ABSOLUTE POWER
(1997, DIRECTED BY CLINT EASTWOOD)
Disillusionment in the 1970s revolved around the Vietnam War, suppression of student protests, and suspicion of the intelligence community. But in the ’90s, it often centered on public morals and sex scandals, especially those connected to the Clinton White House. Eastwood’s ludicrous thriller has an all-star cast (Gene Hackman, Ed Harris, Laura Linney) and a lurid premise: A master thief (Eastwood) breaks into a mansion and accidentally witnesses the president (Hackman) murdering a woman he’s having an affair with. Things spiral into even more preposterous directions from there, but it’s all told with Eastwood’s typical soberness as he digs into a government that’s rotting from the inside.
https://www.google.com/search?q=ABSOLUTE+POWER
13 Movies About Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Government
Re: 13 Movies About Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Government
WAG THE DOG
(1997, DIRECTED BY BARRY LEVINSON)
Perhaps the only out-and-out comedy on this list, Wag the Dog is an eerily prescient satire of media manipulation that feels only more plausible as the years pass. Hired to distract the media from an oncoming sex scandal involving the president, spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) hires Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to concoct a phony war with Albania, flooding the television airwaves with fake footage to stir up patriotic fervor. Most of the film is played for laughs, poking at the egotistical similarities between Conrad’s political hackery and Stanley’s visual puffery. But the film takes a dark turn in its final act and survives the tonal shift, illustrating just how far the government will go to protect its own image.
https://www.google.com/search?q=WAG+THE+DOG
(1997, DIRECTED BY BARRY LEVINSON)
Perhaps the only out-and-out comedy on this list, Wag the Dog is an eerily prescient satire of media manipulation that feels only more plausible as the years pass. Hired to distract the media from an oncoming sex scandal involving the president, spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro) hires Hollywood producer Stanley Motss (Dustin Hoffman) to concoct a phony war with Albania, flooding the television airwaves with fake footage to stir up patriotic fervor. Most of the film is played for laughs, poking at the egotistical similarities between Conrad’s political hackery and Stanley’s visual puffery. But the film takes a dark turn in its final act and survives the tonal shift, illustrating just how far the government will go to protect its own image.
https://www.google.com/search?q=WAG+THE+DOG
Re: 13 Movies About Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Government
THE X-FILES
(1998, DIRECTED BY ROB BOWMAN)
No discussion of governmental thrillers is complete without mention of The X-Files, the masterful ’90s television series that mixed up every prominent conspiracy theory of the previous four decades and turned it into a compelling weekly drama. Alien abductions, presidential assassinations, Nazi collaboration, planet-wide surveillance—it’s all present, and all being investigated by the dogged FBI Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), though they’re usually thwarted by shadowy figures at the highest levels of power. Bowman’s film version fits into the show’s serialized chronology, but it’s also a terrific standalone thriller, giving Mulder and Scully’s adventures a blockbuster sheen that’s still suffused with the same trust-no-one atmosphere of the series.
https://www.google.com/search?q=THE+X-FILES
(1998, DIRECTED BY ROB BOWMAN)
No discussion of governmental thrillers is complete without mention of The X-Files, the masterful ’90s television series that mixed up every prominent conspiracy theory of the previous four decades and turned it into a compelling weekly drama. Alien abductions, presidential assassinations, Nazi collaboration, planet-wide surveillance—it’s all present, and all being investigated by the dogged FBI Agents Mulder (David Duchovny) and Scully (Gillian Anderson), though they’re usually thwarted by shadowy figures at the highest levels of power. Bowman’s film version fits into the show’s serialized chronology, but it’s also a terrific standalone thriller, giving Mulder and Scully’s adventures a blockbuster sheen that’s still suffused with the same trust-no-one atmosphere of the series.
https://www.google.com/search?q=THE+X-FILES
Re: 13 Movies About Why You Shouldn’t Trust the Government
ENEMY OF THE STATE
(1998, DIRECTED BY TONY SCOTT)
It’s fitting that Enemy of the State pairs Will Smith, one of the definitive stars of ’90s Hollywood, with Gene Hackman, who had headlined multiple conspiracy thrillers of decades past. The movie has a familiar plotline—a government assassination of a political candidate is captured by surveillance, leading to a murderous cover-up that puts do-gooder lawyer Robert Clayton Dean (Smith) in the crosshairs, with government dissident Edward Lyle (Hackman) working to help him. But Scott renders that tale into an ear-splitting action extravaganza, filled with gun battles, lens flares, and the hyperactive visuals that defined him as a director. The essential seed of mistrust is still there, but it’s translated into something that can play on every screen in the country for a huge opening weekend.
https://www.google.com/search?q=THE+X-FILES
(1998, DIRECTED BY TONY SCOTT)
It’s fitting that Enemy of the State pairs Will Smith, one of the definitive stars of ’90s Hollywood, with Gene Hackman, who had headlined multiple conspiracy thrillers of decades past. The movie has a familiar plotline—a government assassination of a political candidate is captured by surveillance, leading to a murderous cover-up that puts do-gooder lawyer Robert Clayton Dean (Smith) in the crosshairs, with government dissident Edward Lyle (Hackman) working to help him. But Scott renders that tale into an ear-splitting action extravaganza, filled with gun battles, lens flares, and the hyperactive visuals that defined him as a director. The essential seed of mistrust is still there, but it’s translated into something that can play on every screen in the country for a huge opening weekend.
https://www.google.com/search?q=THE+X-FILES