Both the Democratic and Republican parties succeed at a lot of the same things. Both raise large sums of money. Both have a handful of mega-donors capable of keeping the super PAC coffers flush. Both have messaging, data analytics, get-out-the-vote and policymaking infrastructures. It’s tough to name an asset that one party has that the other can’t replicate in one form or another.
Oh, except the Democrats have an uncontested lock on celebs.
It’s not even a fair competition. With all due respect to the “Friends of Abe,” Hollywood is dominated by the left. Just look at the recent party conventions: The Democratic National Convention had actors and actresses on stage every single night — Elizabeth Banks hosted for an entire evening. Producers, musicians and performers collaborated on videos and short films aired during the event. And a whole bunch of people in the entertainment industry signed a petition to stop Donald Trump.
The Republican National Convention had Scott Baio and one of the duck guys.
The causes of this disparity, its exceptions — a Governator comes to mind — and future aren’t a big concern to me at this moment. Here’s what is: Given the vast numbers of performers and filmmakers out there who have declared their support for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, can we find the most pro-Clinton film — based on who made the movies, not what’s in them — of all time?
Heck, yes.
For our list of pro-Clinton celebs, I collected the name of each one who appeared at the DNC, appeared in that video for the DNC in which they sang “Fight Song,” or signed MoveOn.org’s weird petition, as well as anyone who gave a maximum contribution to either the Clinton campaign or the Democratic National Committee, based on the donor lookup database maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Here are some of the most prominent people — based on the number of film credits (including for directing, producing or writing) each had according to Rotten Tomatoes — in the data set:
That list is full of heavy hitters — Academy Award winners, beloved staples of the screen, Woody Harrelson. But we already knew Hollywood was in the tank for the Democrats. Knowing Sean Penn supports Clinton is not, precisely, breaking news.
So I found out how often all these people — 196 performers and filmmakers for whom I was able to pull a Rotten Tomatoes film history — worked together. Combined, they have more than 6,300 credits across just over 4,600 films. So there’s some intersection:
Two films tied for the most pro-Clinton cast and crew: “Pitch Perfect 2,” which was made by Banks, and “Everything Is Copy,” a documentary about the author Nora Ephron. They each have eight known Clinton supporters credited in the film.
Those two movies are followed by “Fighting for Freedom: Revolution & Civil War,” a documentary about the founding of the U.S. and the seeds that led to the Civil War. Then comes “Argo” — produced by George Clooney, directed by and starring Ben Affleck, and featuring Bryan Cranston, Clea DuVall and Taylor Schilling, all Clinton backers — and the first “Pitch Perfect” film.
Mary Steenburgen, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Andrea Savage and Kathryn Hahn all made “Step Brothers” the quintessential film about the crucial role that white men without a college degree will play in this election.
And after that comes a whole bunch of movies that feature four Clinton supporters. There’s “Our Idiot Brother,” which anyone who has followed the history of Tony and Hugh Rodham will find appropriate, and “Sleepless in Seattle,” a film about coastal elites. There’s also “A Million Ways To Die In The West,” which presumably foretold Trump’s struggles in Utah — I don’t know; it’s been years since I watched it.
So if “Fight Song” isn’t doing it for you, “Pitch Perfect 2” should do the trick. And if you’re a conservative desperate for films with Trump backers in it, critics are raving that Baio’s “Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2” is “profoundly disturbing.”