Best political thriller

This is a genre I love, when it's done right. What are some of the best of this category?

 

70s stuff like Parallax View, All The President's Men, Condor, etc is fucking brilliant... Marathon Man could fit the genre too

 

Marathon Man is a very good film, but it's a bit lower quality than Parallax View, President's Men, and Condor.

Does Dr. Strangelove count as a political thriller? Or should it be considered a political satire?

 

I think marathon man is as good as any of those

I'd call Strangelove a political dark comedy

 

I´d say those three are the Top-Three...

 

I liked In the Line of Fire and Absolute Power. Do those count?

 

Yes, they both count. But only one of them is good.. In the Line of Fire is a classic.

Absolute Power is shit.

 

IMO none of the Hollywood films had the balls to tackle this genre like other countries. Costa Gavras Z was powerful even with a shoestring budget. State of Siege was great too and deserved more exposition. Argentina's The Official Story was gripping with one shocking ending. Romero contains a magnificent performance by Raul Julia.

Say whatever you want now, but when Oliver Stone released JFK people were talking about conspiracy theories for months. Maybe the most talked about political thriller ever. The original The Manchuarian Candidate is a gem. The original All the King's Men remain's relevant even more so today than at its time. Salvador is another forgotten gem.

 

Good Call....

Eastwood and Malkovich Made for GREAT Adversaries....




REED

 

Indeed. It's a great movie.

 

Does "A Few Good Men" count?

 

Yes. It's like a political courtroom thriller.

 

Philadelphia- Gay man with AIDS hires social justice crusader Denzel to fight the establishment against all odds to turn down the barriers of prejudice and discrimination!

 

The lives of others
Dr strangelove
Network
All the presidents men
Serpico

Also enjoyed goodnight and goodluck, the ides of march, Nixon, the insider, Syriana, thirteen days, Michael Clayton, wag the dog, the death of Stalin, the big short and z, tho not on the level of the above. Not sure how political in the line of fire is tbh? Good film tho

 

I don't think I'd categorize Network as a political thriller.

It's a satire about the greed and corruption of TV corporations... not the government per say.

Which is not to say that the government doesn't have a heavy influence about what's shown on TV... but that wasn't the focus of Network.

No matter what you categorize Network as though, it's a fucking fantastic movie.

 

Doesn't get much more political than the direct influence of commercial interests on political discussion in the media. Or the trivialising effect on it of tv itself as a medium for that matter

Otoh I don't really get what's political about in the line of fire, tbh...it just happens to have some loon who wants to shoot the president instead of john Lennon

 

oo

 

Not sure how half of these are "thrillers"... Schindler's List? Network? These are dramas, not thrillers...

A thriller, to me has to have as its main ingredient suspense and an element of the proverbial clock ticking combined with powerful antagonists closing in on the protagonist... Parallax View and Condor have that as does ATPM (though in the less conventional setting of reporters as opposed to the guy-up-against-it desperation of the former films)

These other ones being named are just dramas about politics or a potentially political topic

 

Yeah, I ignored the thriller part tbh.

 

Three days of the condor?

 

Yup

Ever see it? Exceedingly watchable

 

It's ok

We'll rebuild

 

It's thriller time

 

Does The Conversation count as ´political´ thriller?

 

It definitely crossed my mind when I made this thread.

I would say it's a borderline political thriller.... it's also a borderline noir thriller.

The Conversation is one of those classics that has no concrete categorization.

 

There's zero politics in The Conversation and before faggot Mustard tries some daft interjection, Coppola has always said people who read some Watergate message into it are fucking fools

 

Blow Out, with John Travolta, is more political than The Conversation.

Actually, that's a full blown political thriller. And a pretty damn good one.

 

So, who contacted/setup Hackman´s character for doing ths surveillence?
Some punks who have a get-together down the local bar, ya fuckin yokel!?