Conspiracy Theory Old Movies to watch

OLD MOVIE THRILLERS Conspiracy Theories

In the 70's, war was raging with old guard leaders insisting the same old canard; "we need to prolong an unwinnable war, if we just had more troops, a deeper resolve, and a continuation of current policies against a threat of worldwide domination by a foe then named communism, so we can honor our fallen troops and not be labeled "losers", we could go on warring forever!"; our presidents were lying to us and occasionally getting caught at it, the economy was faltering, and a young demographic was skeptical and paranoid of an older generation not willing to cede power after an open and raucus 60's. A means justifies the ends philosophy didn't sit well with a younger electorate, who would, arguably, someday succumb to the same generational ossification themselves.


In the meantime, at the time, they were disatisfied with the government, and paranoid of it's intentions.
So reflected was the art of the period.

Three excellent movies immediately come to mind.

It's no accident they share a thematic purpose from that period, and besides, they are immensely fun to watch.

The Manchurian Candidate
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056218/

The Parrallax View
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071970/

Three Days of the Condor
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073802/

Every one of these films is at least outstanding in it's direction and production values, not to mention content. Great acting throughout too. Watch Sinatra, Harvey and Landsbury go at it in Candidate. And Lou Frissell, the bombastic character actor.



Comparatively speaking on the subject, do movies requiring us to re think our values and norms, seem to be out of vogue in today's computer driven graphics environment, where scintillation and immediacy take precedent over content and thought, and in that way perhaps reflect exactly our current bifurcated society where discussion and thought have given way to bluster and the efficiency of partisanship in a frenetically driven unbalanced capitalistic society?

Have we traded paranoia for vacuousness?



A comparison of the art form may indeed indicate such.

Watch these movies, and you decide.



By no means and end to the genre, additional viewing would include Dustin Hoffman and Roy Scheider in Marathon Man (this tilts a bit towards nazi paranoia, another endless genre), and a more current updating of the genre, an often overlooked (and YOU have to overlook his beliefs and behavior) Mel Gibson and Julia Roberts in the eponymous Conspiracy Theory. (great credits and an incredible soundtrack highlight this out of character Gibson thriller with Marathon Man overtones)



Finally, this discussion would be incomplete without two other "conspiracy" movies from long ago, both by "the master", who symbolizes the very embodiment of paranoia, Hitchcock's English 39 Steps, and the wartime Foreign Correspondent. I could go on forever on Hitchcock and his movies, suffice to say his overarching themes of innocent man drawn into nefarious settings with sexual overtones (North by Northwest) could arguably make ANY Hitchcock movie a study in paranoia, but we are limiting ouselves to GOVERNMENT paranoia for this discussion. (It's no accident he's paranoid, in my opinion, since he grew up catholic)



So watch away, and feel free to comment!