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The system exists to equalize people, to manipulate them, to force them to do what is necessary for those who are at its head. Can a person or a group of people resist it? Fight for your freedom, for the right to be yourself and do what your heart tells you? The best films about the fight against the system show the difficult path of confrontation and its outcome. Someone wins the system, someone gives hope. Who cares.
10 One against all (1998)
The main character is the Butcher. Once he attacked a friend with a knife, thinking that he had raped his daughter. For this he was convicted and served his term. And now the Butcher goes free, into a society that is subject to the system and where he just has to find a place.
9. The People vs. Larry Flynt (1996)
Larry Flynt is an American businessman and publisher who has become one of the symbols of the sexual revolution. She and her brother started out as the owners of a strip club, not a very successful one, however. And then Flint decided to send out flyers to potential customers advertising his establishment. These leaflets eventually turned into a well-known magazine, called, like the club, “Hustler”. This publication was a breakthrough, but met with a storm of indignation from the society, which accused the magazine of violating morality. This is a story about the confrontation of a businessman, a bright personality with public opinion, about a crisis in society.
8. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
Randle Patrick McMurphy is a criminal facing hard labor. To avoid such a fate, he imitates a mental disorder, with which he is sent to a hospital for examination. At the clinic, McMurphy faces the tyranny of Head Nurse Ratched. She subordinates the entire department, and she keeps the staff and patients literally in a tight rein. The main character decides to confront Ratched, and at the same time show the residents of the clinic that life can be different.
7. V for Vendetta (2006)
The film by James McTeague takes the viewer to England, in a dystopian future. A wave of a terrible epidemic has swept across the country, and the new regime keeps people in fear. He brought into their lives all the delights of dictatorship: infringement of freedom, strict rules, curfew, impunity of the ruling elite and denunciations. But one day, an unknown person in a Guy Fawkes mask appears on the streets of London, who begins to fight for the freedom of people. He rescues the girl from the secret police and makes her his ally in the confrontation with the system.
6. John F. Kennedy. Shots in Dallas (1991)
Jim Harrison is the District Attorney. He learns about the assassination of John F. Kennedy and, as a caring American, begins to follow the progress of the investigation. The FBI officially charges Lee Harvey Oswald for the murder, but after the prime suspect is killed, the investigation is dropped.
A few years later, Garrison came across an investigation report in which he discovers a lot of violations and inaccuracies. Wanting to find the truth, he begins to understand the sensational story in order to find the true culprits of the president’s death.
5. Brazil
This is a dystopian film set in a country ruled by bureaucracy. The main character, Sam Lowry, lives an ordinary gray life, works as a clerk and leads a primitive life, even though his mother is part of the elite of the state. One day he meets a girl who often dreams of him. This girl is trying to get justice, but not everyone likes it, and her well-being is in danger.
4. Gattaca (1997)
Gattaca was the debut film for Andrew Niccol. It didn’t catch on in North America and barely made it to the box office, but it became a poster child for fighting the system and making us think about where technology is heading.
The action takes place in a distant dystopian future. People are born not as a result of love, but in test tubes where they are programmed to help society. Those who are born naturally are unfit, and an unenviable fate awaits them. That person is Vincent Freeman. He is emotional, receptive, dreamy. To have a chance to survive, he buys someone else’s personality. But a murder occurs, and the investigation threatens to reveal all of Vincent’s secrets…
3. Equilibrium (2002)
Director Kurt Wimmer shows the viewer a dystopian future world, in ruins after the Third World War and ruled by a totalitarian Council. Human emotions are blamed for all troubles, and the new government has set itself the goal of ridding people of them. Everything that generates emotions must be destroyed, and people themselves take a special drug – Prozium. John Preston works for the secret police. His task is to find “emotional criminals”. One day he forgets to take the drug, and emotions overwhelm him, causing a mental upheaval and internal contradictions.
2. Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
The family of Clyde Alexander Shelton was the victim of a gang attack. Shelton was wounded, the attackers robbed the house and killed the wife and children of the hero. Soon the perpetrators fell into the hands of justice, but the killer received only three years. Shelton could not leave it like that and as a result of his actions he ended up behind bars. He delivers an ultimatum to the authorities: either they fulfill their demands, or he will start killing people right from prison. Nobody believes in threats, but in vain. The first victims are coming soon…
1. School of Rock (2003)
The main character – Dewey Finn – plays the guitar in a rock band. He has a bad temper, he opposes the norms of society, mocks them and believes only in rock and roll. Dewey makes a row on stage and jumps into the crowd. He dreams of winning a rock battle with his band, but the other musicians kick him out.
Dewey drags out his existence in a dirty apartment, he is constantly short of money. But one day he answers a call meant for his neighbor and suddenly becomes a temporary teacher at a prestigious school. The headmaster suspects that the new teacher is an impostor and keeps a close eye on him. Dewey sees the rehearsal of the school ensemble and lights up with the idea of making a rock band out of young talents. Dewey will have to change, and the children will overcome constraint and complexes.