Progressive Films and Reactionary books and movies

[Hexen]

What is the most Progressive and Reactionary films/books/etc ever made?

For example:

Progressive

Most Soviet made films

Reactionary:

Almost every Hollywood film ever made
Anything by Ayn Rand
Of course most things that come out from western capitalist society.

[Fawkes]

This is both an incredibly loaded and unanswerable question. What qualifies as progressive or reactionary? What role should context play?

What about Triumph of the Will or Birth of a Nation? Both horribly reactionary yet simultaneously groundbreaking.

And as far as your comment on Soviet films, doesn't Battleship Potemkin reify traditional gender roles as much as many "hollywood films"? Also, Natural Born Killers qualifies as progressive in many ways, yet it was financed by Regency and distributed by Warner Bros. Similarly, Dogville was distributed by Lions Gate. How about anything Douglas Sirk directed while in America? I mean, the list is endless.

Also, by saying "most things that come out from western capitalist society", you ignore the enormous history of "alternative" cinemas from nearly every western capitalist country (not to mention ignoring the fact that capitalism exists in the "eastern" world as well).

Now, if you're looking for some suggestions of good "progressive" movies, that's a different matter and a discussion I think worth having.





p.s. you forgot the bible ;)