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Best Washington dc, usa Movies

Ranked by how strongly each film carries the visual signature of washington dc, usa cinema — measured across 1,673 indexed frames from 19 films, against a 404,689-frame catalogue baseline. Not by box office, and not by vote.

Washington dc, usa films over-index on typewriter, american flag and dress shirt — the objects that make the genre recognisable before a line is spoken.

  1. 1

    All the President's Men (1976)

    Alan J. PakulaDP Gordon WillisIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    In the run-up to the 1972 elections, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward covers what seems to be a minor break-in at the Democratic Party National headquarters. He is surprised to find top lawyers already on the defense case, and the discovery of names and addresses of White House fund organizers on the accused further arouses his suspicions. The editor of the Post is prepared to run with the story and assigns Woodward and Carl Bernstein to it. They find the trail leading higher and higher in the White House.

  2. 2

    The Post (2017)

    Steven SpielbergDP Janusz KamińskiIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    When American military analyst, Daniel Ellsberg, realizes to his disgust the depths of the US government's deceptions about the futility of the Vietnam War, he takes action by copying top-secret documents that would become the Pentagon Papers. Later, Washington Post owner, Kay Graham, is still adjusting to taking over her late husband's business when editor Ben Bradlee discovers the New York Times has scooped them with an explosive expose on those papers. Determined to compete, Post reporters find Ellsberg himself and a complete copy of those papers. However, the Post's plans to publish their findings are put in jeopardy with a Federal restraining order that could get them all indicted for Contempt. Now, Kay Graham must decide whether to back down for the safety of her paper or publish and fight for the Freedom of the Press. In doing so, Graham and her staff join a fight that would have America's democratic ideals in the balance.

  3. 3

    The Report (2019)

    Scott Z. BurnsDP Eigil BryldIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    THE REPORT is a thriller based on actual events. Idealistic staffer Daniel J. Jones (Adam Driver) is tasked by his boss Senator Dianne Feinstein (Annette Bening) to lead an investigation of the CIA's Detention and Interrogation Program created in the aftermath of 9/11. Jones' relentless pursuit of the truth leads to findings that uncover the lengths to which the nation's top intelligence agency went to destroy evidence, subvert the law, and hide a shocking secret from the American public. THE REPORT is written and directed by Scott Z. Burns, and the film also stars Jon Hamm, Sarah Goldberg, Michael C. Hall, Douglas Hodge, Fajer Kaisi, Ted Levine, Jennifer Morrison, Tim Blake Nelson, Linda Powell, Matthew Rhys, T. Ryder Smith, Corey Stoll, and Maura Tierney.

  4. 4

    No Way Out (1987)

    Roger DonaldsonDP John AlcottIMDb 7.1TMDB 6.9See in full on FrameThrower →

    Tom Farrell is a navy officer who gets posted at the Pentagon and is to report to the secretary of defense David Brice. He starts an affair with Susan Atwell not knowing that she is Brice's mistress. When Susan is found dead, Tom is assigned to the case of finding the killer who is believed to be a KGB mole! Tom could soon become a suspect when a Polaroid negative of him was found at Susan's place. He now has only a few hours to find the killer before the computer regenerates the photo.

  5. 5

    Salt (2010)

    Phillip NoyceDP Robert ElswitIMDb 6.5TMDB 6.4See in full on FrameThrower →

    Evelyn Salt is a CIA agent and highly respected by all, including her boss, Ted Winter. Out of the blue, a Russian spy walks into their offices and offers a vital piece of information: the President of Russia will be assassinated during his forthcoming visit to New York City to attend the funeral of the recently deceased U.S. Vice President. The name of the assassin: Evelyn Salt. Concerned about the safety of her husband, who she cannot contact, she goes on the run. Winter refuses to accept that she is a mole or a double agent but her actions begin to raise doubts. Just who is Evelyn Salt and what is she planning?

  6. 6

    Burn After Reading (2008)

    Ethan Coen, Joel CoenDP Emmanuel LubezkiIMDb 7.0TMDB 6.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    Osbourne Cox, a Balkan expert, resigned from the CIA because of a drinking problem, so he begins a memoir. His wife wants a divorce and expects her lover, Harry, a philandering State Department marshal, to leave his wife. A CD-ROM falls out of a gym bag at a Georgetown fitness center. Two employees there try to turn it into cash: Linda, who wants money for cosmetic surgery, and Chad, an amiable goof. Information on the disc leads them to Osbourne who rejects their sales pitch; then they visit the Russian embassy. To sweeten the pot, they decide they need more of Osbourne's secrets. Meanwhile, Linda's boss likes her, and Harry's wife leaves for a book tour. All roads lead to Osbourne's house.

  7. 7

    Arlington Road (1999)

    Mark PellingtonDP Bobby BukowskiIMDb 7.2TMDB 7.0See in full on FrameThrower →

    In suburban Reston, Virginia, George Washington University American History professor Michael Faraday is still mourning the death of his wife, FBI agent Leah Faraday, after three years. His inside knowledge of the agency colors what he teaches in his classes. Although on good terms with Leah's ex-partner, Whit Carver, and the agency in general, Michael wants the agency at least to acknowledge their responsibility in her death in the line of duty. Michael is moving on with his personal life, he being in a serious relationship with his former teaching assistant Brooke Wolfe. Although he likes Brooke, Michael and Leah's nine year old son, Grant Faraday, may not yet be quite ready for Brooke to be a permanent part of their lives. It is only in helping adolescent Brady Lang who he sees in medical distress that Michael meets his new neighbors, Oliver and Cheryl Lang, Brady's parents. In the process, Michael and Brooke becomes friends with the Langs, as Grant and Brady become friends. However, the more time that he spends with them and catches discrepancies in their stories, Michael becomes suspicious that the Langs may not be everything they appear on the surface. As such, Michael, against Brooke's concerns of invasion of the Lang's privacy, begins his own investigation of Oliver in particular. What Michael discovers has serious national security implications, as well as possible life threatening dangers to him, Brooke and Grant.

  8. 8

    Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

    Joe Russo, Anthony RussoDP Trent OpalochIMDb 7.7TMDB 7.7See in full on FrameThrower →

    For Steve Rogers, awakening after decades of suspended animation involves more than catching up on pop culture; it also means that this old school idealist must face a world of subtler threats and difficult moral complexities. That becomes clear when Director Nick Fury is killed by the mysterious assassin, the Winter Soldier, but not before warning Rogers that SHIELD has been subverted by its enemies. When Rogers acts on Fury's warning to trust no one there, he is branded as a traitor by the organization. Now a fugitive, Captain America must get to the bottom of this deadly mystery with the help of the Black Widow and his new friend, The Falcon. However, the battle will be costly for the Sentinel of Liberty, with Rogers finding enemies where he least expects them while learning that the Winter Soldier looks disturbingly familiar.

  9. 9

    Minority Report

    Steven SpielbergDP Janusz KamińskiIMDb 7.6TMDB 7.3See in full on FrameThrower →

    In the year 2054 A.D. crime is virtually eliminated from Washington D.C. thanks to an elite law enforcing squad "Precrime". They use three gifted humans (called "Pre-Cogs") with special powers to see into the future and predict crimes beforehand. John Anderton heads Precrime and believes the system's flawlessness steadfastly. However one day the Pre-Cogs predict that Anderton will commit a murder himself in the next 36 hours. Worse, Anderton doesn't even know the victim. He decides to get to the mystery's core by finding out the 'minority report' which means the prediction of the female Pre-Cog Agatha that "might" tell a different story and prove Anderton innocent.

  10. 10

    Being There (1979)

    Hal AshbyDP Caleb DeschanelIMDb 7.9TMDB 7.6See in full on FrameThrower →

    Simple-minded gardener Chance has spent all his life in the Washington D.C. home of an old man. When the man dies, Chance is put out on the street with no knowledge of the world except what he has learned from television. After a run-in with a limousine, he ends up a guest of Eve and her husband Ben, an influential but sickly businessman. Now called Chauncey Gardner, Chance becomes friend and confidante to Ben, and an unlikely political insider.

What washington dc, usa films are made of

How much more often each element appears in a washington dc, usa frame than in an average frame from the catalogue. A ratio, not a share — typewriter is not in most frames, it is simply far more common here than anywhere else.

  • typewriter18.1×
  • american flag5.2×
  • dress shirt4.0×
  • telephone4.0×
  • fluorescent light3.8×
  • tie3.3×
  • desk3.2×
  • necktie2.9×

How washington dc, usa films are shot

Weaker signals than the objects above, and worth saying so: most dramatic genres skew dark and night-heavy, so these numbers separate washington dc, usa from the catalogue far more than they separate it from its neighbours.

  • 84%eye levelvs 69% baseline

What breaks the pattern

Spider Man: Homecoming (2017) is the least typical film here — it carries the least of what the rest of this list is made of. Which is either a failure of the genre label, or the most interesting film on the page.

Method

Every frame in the FrameThrower catalogue is tagged for shot size, lighting, time of day, camera angle, colour and the objects visible in it. This page aggregates those tags across 1,673 frames from 19 films carrying the washington dc, usa label, and compares each figure to the same measurement across the whole catalogue (404,689 frames). Films are ranked by how closely they match the theme’s over-indexed elements, weighted by how distinctive each element is; one film per series. Only films with at least 20 indexed frames and 500 TMDB votes are listed.

Machine-readable: /api/list/washington-dc-usa

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These are real movie frames, shown at reduced resolution. All rights remain with their respective owners; they appear here for study, commentary and education under fair-use principles. How these are meant to be used