Uh….what?

Well, as a historical novel about foreigners, Tale of Two Cities is not a 'typical' Dickens work. Maybe you should try Oliver Twist or Great Expectations.

Sadly, I think Colbert ended up preaching to the choir on that one: people who already liked and/or agreed him loved it but the corporate media kept it from reaching a broader audience of people whose minds would have been susceptible to change.

Two examples of what I think were unintended consequences:

Well I guess it depends on what your definition of 'agenda' is, DW Griffith obviously was promoting a racist belief that black people were inferior to white people and that they 'needed' to be kept violently in check in order to protect the chastity of white women and maintain racial purity.

Hmm, well while you look at Seinfeld on a micro level, I look at it in a macro level and think it played a big part on making Americans feel good about being solipsistic assholes.

I'm an American and *I* think Threads is by far superior to The Day After and superior to Testament.

I would say Grapes of Wrath is more a reflection of New Deal sentiment that was already widely accepted in 1939.

I had a great screenwriting teacher in college who said EVERY narrative work has some sort of political agenda, and I tend to agree.

Uh, Birth of a Nation most definitely had a racist agenda.

I like to remind people that at least some abolitionists were probably not anti-slavery because they saw black people as being 'equal'.

I would challenge the wisdom that whether Uncle Tom was filled with 'condescending caricatures' was even important.

As you are willing to go as far back as Uncle Tom's Cabin, I'd say you really missed the boat by not mentioning Charles Dickens, whose use of literature to breed compassion between the classes (especially the traditionally despised poor) during the tumult of the industrial revolution went down so smoothly even people…

It's funny, I really like Kathy Bates in just about everything EXCEPT I think she was absolutely terrible in "Misery".

One Hour Photo is a really, really good film with a great ending.

The Searchers is currently one of the most critically overrated movies out there. The movie is a pure piece of crap.

Good grief, "The Color Purple" is a fiasco - the horrible lives of sharecroppers seen through the gauzy lens of a Pottery Barn catalog.

Mickey Rooney is a great example of a horrible performance (blame it on Blake Edwards though) in an excellent movie.

If you think he is a terrible actor I'd be curious to know who you think is a "good" actor.

Chris Evans was actually great in Captain America.