11 Badass Conspiracy Movies
Even with Bush out of the oval office, and 9/11 many years in our rear view mirror, America is still fascinated by conspiracy theories. Why? Well, who doesn’t love tapped phones, untraceable weapons, and secret government agents in Ray Bans? Perhaps you’re one of the many who believe that the government or corporate America is recording everything we do and say. And if you’re anything like Daniel McCarthy from the new KoldCast series, “Tyranny”, maybe you’re even on a quest to do something about it. But conspiracy theorist or not, you have to admit it’s fun to ponder the possibilities, and even moreso to watch the little guy kick some serious Big Brother ass. To get you in the mood for the first few bad-ass episodes of “Tyranny”, here’s a compilation of badass films that dabble in conspiracies both eerily realistic and hyper-realistic. If we left any of your favorites off, please let us know in the comment section! 1. JFK (1991) In perhaps the most famous example of the genre, Oliver Stone blends fact and fiction to present the elaborate counter-theories behind the John F. Kennedy assassination. Complete with magic bullets, hidden shooters, government cover-ups, homosexual escapades, and Cuban freedom fighters, the film’s conspiracy elements are as frantic and jarring as its chaotic editing. Though JFK was attacked for factual inaccuracies that attracted a heap of controversy, the film fomented public curiosity that led to the passage of The President John F. Kennedy Assassinatino Records Collection Act of 1992 and the formation of the U.S. Assassination Records Review Board.
2. The Manchurian Candidate (1962) Based on Richard Condon’s 1959 novel of the same name, this classic film tells the story of a communist plot to assasinate American political figures by brainwashing the son of a prominent political family. Released during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the film captured the political turmoil of its decade, revived the hysteria of 50s McCarthyism, and fortuitously presaged the conspiracies following Kennedy’s imminent assassination. 3. All the President’s Men (1976) This retelling of the Watergate scandal proves that, sometimes, truth is more entertaining than fiction. The film recounts the investigative efforts of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to uncover the truth behind the infamous Watergate break-in and the Nixon Administration’s campaign to sabotage its rivals. Some of the film’s most memorable and heavily referenced scenes include the reporters’ encounters with Deepthroat, the anonymous informant often seen emerging from the shadows of empty parking garages. 4. The Conversation (1974) Inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup and paving the way for landmark films like Blow Out and blockbusters like Enemy of the State, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation revealed the frightening world of government surveillance through the eyes of an increasingly paranoid audio technician. Gene Hackman delivers a career-defining performance as surveillance expert Harry Caul, who loses his grip on reality after closely investigating the contents of an audio recording. Though the film is somewhat ambiguous about the sources of Caul’s paranoia, it introduced audiences to the possibilities of government audio surveillance, an all-too-real phobia in the age of the Patriot Act. September 16, 2010 Copyright © 2010 Koldcast TV
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