Archive for the ‘conspiracy’ Category
Author: James
Far left, far right? Far out
Take a trip back in time with the UK re-release of an eerily prescient Cold War paranoia thriller.
Released just a year before the assassination of one John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963 (by a lone, crazy gunman with a grudge against the world and a Magic Bullet, remember?), and then removed from circulation for several years after the events in Dallas – can’t imagine why – John Frankenheimer’s The Manchurian Candidate (1962) is, along with Seconds (1966) this great director’s finest film and one of the best political-conspiracy thrillers ever committed to celluloid.
Author: James
Taken to the edge
Troy Kennedy-Martin’s original BBC TV series, way back in 1985, was groundbreaking, both in the darkness of its subject matter, and its willingness to take risks. Director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale (2006)), then as now, revealed an all-encompassing conspiracy lurking at the edge of everything, and the price that one man must pay to bring those responsible for the death of his daughter to book.
Author: James
Your story or your life?
It’s an interesting phenomenon – cinema, down the years, has by and large served the Fourth Estate very well. Choice examples such as Billy Wilder’s Ace in the Hole (1951), All the President’s Men (1976) by Alan J. Pakula, and Michael Mann’s The Insider (1999) are very much ancestors to Kevin McDonald’s State of Play (2009), which was itself originally a very highly rated Paul Abbott-written BBC mini-series directed by David Yates, back in 2003.
Author: Colin
Oil be damned…
“Yeah, the whole Middle East thing, it’s all about oil and money, isn’t it?” Nope. Watching this was a real eye-opener. Through a long and heavily convoluted film, we are reminded of the complexities of international trade and negotiation, and just how utterly perplexing the whole business can be.
Starring (among a raft of others) George Clooney and Matt Damon, you may think this was a direct paraphrase of their ‘roles’ in Team America: World Police (2004): All corporations are bad, and the movie stars of the world, dripping with cash, are just the people to tell you how crap it all is. Happily, this intelligent, well-paced and genuinely thought-provoking piece is anything but an anti-business or anti-capitalist diatribe.
- Colin: Mike: the Matrix was utter toss. Don’t go there. Anyhow, I’m right with you on Aliens –...
- Colin: James: Why not do ten more and see if you can avoid putting the god-awful travesty that is Independence Day in...
- CD: The Day the Earth Stood Still (it’s about an alien who is Jesus…but better than ET) Soylent Green...
- James: Hello Chris, and welcome to Picturenose!
Many thanks for your comment – I thought, in fact, that... - James: Colin, good points, both on Westworld (which should really have been included, I know, I know) and otters.