitler commissioned it and plays a starring role.

INSIDE THE WAR ROOM

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
In this classic black comedy, an insane U.S. general launches an unauthorized nuclear attack on the USSR, and the U.S. War Room tries to stop him. The film, says Gregg, "provides a veritable clinic on deterrence theory, the problems of command and control, and that high-wire act known as crisis decision-making."

Fail-Safe (1964)
Shot in black-and-white documentary style, this nightmarish film is the story of a fictional Cold War nuclear crisis. Due to a technical failure, U.S. nuclear bomber crews get the wrong orders and both the Americans and the Russians try frantically to abort their mission.

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Documentary, 2003)
In a series of interviews, former U.S. Secretary of State McNamara reviews his life, focusing on the difficult decisions he made and the lessons he learned from the failure of the Vietnam War.

Thirteen Days (2000)
A re-creation of the 13 tense days of the Cuban Missile Crisis, from the perspective of President Kennedy, his advisors, and military commanders, Thirteen Days portrays the hawks in the military as nearly as much of a threat as the Soviets.

COVERT OPERATIONS AND ESPIONAGE

Breach (2007)
A dramatization of the operation leading to the arrest and prosecution of Robert Hanssen, the FBI agent found guilty in 2001 of spying for the Soviet Union and the Russian Federation, Breach explores one man's motivations for betraying the secrets of his country.

Dirty Wars (2013)
Journalist Jeremy Scahill travels to Afghanistan, Yemen, and Somlia to investigate America's covert wars in this Academy Award-nominated documentary. For more, see Scahill's talk at Carnegie Council.

The Gatekeepers (2013)
Featuring interviews with six former heads of Shin Bet, Israel's secretive security agency, this documentary sheds light on the group's role in the Six Day War and other significant and controversial events in the Middle East.

The Good Shepherd (2006)
Following 35 years in the life of a character who joins the CIA at its founding after World War II and becomes a star counter-intelligence agent, The Good Shepherd presents an unromantic picture of a career in espionage.

The Green Prince (2014)
This documentary tells the story of Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of Hamas's founding members, who, shocked by the Palestinian militants' ruthless tactics, becomes a spy for Israel.

Missing (1982)
After the kidnapping of U.S. journalist Charles Horman during the 1973 coup in Chile, his wife and father embarked on a desperate search for him. Along the way, they discovered evidence suggesting the involvement of the CIA in the coup, as well as in Horman's disappearance. Based on a true story, this film urges viewers to consider the dark side of U.S. covert operations abroad.

State of Siege (1973)
In 1970, a USAID official in Uruguay was kidnapped and executed by leftist guerillas. Shortly after his death, it was reported that the official had been secretly involved in training the military and police in counterinsurgency tactics, including torture. State of Siege, based loosely on this episode, sympathizes with the guerillas' actions.

Three Days of the Condor (1975)
A thriller about a CIA agent who learns of a secret CIA plot to infiltrate and destabilize the Middle East and who becomes a target as a result, this film illustrates the dangerous consequences, globally and domestically, of corruption in the American intelligence agency.

GENOCIDE

Au Revoir les Enfants (1987)
This is a tragic, autobiographical film about two French boys in a Catholic boarding school during Word War II. One of them is secretly Jewish, being hidden by the priests from the Nazis. The film raises issues of courage, greed, and betrayal.

The Diary of Anne Frank (1959)
This film is an adaptation of a play based on the diary of Anne Frank, a 13-year-old Jewish girl who, with her family and others, hides in a crowded attic during the Nazi occupation of Holland. The DVD includes interviews with the actors, historians, and members of the Frank family. Best to read the diary itself (The Diary of a Young Girl), but the film is powerful too.

Ghosts of Rwanda (Documentary, 2004)
This tells the story of the genocide through interviews with UN peacekeepers and other Westerners who were there at the time; Tutsi survivors of the slaughter; confessed Hutu killers; and high-level government officials and diplomats, including Madeleine Albright and Kofi Annan.

The Killing Fields (1984)
This film is the true story of reporter Sidney Schanberg, and his colleague and friend, Cambodian journalist Dith Pran. Like most Westerners, Schanberg fled Cambodia after the murderous Khmer Rouge regime seized power in 1975, but Pran could not. For the next four years, Pran labored in rice paddies as the genocide unfolded around him. He finally escaped and reunited with Schanberg.

THE EXPERIENCE OF WAR

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
A moving adaptation of Remarque's anti-war novel that follows a group of young German recruits from idealism to disillusionment in the trenches of World War I.

Apocalypse Now (1979)
Our staff rated this film and Platoon as the two best movies about the Vietnam War (or the American War, as the Vietnamese call it). Based loosely on Heart of Darkness, it follows a U.S. Army captain on a mission to kill a rogue Green Beret colonel, Kurtz, who has deserted the military to lead a band of Cambodian tribesmen in the jungle. The film suggests that there is little difference between Kurtz's murderous escapades and the American soldiers' killing of Vietnamese peasants.

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
In Burma in World War II, British prisoners of war are forced to build a railway bridge for the Japanese. "With an all-male lead cast, themes of heroism, pride, military tradition, hierarchy, and power are masterfully interwoven into a plot that is ambiguous enough to allow for various viewpoints and perspectives," says reviewer Tom Dirk.

Casualties of War (1989)
The story of a five-man patrol in Vietnam that kidnaps and eventually kills a young girl and the one soldier in the group who refuses to participate, Casualties of War, based on an actual event, depicts war as a destroyer of men's morals.

Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
These companion films re-create the famous World War II battle on the island of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Americans (Flags of Our Fathers) and then the Japanese (Letters), who, though vastly outnumbered by American forces, fought for nearly 40 days to defend the island.

Gallipoli (1981)
Almost an entire Australian army unit was wiped out by Turkish machine gunners in a futile offensive later known as the Battle of the Nek, which took place during the Gallipoli campaign of World War I. Gallipoli tells the story of two young Australian friends who enlist in the army and wind up fighting side by side in this tragic battle.

Grand Illusion (1938)
In this story of French prisoners of war held by the Germans during Word War I, we see friendships by social class that cut across national lines, and a call for humanism rather than patriotism. This film is an anti-war classic, without a single battle scene.

The Hurt Locker (2008)
The winner of the 2010 Academy Award for Best Picture, this harrowing fillm looks at the life and work of a maverick bomb defuser during the Iraq War. The movie explores PTSD, the bonds forged during wartime, and the culture of the military.

Lone Survivor (2013)
Set during the war in Afghanistan in 2005, this film tells the story of Operation Red Wings, a failed United States Navy SEALs counter-insurgent mission in which four operatives were tasked with tracking Taliban leader Ahmad Shah.

Platoon (1986)
Told from the point of view of a middle-class college student who volunteers to fight in the Vietnam War and whose idealism about the war vanishes, Platoon realistically portrays the chaos and confusion that American soldiers faced in the jungles of Vietnam.

Restrepo (2010)
American journalist Sebastian Junger and British/American photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who was later killed on assignment in Libya, follow an American platoon in the deadly Korengal Valley during the Afghanistan war. The film explores daily life in a combat zone and themes of emotional distress and brotherhood among soldiers.

The Whistleblower (2010)
This film is based on the true story of Kathryn Bolkovac, a police officer from Nebraska who served as a UN peackepeer in post-war Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bolkovac uncovered a sex trafficking ring in the Balkans, which the UN was covering up, and brought the story to BBC News.

MILITARY JUSTICE

Breaker Morant (1979)
In 1902, near the end of the Boer War, "Breaker" Morant and two other Australian soldiers were tried before a British court-martial for killing Boer prisoners of war. They were found guilty, even though their commanders had authorized to carry out such killings. The film raises questions about the accountability of soldiers for their conduct in war and the independence of military courts.

Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
Based on the Judges' Trial before the U.S. Nuremberg Military Tribunal in 1947, which charged judges under the Nazi regime with war crimes, this film with Spencer Tracy, Marlene Dietrich, and a host of other stars raises the question of whether judges and other officials who carry out morally repugnant laws should be held accountable.

Paths of Glory (1957)
Loosely based on the true story of four French soldiers during World War I who were wrongly found guilty of mutiny and executed, Paths of Glory shows the terrible consequences of unprincipled military leadership, both on the battlefield and in the military courts.

NATIONALISM, ETHNIC AND RELIGIOUS CONFLICT

Before the Rain (1994)
Set primarily in Macedonia during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, Before the Rain tells the story of intersecting lives devasted by the escalating violence between Muslims and Christians in Macedonia, where an all-out war fueled by religious and ethnic hatred appeared to be on the horizon.

Bloody Sunday (2002)
This film is a docudrama of the events of January 30, 1972, when the British Army opened fire on unarmed civilians taking part in a civil rights march in Northern Ireland. None of the soldiers was disciplined, and the massacre caused the "Troubles" to swell to a new level of violence.

Cal (1984)
Set amidst the violence and bitterness of 1980s Northern Ireland, this is the doomed love story of Cal, a young Irish Catholic involved with the IRA, and Marcella an Irish-Italian (Catholic) widow whose Protestant husband was killed by the IRA.

The Square (2013)
This Academy Award-nominated documentary tells the story of the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 from its roots in Cairo's Tahrir Square.HUMAN NATURELord of the Flies (1963)A plane carrying a group of schoolboys crash lands on a deserted island. With no adult survivors, the boys are forced to fend for themselves. At first they cooperate, but when they split into two separate camps their society quickly falls apart, leading to a disturbing examination of human nature and a horrifying conclusion. (There is also a 1990 film, which none of the Carnegie Council staff have seen.)

BUSINESS ETHICS

The Constant Gardener (2005)
When a British diplomat stationed in Nairobi investigates his activist wife's murder—supposedly a crime of passion—he uncovers an unsavory conspiracy involving government officials and the pharmaceutical industry. Based on a book by John le Carré, who wrote in the afterword, "By comparison with the reality, my story [is] as tame as a holiday postcard."

The Corporation (2003)
What if corporations were human beings? According to a psychiatrist in this documentary tracing the history and activities of corporations, they have ''all the characteristics of a prototypical psychopath.''

Rogue Trader (1999)
The true story of Nick Leeson, a Barings Bank trader, who, unbeknownst to his employers, was gambling with company money. His staggering losses force Barings into bankruptcy.

Syriana (2005)
Set in the Middle East and inspired by the true story of former CIA agent Robert Baer, this is a political thriller with multiple story lines about the machinations of the global oil industry.

Wall Street (1987)
"Greed is good", says ruthless Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gecko, in this morality tale of 1980s excess.

ACROSS BORDERS

Clandestins (1997)
This tragic story of six refugees from different countries trying to get to from France to Canada is set almost totally within the confines of a ship's cargo container.

Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Two illegal immigrants in London plumb the depths of the migrant experience, including uncovering the ultimate in exploitation, a ghastly trade in human organs.

Maria Full of Grace (2004)
Maria is 17, pregnant, and the sole breadwinner for her family in a small Colombian village. When she loses her job she becomes a drug mule, flying to New York with 62 pellets of cocaine in her stomach. But things go terribly wrong. "Based on 1,000 true stories," runs the film's tagline.

El Norte (1983)
A Guatemalan brother and sister risk death to become illegal immigrants in "El Norte," the United States, but their dreams of a better life do not come true.

THE ENVIRONMENT

Chasing Ice (2012)
This documentary follows National Geographic photographer James Balog as he takes time-lapse photographs of glaciers in the Arctic, showcasing the catastrophic effects of global warming.

The China Syndrome (1979)
This fictional thriller about a reporter and cameraman who discover safety cover-ups at a U.S. nuclear power plant was released just 12 days before the Three-Mile Island nuclear power plant suffered a partial meltdown.

A Civil Action (1998)
Based on a real-life case, a lawyer agrees to represent eight families whose children died from leukemia after two large corporations leaked toxic chemicals into the water supply of Woburn, Massachusetts, even though the case could mean financial and professional suicide for him.

Erin Brockovich (2000)
The true story of Brockovich, a legal clerk who brings a case against a company in California which had contaminated local drinking water.

Food, Inc. (2009)
A critical look at corporate farming in the United States, this documentary shows that big agriculture is harmful to the environment, inhumane to animals, and unhealthy for humans, both farm employees and the general public.

Snowpiercer (2013)
In a future where an experiment to halt global warming kills most of the humans on Earth, the survivors are on a train called the Snowpiercer that travels around the planet. A class system is installed, with the elite in the front and in the poor in the rear, and rebellions soon follow.