Kathryn Jean Lopez has some nits to pick with John J. Miller’s list of the Top 25 Conservative Movies of the last 25 Years — a feature for which Mr. Karnick and I were fortunate enough to be assigned reviews. (Please refrain from teasing Sam about my movie rating higher than his … he’s still quite sore about it). Also don’t miss Mike D’Virgilio’s take on the subject at this site, especially the inclusion of Metropolitan at No. 3.

K-Lo has some legitimate beefs, arguing strongly for the inclusion of Rocky Balboa on the list. I haven’t seen that movie (yet) so I’ll have to take her word for it. And she makes a compelling case:

Rocky, of course, is a man. And if you watch him from Rocky to Rocky B — you see the ups and downs and hits and misses and the heartaches. And where pop culture so often trivializes men – by making them buffoonish (the doofus dad, the over-testosteroned action hero, or feminized dude) – to have a guy who faces his responsibilities, insecurities, and trials … like a man … is something to celebrate.

I’m more interested, however, in the complete also-ran list — those movies that were strongly considered but just didn’t make the Top 25.

Air Force One, Amazing Grace, An American Carol, Barcelona, Bella, Cinderella Man, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, Hamburger Hill, The Hanoi Hilton, The Hunt for Red October, The Island, Knocked Up, The Last Days of Disco, The Lost City, Miracle, The Patriot, Rocky Balboa, Serenity, Stand and Deliver, Tears of the Sun, Thank You for Smoking, Three Kings, Tin Men, The Truman Show, Witness.

And, for the record, here are all the suggestions I made to Mr. Miller when he put out the call for suggestions and brief pitches last month:

The Dark Knight
Takes the Bush administration position on the War on Terror. Batman is Bush, doing the hard, imperfect and thankless job of fighting terrorism (The Joker). Batman will sacrifice his popularity with the public to do the right thing.

Iron Man
Many points for portraying Muslim terrorists as unambiguous bad guys, especially in today’s Hollywood. Iron Man, though he talks a bit of a "peaceniky" game after the first act, still knows he must unapologetically fight evil with brutal force if good is to prevail.

The Star Wars trilogy
Really, just Lucas’ first three installments will do (Episodes IV, V, and VI). Reagan called the Soviets the "Evil Empire." Good enough for me. Let’s also be generous (to Lucas) and make the Ewoks America’s underground, anti-communist allies behind the Iron Curtain.

High Noon
For the many of the same reasons The Dark Knight is a conservative film.

Braveheart
Celebrates the necessity of violent struggle against oppression. Longshanks cannot be appeased if Scotland is to be free.

The Passion of The Christ
Mel Gibson deserves credit for telling the story of Jesus’ crucifixion in a way that no other Hollywood powerhouse would dare. A stirring counter to Hollywood’s general mockery of Christianity, and an antidote to Hollywood’s vision of Jesus’ sacrifice (The Last Temptation of Christ).

Stand and Deliver
Maybe not a "pure" conservative film, and maybe it’s one by accident. But it gets credit for advancing the conservative view of education: No excuses whatsoever, especially based on race or class, for not learning even the most complicated math. The individual takes responsibility for their education.

The Fountainhead
Hard not to consider this for the list, especially because it reflects Ayn Rand’s valuing of individual liberty over the collective.

Total Recall
Oppression, in the form of a government/corporate cabal crushes the liberty of the individual — until Arnold gets wise and makes right.

Heartbreak Ridge
Clint Eastwood liberates Granada. I’m sure it went down just like that on Reagan’s command.

True Lies
Again, with Muslim extremists as an unambiguous enemy (they detonate a nuke off Miami, for Pete’s sake!), though such a portrayal was not as risky since it’s a pre-9/11 film. Still, it humorously celebrates the men and women who work in secret to keep us safe.

Of course, any of the old celebratory World War II movies of the ’40s, ’50s and early ’60s will do — especially anything with The Duke in them, like The Longest Day and Green Berets.

And as it turned out, my shortest pitch — for Heartbreak Ridge — is the one Miller assigned to me. But I’m kicking myself for not thinking of The Patriot (a pretty obvious choice), and two of my all-time favorite movies — the film adaptation of Christopher Buckley’s sublime Thank You for Smoking and Joss Whedon’s Serenity.

I don’t see how Air Force One even makes the "also-ran" list. Gary Oldman was a great villian and all, but I don’t see the conservative themes. An American Carol? Probably too obvious. Every frame is purposely made to be conservative — or anti-liberal — which is a disqualifier in my book. A film on this list should be a little more subtle than a Zucker gag-fest. But, with all due respect (to myself), my review of Heartbreak Ridge should probably cede ground to at least Amazing Grace, The Hunt for Red October and definitely Serenity.

Joss Whedon’s feature film expanding on the tragically short-lived TV series Firefly has a single over-arching theme: A free man of principle cannot accede to live under the thumb of even a well-meaning government. The theme song to Firefly, which Whedon wrote himself, makes his intentions crystal clear:

Take my love, take my land
Take me where I cannot stand
I don’t care, I’m still free
You can’t take the sky from me
Take me out to the black
Tell them I ain’t comin’ back
Burn the land and boil the sea
You can’t take the sky from me
There’s no place I can be
Since I found Serenity
But you can’t take the sky from me.

Captain Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds ("Mal" being an appropriate nickname for an ill-tempered trouble-maker) speaks often in the TV series and the movie about the open sky (space) — like the seas of Earth — being the only place where a man can be free. And he’d much rather die than give up that freedom.

Serenity, to me, is the most glaring omission on this list.