50 Slimiest Movie Politicians
The votes are in and have in no way been tampered with... Warning: SPOILERS
Stephen Collins (State Of Play)
The Politician: Stephen Collins (Ben Affleck), Congressman of Pennsylvania appears to be left devastated when his young and talented lead researcher and secret lover apparently commits suicide.
He looks to his old friend Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) for support when his wife kicks him out and reporters set up camp outside his home as the details of his infidelity unfolds in the press.
Slimiest Moment: When the suicide is ruled to be murder, Collins agrees to go on record for his friend McAffrey implicating military contractor Point Corp as responsible.
Except they're not responsible. He is.
Merkin Muffley (Dr Strangelove)
The Politician: American President Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers) is probably a little too indecisive and a little too inexperienced for his position. He is really put on the spot when one of his Air Force Generals paranoid Jack D. Ripper (Sterling Hayden) decides to take out the USSR, fearing they are tampering with the nations body fluids.
Slimiest Moment: When Muffley puts in the all important call to the Soviet Premier to break the bad news: "one of our base commanders, he had a sort of... well, he went a little funny in the head... you know... just a little... funny. And, ah... he went and did a silly thing... Well, I'll tell you what he did. He ordered his planes... to attack your country". Strong leadership.
Bruno Hempf (The Lives Of Others)
The Politician: Bruno Hempf (Thomas Thieme), the Minister of Culture of East Germany possesses a strong influence over the country's secret police and also a burning infatuation with a popular actress Christa-Maria Sieland.
Hempf takes his obsession with Christa to the extreme: setting up surveillance on her playwright boyfriend Georg Dreyman to rid himself of his romantic rival.
Sign up for the Total Film Newsletter
Bringing all the latest movie news, features, and reviews to your inbox
Slimiest Moment: When Hempf meets Christa for the first time he makes his feelings clear by sliding his hand all over her backside right under the nose of Dreyman.
Vilos Cohaagen (Total Recall)
The Politician: Governor of the Mars Colony Vilos Cohaagen (Ronny Cox), is as corrupt and ruthless as politicians come and will stop at nothing to keep mining valuable turbinium ore and risking innocent lives in the process.
Slimiest Moment: Cohaagen's former top agent Hauser (Arnold Schwarzenegger) goes rogue with his new persona Quaid yet unwittingly leads Cohaagen to his goal: the leader of the Mars resistance.
After Cohaagen achieves want he wants, he orders Quaid's memory to be re-implanted to original Hauser and orders Quaid's lover Melina to reprogrammed as Hauser's slave. Literally playing God.
Edmond Zuwanie (The Interpreter)
The Politician: Edmond Zuwanie (Earl Cameron), president of fictional African county Matobo and corrupt dictator is called to the United Nations as he faces indiction to stand trial in the International Criminal Court for executing ethic cleansing and other crimes against humanity.
Slimiest Moment: In a bid to gain world sympathy and win political support a head of his possible trial, Zuwanie has a fake assassin attempt on his life staged. Sneaky.
Joe Cantwell (The Best Man)
The Politician: Joe Cantwell (Cliff Robertson), a confident, populist leading candidate for a presidential nomination and a self declared man of the people believes he'll have no trouble taking on his straight-lace, more intellectual opponent William Russell (Henry Fonda).
Slimiest Moment: Cantwell makes things personal, privately targeting Russell where it hurts with illegally-obtained psychological reports covering the full extent of his opponent's past nervous breakdown.
Napoleon (Animal Farm)
The Politician: It doesn't take long for ruthless, antagonist boar Napoleon to take out the competition with his goon squad of puppies and assert himself as the leader of Animal Farm once the animals revolt and drive away the drunken owner Mr Jones.
Slimiest Moment: When Napoleon starts dressing in a suit adorned with medals and reduces the animal's Seven Commandments to one single phrase: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."
Richard Nixon (Frost/Nixon)
The President: 37th President of the United States Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) became the only president to ever resign from office after a significant loss of political support when the full extent of his Watergate scandal emerged.
Months after his resignation in return for a healthy fee he agrees to a series of sit down interviews with British broadcast journalist David Frost (Martin Sheen).
Slimiest Moment: Naturally the shamed and explosive Nixon has dozens of slimy moments throughout this film but the one that probably tops the list is when he delivers a slight variation on the now famous line
"When the President does it, it's not illegal."
Michael Rimmer (The Rise And Rise Of Michael Rimmer)
The Politician: Michael Rimmer (Peter Cook) mysteriously shows up at an advertising agency one day and somehow convinces everyone he is supposed to be there.
Not only that but he also manages to quickly acquire control of the business.
He soon moves into politics, becoming an MP and eventually Prime Minister - all the while depending on just his charisma and the occasional murder to get him there.
Slimiest Moment: Rimmer dupes Britain into voting for him to become a presidential dictator after he exposes the country to an extreme referendum government.
He proposes this dictatorial option in casual campaign video as he strolls along the beach with his trophy wife.
Ambassador of Mars (Mars Attacks!)
The Politician: The ambassador of Mars and leader of the Martians who invade Earth and bring about devastation. Appears to enjoy killing people and destroying everything.
Slimiest Moment: When likeable President Dale (Jack Nicholson) attempts to smooth over the "cultural misunderstanding" of the the martians violent arrival with a hand shake, the Mars ambassador's hand comes off, crawls on to the president and stabs him to death. Dirty tricks indeed.