Whilst the genre has never gone out of fashion, the 1970s were seen by many as a Golden Age of the paranoia-thriller, with Watergate, the Vietnam War and speculation about the Kennedy assassination leading to classics such as The Parallax View (1974), Three Days of the Condor (1975), Winter Kills (1979) and others.
For this piece, we will look at more recent conspiracy-driven motion pictures, which have all used technological advances and the ‘surveillance society’ as a way of ramping up the paranoia.
Interestingly, there is a propensity for certain actors to turn up in this particular film genre – stars such as George Clooney (Syriana, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Michael Clayton, Burn after Reading), Gene Hackman (The Conversation, The Domino Principle, Enemy of the State), Tommy Lee Jones (JFK, Jason Bourne, Shock & Awe, Wander), Jeff Bridges (Winter Kills, Cutter’s Way, Arlington Road, Goats) and our very own Ewan McGregor (The Island, Goats, The Ghost Writer, Haywire).
Indeed, Grant Heslov’s 2009 adaptation of Jon Ronson’s The Men Who Stare at Goats serves as a kind of nexus point for some of these actors, with Clooney, Bridges and McGregor all appearing, as well as the now disgraced Kevin Spacey, no stranger himself to conspiracy-themed movies (LA Confidential, The Negotiator, Moon).
In order of release, most recent first:
Wander (2020)
Aaron Eckhart received critical plaudits for his role as a mentally disturbed conspiracy theorist and private investigator Arthur Bretnik (surely not a natural fit, if he’s required to present his findings in court) hired to delve into a possible murder in the New Mexico town of Wander.
There he stumbles into what could be a larger conspiracy, one also involving the killing of his daughter. Fact becomes difficult to distinguish from fiction as Bretnik tumbles further down the rabbit hole.
Shades of Jacob’s Ladder (1990); Eckhart is ably supported by a cast that includes Tommy Lee Jones, Katheryn Winnick (Vikings), Heather Graham and Raymond Cruz, familiar to some viewers from his role as drug lord Tuco Salamanca in Breaking Bad and prequel Better Call Saul.
Edge of Darkness (2010) – Amazon Prime, Rent/Buy
Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) who directed the original classic BBC1 1986 series, returned to helm this violent movie version, with the action relocated to Massachusetts from the UK.
Mel Gibson steps in for Bob Peck as Detective Craven, investigating his daughter’s radiation-linked murder with the eventual aid of Darius Jedburgh (Ray Winstone), a shady British security consultant, flipping the nationality of the character from Texan (Joe Don Baker) in the BBC show.
If you forget the original, Edge of Darkness is an effective enough thriller, taking full advantage of its R rating but sadly missing the nuances of the six-hour series.
The Men Who Stare at Goats (2009) – Amazon Prime, Rent/Buy
This fictionalised version of journalist/writer Jon Ronson’s (Okja) 2004 book of the same name tells the story of an apparently real-life attempt by the US military to train a cadre of ‘psychic spies’.
The army wish list of skills for their super soldiers includes invisibility, phasing, seeing events out of eyesight and (in the case of George Clooney’s Lyn Cassady) the ability to kill by staring – with goats as the test subjects.
Ewan McGregor plays a Ronson-style investigative journalist who enters the bizarre world of The New Earth Army/First Earth Battalion.
The International (2009), Full movie on YouTube, Amazon Rent/Buy
Back in 2009, Clive Owen was still in the running as possible major star, thanks to his performances in Closer (2004) and Croupier (1998); The International proved to be one of his final shots at international stardom before the full visible onset of middle age.
Using the BCCI scandal of the 1980s as inspiration, Owen stars as an Interpol detective investigating a dodgy international bank’s involvement in money laundering, terrorism, arms dealing and regime change.
German director Tom Twyker (Run Lola Run) keeps the action at a decent clip, commencing with a striking poisoning scene, then on later to a well-choreographed set piece shoot-out in Manhattan’s Guggenheim Museum and a final chase over the rooftops of Istanbul, something that cropped up a few years later in Skyfall (2012).
Michael Clayton (2007) – Amazon Rent/Buy
Michael Clayton is a slow burn of a movie, the brooding atmosphere punctuated by sudden violence and an unsettling opening monologue from Tom Wilkinson as Arthur Edens, senior litigator at Kenner, Bach, & Ledeen and friend to the fixer of the film’s title (George Clooney).
It’s a talky picture, but a good one, buoyed by unexpected twists and a strong supporting company, including the aforementioned Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, and Three Days of the Condor director Sydney Pollack.
Clayton wrestles with his conscience and a gambling addiction when drawn into his company’s involvement in a class action concerning the deadly effects of carcinogenic weed killer.
Shooter (2007) – Amazon Rent/Buy
This thoroughly enjoyable actioner delves into the world of rogue mercenary units and corrupt Washington politicians.
Mark Wahlberg is his usual perma-grumpy self as framed former USMC marksman Bob Lee Swagger, combating a gallery of ripely performed bad guys, including Danny Glover, Ned Beatty, and a thoroughly nasty Elias Koteas.
Michael Peña is good value as Special Agent Nick Memphis (no relation to Point Break’s Johnny Utah), who becomes an unwitting ally of Swagger, one who swiftly proves his worth
Syriana (2005) – Amazon Rent/Buy
George Clooney teams up again with his Ocean pal Matt Damon, albeit in an entirely different breed of movie.
Multiple storylines converge in this geopolitical thriller revolving around Gulf State oil, illegal arms trafficking, corporate corruption, CIA assassination and, as per usual, regime change.
Director/writer Stephen Gaghan also wrote Steven Soderbergh’s Traffic (2000), which Syriana resembles in its ensemble casting and multi-layered approach.
Two years later Peter Berg directed the more simplistic thriller The Kingdom, also looking at Middle Eastern politics through a post 9/11 lens.
Minority Report (2002) – Amazon Rent/Buy
Based on Philip K Dick’s short story, Minority Report concerns the conspiracy surrounding the proposed rollout of ‘Pre-Crime’ police departments in the USA of 2054.
Washington DC’s drug-addicted Pre-Crime Chief and vocal advocate of the technique John Anderton (Tom Cruise) is pegged by two of the trio of clairvoyant ‘Precogs’ as a future murderer.
Time to go on the run and find the dissenting report from inaptly named Precog Agatha Lively (Samantha Morton).
Cruise’s character is really put through the wringer in the picture, with his eyes gruesomely replaced, having to consume well past their sell-by-date sandwiches and curdled milk when temporarily blind (post eyeball transplant), as well as discovering that his beloved boss and mentor Director Lamar Burgess (the late Max von Sydow) is a wrong ‘un.
Steven Spielberg’s decision to film in muted shades with an emphasis on a ‘realistic’ version of the future meant that Minority Report has dated far less than many subsequent sci-fi pictures.
Arlington Road (1999) – Amazon Prime, Fawsome, FilmRise
A movie with a worrying relevance to current events in the US, with Jeff Bridges as widowed college history professor Michael Faraday, who discovers too late that his seemingly affable neighbours Oliver (Tim Robbins) and Cheryl Lang (Joan Cusack) are not what they appear to be.
Alan Pakula’s Parallax View (1974) seems a definite influence on this less accomplished picture, but with later events such as the Waco siege and Oklahoma City Bombing feeding into the depiction of suburban right-wing militias.
Robbins’ turn as Oliver in retrospect looks like a dry run for his bug-eyed survivalist Harlan Ogilvy in 2005’s War of the Worlds.
Enemy of the State (1998) – Disney+, Amazon Rent/Buy
Tony Scott’s thriller hasn’t dated a huge amount in the 23 years (I can’t quite believe it was that long ago) after it was released, despite technology clearly having progressed since 1998.
Perhaps because Scott pushed the then limits of what electronic surveillance was capable of.
Will Smith’s labour lawyer Robert Clayton ‘Bobby’ Dean gets mixed up in security state shenanigans via an incriminating disc dropped into the unknowing Deans shopping bag.
Smith’s life swiftly goes to hell when NSA spooks and the mobsters he was investigating as part of his day job end up in the mix, forcing him to go to ground.
Dean is reluctantly helped by Brill Lyle, a former agency analyst living off the grid, played by Gene Hackman, riffing on his previous role as surveillance expert Harry Caul (“the best bugger on the West Coast”) in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation (1974).
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