Streaming While White

Everyone is suddenly spending much more time than usual at home, watching movies and television. Unfortunately, most streaming options are garbage, and many mainstream reviewers ignore or “memory hole” good movies. For racially conscious whites looking for something worth watching, here are a few recommendations.

Nicolas Winding Refn

This contemporary Danish director deserves far more praise in dissident circles. Bronson (2008) is a celebration of masculinity and non-conformity. It’s a story about a proud barbarian in a society far too tame and antiseptic for his liking. Blessedly, it is devoid of any pop-psychology or syrupy social justice. Recommended most highly for fans of Jack Donovan and Ragnar Redbeard.

Valhalla Rising (2009) is the story of a silent Norse warrior, a band of would-be crusaders, and a lost ship. Like Bronson, it’s a celebration of maleness, but also has a strong Faustian feel to it. This film’s pacing is slower than many readers are probably used to, but the ending — an eruption of racial violence — is not to be missed. Recommended most highly for pagans and fans of European cinema.

Drive (2011) is the only recent film I know of with a synthwave aesthetic from start to finish. A double-cross crime thriller, it reminds me of French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard’s assertion, “All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun” — but with American cars added to the mix. Recommended most highly for alt-right memesters, gearheads, and speed demons.

Civil War movies

These tend to avoid liberal control. There are classics, such as Gone With the Wind (1939) and Birth of a Nation (1915), but for more recent fare as well. I especially recommend movies directed by Ron Maxwell. Gettysburg (1993) and Gods and Generals (2003) are both superb, and although I haven’t seen it yet, I’d bet Copperhead (2013) — written by paleoconservative Bill Kauffman — is equally good. Recommended most highly for Southern partisans and fans of Classic Hollywood epics.

Liberal films that deal with America’s bloodiest conflict are usually anti-racist junk. (e.g. Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained), but a few can be enjoyed in an ironic way. Especially Glory (1989), which follows the Union Army’s black 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment to its end; and C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004), a “mocukmentary” about the South’s victory over the North, and what happened after, directed by a black man who was trying to highlight American racism.

Eli Roth

Though a liberal and at times tastelessly macabre, Mr. Roth’s films often denigrate both egalitarian ideals and egalitarians themselves. The Green Inferno (2015) follows a group of naïve, do-gooder college students whose bleeding-heart activism in South America leaves them in over their heads with a tribe of decidedly ignoble savages. His 2018 remake of the 1974 race-realist classic Death Wish is a great action movie and nearly as race-realist as the original. Mr. Roth also produced the underrated horror movie The Sacrament (2014), which is a “found footage”-style retelling of the story of Jim Jones’ fanatically anti-racist “People’s Temple.” Recommended most highly for people with very strong stomachs, Mr. Roth never holds back when it comes to blood and guts.

Rome (2005-2007)

Nearly all television shows are trash. HBO’s short series (only 22 episodes) Rome is an exception. Co-created by conservative filmmaker John Milius (best known for writing the first Dirty Harry movie and writing and directing the original Red Dawn), it covers the Great Roman Civil War and the power struggles following Julius Caesar’s assassination. Though not as racial as many ancient Greco-Roman stories (e.g. 300 and The 300 Spartans), this series covers one of the most important periods in the history of the white world with an unparalleled attention to detail and historical accuracy. Shot in Italy, Rome‘s sets, costumes, and cinematography are all impeccable, along with its acting, character development, and action scenes. And it cannot be overstated just how much all the conflicts and intrigue have to teach those hoping to gain — and hold on to — power. Recommended most highly for history buffs.

Sam Peckinpah

This director’s work was described by Sam Francis in 1995:

No director was more notorious for depiction of graphic violence than the late Sam Peckinpah, but in The Wild Bunch, The Getaway, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, and a host of other films, he drew sharp distinctions between good characters able and willing to assume burdens of responsibility for each other and bad characters who recognize no bonds or loyalties beyond their own greed and lust. For Peckinpah’s heroes, it is the social bond — of an outlaw band, friendship, husband and wife — that makes them human, while for his villains, it is the denial or betrayal of such bonds that makes them evil.

Whether they’re in the Old West, on the Eastern Front, or in 1970s rural Britain, every protagonist in Peckinpah’s films finds himself out of step with the times in an era that is quickly coming to a close, and must take a high-stakes stand or face obliteration. Recommended most highly for young men.

John Ford

Much of what’s been said of Sam Peckinpah can be said of John Ford. His films are about men among the ruins trying to protect their families and way of life. The biggest difference between the two is in style: Peckinpah was a precursor to Quentin Tarantino, while Ford worked in the tradition of John Huston and Howard Hawks. He made many good films, but I think Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956) are his best. Recommended most highly for boomers.

Sofia Coppola

A lot of filmmakers have tried to make a movie that captures the sense of ennui that often clouds our liquid modernity. Many have come close, but Sofia Coppola (daughter to Francis Ford) has done it better than anyone else — and in three different films: The Virgin Suicides (1999), Lost in Translation (2003), and the often overlooked Somewhere (2010). Recommended most highly for women.

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You can find more recommendations from most of AmRen’s regular contributors here — and plenty of readers have since added to that list in the comments section. Chris Roberts and Gregory Hood have also found several relatively new releases to be worth watching, which you can read about using our “Movie Review” tag. Most of these films can be watched for a small price on YouTube, and at the time of this writing, Rome is available on Hulu and Drive is on Netflix.