Top ten conspiracy theory thrillers of the 1970s

The conspiracy theory has flourished in an age of Covid-19, Trump and fake news, but though the concept has existed for as long as politics and power have, it’s usually American. The phrase was coined in the United States in the early 20th century, actually to describe 19th century American politics. It gained its paranoid popularity through the 20th century with the Cold War, McCarthyism, the Kennedy assassination and Watergate, but it’s not necessarily just political – UFOs and the fake Moon landing are two of the most popular and enduring conspiracy theories. Even the phrase conspiracy theory has a conspiracy theory.

Conspiracy theories usually come at a time of change or upheaval and fear of the “other” (Russians, Muslims, feminists, aliens, Satan-worshipping Democrats, etc). It helps that the theories are never proveable. It helps that Americans are paranoid and mistrust just about everyone, from scientists to historians but especially their government (in other countries, perhaps, citizens view their governments as being elected by them and working to serve them).

Mistrust of government was a theme behind two classic 1960s conspiracy thrillers, both directed by John Frankenheimer: The Manchurian Candidate in 1962 and Seven Days in May (1964) are paranoid thrillers set during the Cold War. By the end of the decade there was the excellent political assassination thriller, Z (1969), but Rosemary’s Baby (1968) took the paranoia away from the overtly political and into the personal: marriage, sex, family, work and religious belief; nothing was at it seemed; no one could be trusted, even in the presumed safety of the home.

But there was something about the disillusion of the 1970s, what with Altamont ushering in the new decade, followed by the deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison, the Vietnam War dragging on, economic downturn and, of course, Watergate, that inspired a certain kind of cynicism. Luckily this meant the music and the movies were good.

What characterisizes 1970s conspiracy thrillers is a good looking male lead actor (Robert Redford, Warren Beatty, Jeff Bridges, Michael Douglas, Dustin Hoffman) – or am I being paranoid, seeing patterns where there’s just coincidence? In fact, Redford and Hoffman would each appear in two conspiracy films in the 1970s – together in All The President’s Men, then Redford in Three Days of the Condor and Hoffman in The Marathon Man (and Jeff Bridges in the equally conspiratorial Winter Kills, Cutter’s Way and Arlington Road).

Suddenly it seemed like every other Hollywood film in the 1970s had a conspiracy theory up its sleeve, whether it was science fiction or thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Chinatown, The Stepford Wives, Network, The China Syndrome, Logan’s Run, Serpico, Night Moves and Seconds (Frankenheimer again) are all steeped in fear, lies and paranoia. John F. Hinckley Jr became obsessed with the film Taxi Driver (1976) before his attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan in 1981.

In the 1980s conspiracy theory films remained dormant after the fine Cutter’s Way and Blow Up (both 1981), aside from occasional gems such as Altman’s Secret Honour (1984), Carpenter’s They Live (1988) and, of course, Oliver Stone’s JFK in 1991. They appear again in the mid-1990s with Stone’s Nixon (1995), then there was a run of them: Eastwood’s Absolute Power (1997), Wag the Dog (1997), Enemy of the State (1998, featuring Gene Hackman in a sort of loose sequel to The Conversation), The X-Files (1998), Arlington Road (1999) and, well, Conspiracy Theory (1997) with Mel Gibson as a paranoid Catcher in the Rye-carrying taxi driver. In 1999, The Matrix was the film for the end of the century, all of us living one big lie.

10. Marathon Man (1976)

“I’ve just come for my six-month check up.”

9. Klute (1971)

The first of three here directed by Alan J Pakula, this one has Jane Fonda as a high class call girl who assists private eye Donald Sutherland. Fonda won an Oscar for her performance.

8. Winter Kills (1979)

Wacky black comedy with Jeff Bridges playing the brother of a murdered US President searching for his killer. Featuring a great cast including John Huston and Elizabeth Taylor.

7. Soylent Green (1973)

Eco-dystopian disaster movie sees the planet facing overpopulation and food shortages. Wonder food solution Soylent Green may not be all that it seems. Set in, yikes, 2022. Charlton Heston and Edward G Robinson, in his last film, star.

6. Capricorn One (1977)

Faking the Mars landing. Kojak, Karen Black and Elliott Gould (pretty much reprising his Philip Marlowe role from The Long Goodbye) lighten the mood with a lot of wisecracks.

5. Coma (1978)

Patients dying in a hospital? Never! Enthralling thriller written and directed by Michael Crichton and starring feisty Geneviève Bujold uncovering the conspiracy, alongside Michael Douglas, Richard Widmark and Rip Torn.

4. The Conversation (1974)

Coppola’s classic stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who records a conversation which might reveal a murder.

3. The Parallax View (1974)

Witnesses to the murder of a Presidential candidate keep disappearing, and Warren Beatty investigates to reveal a mysterious company, The Parallax Corporation. Second of Pakula’s Paranoid Trilogy.

2. Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Nerdy codebreaker Robert Redford comes back to the office after buying coffees to find all his colleagues dead. Director Sydney Lumet’s third and best film with Redford.

1. All the President’s Men (1976)

Redford and Hoffman as Washington Post journalists Woodward and Bernstein exposing the Watergate scandal. Totally gripping, and mostly true.