No work of art or entertainment is made without coming from some kind of individual interpretation or perspective. When films involve a political orientation of any kind, they belong to the category of films that help familiarize us with the political system and our understanding of it. By watching films of this nature we learn about the political ideology and values that represented society’s political machinery. In our increasingly fragmented and diverse society, films have begun to play an even more important role in this socialization process “The most important agents of political socialization are the family, peer groups, friends and schools, but in a mobile atomized, fragmented society like the United States, where families break down and friends and peer groups change, the media gain power as socializing agents” (Christensen, 5). Yet, if we view many films that contribute to our political socialization, we find that the majority reinforce the status quo and convince us that there is little we can do to bring about positive change.
If we look at some films that have a political orientation, we see that the free-thinking individual is seldom reaffirmed by the political system. Rather, it is those who adopt the status quo and business-as-usual who are rewarded and reinforced by society. In Twelve Angry Men we see that there are liberals and conservatives. We have jurors who feel that kids from the ghetto do not receive a fair shake by those who do not understand what they endure (i.e., liberals). On the other hand, we have those who argue an eye-for-an-eye brand of justice is merited regardless of the situation (i.e., conservatives). Yet, we see there appear to be only two options, one is a member of the right or the left with little common ground in between. The closest we can get to some kind of consensus in such a situation is represented by the hero of the piece,
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