Guide to Libertarian Movies

I’m delighted to report that Miss Liberty’s Guide to Film is available again—on Kindle. My friend Jon Osborne worked for years on this project, but the 2001 book has been out of print for years. It’s the best available guide to movies with libertarian themes, with more than 250 short reviews.


What are the best libertarian films? Well, the book doesn’t rank them, but some that make his list of Top Libertarian Films are Amistad, Animal Farm, Fahrenheit 451, Shenandoah, and We the Living. Libertarians may be familiar with all of those, but he also recommends the lesser‐​known Cash McCall, East‐​West, Improper Conduct, and many more.


No such list is exhaustive, of course, or uncontroversial. When I listed some of my own favorite libertarian‐​themed films, I included some that Osborne doesn’t: So Big (1953) and My Beautiful Laundrette. Not to mention the republican Gladiator and the anti‐​Nazi, anti‐​communist Sunshine, both released in 2000.


Few if any of these movies are like libertarian essays on film. Osborne includes movies that have such themes as anti‐​socialism (under which he includes anti‐​National Socialism), anti‐​war, bureaucratic abuse of power, creator as hero, freedom of speech, individualism, social tolerance, and voluntaryism. Each film is rated for both its libertarian content and its entertainment value, and also briefly reviewed.


Osborne mostly stopped reviewing—and maybe even seeing—movies when his daughter was born, so there aren’t many movies here from the past decade. But from All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) to Rabbit‐​Proof Fence (2002), there are enough movies here to keep you busy for the rest of the year.