Everything about politics in the real world is complex and thus both intellectually and morally troublesome. The statements, motives, and goals of politicians are often clouded in obscurity, or, if they are clear, they seem to contradict one another or the manifest reality. The problems the politician confronts afford easy solutions only to the doctrinaire; the politician's successes, if any, are tarnished by critics, and worse, quickly forgotten. Also, politics are surrounded by the shadow of power and money, a sordid pair in the popular mind. But in the political movie things are typically different: here we are in the terrain of politics as a struggle between good and evil. The political movie, it is my hypothesis, can best be viewed as a semipopular ritual drama which allows the audience to participate in actions and emotions not easy to come by in the chilly ambiguities of the world as it is. I submit that political movies are projections of wishes and thus give us invaluable clues to the actual meanings underlying