Angela Lansbury orders the assassination of a presidential nominee during her party's national convention at Madison Square Garden in the 1962 political thriller The Manchurian Candidate. Angela Lansbury orders the assassination of a presidential nominee during her party's national convention at Madison Square Garden in the 1962 political thriller The Manchurian Candidate. (Fox Video)

Aug. 25 marks the beginning of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where representatives of the U.S. Democratic party will officially announce Senator Barack Obama as their candidate for president, welcome his running mate and solidify the party platform. (The Republican version takes place Sept. 1-4.) The process may seem a bit dry, but conventions such as this have provided a heady backdrop for some memorable moments in film.

(Fox Video) (Fox Video)

The Manchurian Candidate

Year of release: 1962

The premise: A brainwashed war veteran (Frank Sinatra) pieces together his murky memories of fighting in the Korean War and realizes his celebrated commander, Sgt. Shaw (Laurence Harvey), isn’t the hero he’s made out to be. Thanks to mind manipulation, Shaw has been turned into an automaton who will kill on command.

Key convention scene: Hell-bent on securing her husband’s vice-presidential nomination, Shaw’s ruthless mother (Angela Lansbury) orders her son to assassinate the leading nominee during their party’s national convention at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

(United Artists) (United Artists)

The Best Man

Year of release: 1964

The premise: Frustrated by the fact that the exiting president (Lee Tracy) has yet to throw his support behind a putative party leader, a gaggle of hopefuls try to out-scheme each other in order to finagle an endorsement from the departing chief. William Russell (Henry Fonda), a liberal who’s reluctant to hit below the belt, is pitted against Joe Cantwell (Cliff Richardson), a closeted conservative who’ll stop at nothing to become top dog.

Key convention scene: The rivals’ smear tactics play out against the backdrop of their party’s national presidential convention.

(Paramount Pictures)(Paramount Pictures)

Medium Cool

Year of release: 1969

The premise: Unflappable TV cameraman John Cassellis (Robert Forster) gets canned when he refuses to surrender footage of militant civil-rights activists to the FBI. Shaken by the experience, Cassellis gets caught up in a war widow’s search for her son, which leads them to the Democratic National Convention.

Key convention scene: The lines between life and art became blurred as director Haskell Wexler led his crew through the actual Democratic convention in 1968, where he captured a genuine riot on tape.

(Paramount Pictures)(Paramount Pictures)

The Parallax View

Year of release: 1974

The premise: Alan J. Pakula’s creepy conspiracy-theory thriller follows a Seattle news team led by Joseph Frady (Warren Beatty) that inadvertently witnesses the shooting of a senator in a diner. The Powers That Be claim the assassin had no accomplices, but Frady insists something more sinister is afoot. His suspicions are confirmed by the gradual deaths of the colleagues who were at the scene. Frady goes undercover to pose as a hired gun for the shadowy Parallax Corporation.

Key convention scene: While trying to prevent an assassination attempt at a political convention, Frady is assassinated himself.

(Lions Gate) (Lions Gate)

Steal This Movie

Year of release: 2001

The premise: This chaotic biopic maps out the story of troubled countercultural hero Abbie Hoffman, the anti-war crusader who co-founded the Youth International Party (better known as the Yippies) and was persecuted for his political antics.

Key convention scene: Hoffman was a member of the Chicago 7, the group arrested and tried for conspiracy and incitement to riot as a result of their anti-Vietnam protests during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The film provides a glimpse of those insurrections and also touches on "Pigasus," the porcine candidate the Yippies nominated for president that year.

(Cinema Libre Studio)(Cinema Libre Studio)

Conventioneers

Year of release: 2005

The premise: A Romeo and Juliet-style tale of two star-crossed lovebirds whose romance is compromised by their political leanings: he’s a devout Republican; she’s a passionate liberal. The gentle drama unfolds during the Republican National Convention in New York City.

Key convention scene: The most controversial aspect of Mora Stephens’s romance is the fact that some members of the film crew were arrested for shooting footage (without permission) of the actual 2004 convention.

(Universal Studios)(Universal Studios)

This Revolution

Year of release: 2006

The premise: Though it tanked commercially, this thriller owes an obvious debt to Medium Cool. It’s the schmaltzy story of a news cameraman named Jake (Nathan Crooker), who is forced to re-evaluate his political and personal priorities when he gets wrapped up in the struggles of a single mom and Iraq war widow.

Key convention scene: Jake’s bosses send him to New York City to cover the 2004 Republican National Convention, which is where he meets Amy (Rosario Dawson), the tough young mother who opens his eyes to the reality of radical politics.

Sarah Liss writes about the arts for CBCNews.ca.