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#Best Political Thrillers, Ranked

“Best Political Thrillers, Ranked”

Political thrillers are a maxim of the thriller genre. These films find ways to navigate a country’s power apparatus in corrupt forces of power, governing bodies, and political parties mixed with dirty money or conglomerates seizing on the free-wheeling nature of a capitalist structure. Political thrillers offer insight and are plagued by a weight of paranoia that questions the free will of an individual. Many of these films made headway in Hollywood in the 1970s when a changing of the guard was happening. Yet, more often than not, these films are also hugely entertaining popcorn flicks that indulge a filmmaker’s eye for aesthetics. A gifted director can funnel commentary into shots and compositions creating a sense of artful pop cinema. These are the ten best political thrillers.


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9 Joint Security Area

Given the stranglehold the Korean government had on the film industry from the early-70s to the late-90s, when artists were finally free from those shackles, it unleashed a bevy of filmmakers creating work that critiqued the social class system and corrupt government mishandling. Park Chan-wook is one of the more visually stylistic directors to emerge from this new wave. Park’s third feature film helped cement his name as a director to watch. Joint Security Area taps into the turmoil and distrust that has lasted generations as North and South Koreans are forced to convene over a political issue. Park expertly balances the conflict between the two nations, but also the little bits of humanity as people who feud come — for a short while — to understand one another.

Related: Best South Korean Movies of the 2010s, Ranked

8 The Hunt For Red October

John McTiernan (Die Hard, Predator) has a knack for crafting tightly-paced action sequences while keeping the tension throughout each scene and story beat. The Hunt For Red October is often confined to spaces of a submarine as two Soviet Captains (Sean Connery and Sam Neill) are headed to the U.S. coast in a superior Soviet vessel. The film takes on the undertones of the Cold War as CIA analyst Jack Ryan (Alec Baldwin in the first on-screen depiction of the character) must prove their innocence and that they plan on defecting. McTiernan keeps the conflict afloat as the paranoid energy of the American military looks to attack. Also creating a colorful space with beautiful photography from cinematographer Jan De Bont (Speed) as the confined space of the submarine never loses its edge.

7 Munich

The wounded souls of an attack on their home, but also the after-effects of living a life in the shadows as an attempt at revenge shatters the psyche, Munich is one of the darkest films Steven Spielberg ever made. Based on the efforts of a group of Mossad agents tasked with finding the members of a Palestinian terror group who executed eleven Israeli athletes during the 1972 Summer Olympics, as outlined by Slate, Munich takes on the futility of revenge. Starring Eric Bana in one of his finest performances, Spielberg takes us on a journey from set piece to set piece, spanning years of work and assassinations, as we trace the toll of carrying out murder for unknown sources. The group of agents gets lost in who they’re carrying out these tasks for and why the paranoia starts to eat the team collectively. Even in the dark, state-sanctioned violence, Spielberg’s expertise in crafting set-pieces is unmatched.

6 The Conversation

With a quietly subdued, paranoid performance from the great Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, a surveillance expert that believes he is caught in the middle of a government conspiracy, The Conversation detours from a thriller into a depressing character study that seemingly manifests in the middle of The Watergate scandal, as Caul is terrified of what’s to come to a young couple he’s been tailing. A reflection of the times that are reminiscent of other taut conspiracy thrillers of the 70s, but also one that has aged with unfortunate beauty because of mass government distrust. Coppola executed a low-key film with profundity.

5 Z

A cornerstone of the political thriller genre and a film that helped change the direction these films would take, especially given the evolution of the genre in the 1970s, Z is a fascinating investigation of the corrupt police forces and how they work with the governing body in Greece. When a prominent political activist mysteriously dies during a protest that wants to hold the prominent political party accountable for their actions, a homicide detective becomes suspicious in investigating his death. The director Costa-Gavras creates an atmosphere of hostility with an eye for crafting a great crime procedural, but also abrasive set-pieces and chases that have aged with grace. Z would win the Best Foreign Language film at the Academy Awards.

4 All The President’s Men

Directed by 1970s paranoid-conspiracy auteur Alan Pakula and the lens of legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis, the two created a sophisticated visual language to enamor and complement the material already rife with institutional suspicion. Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman play the two journalists who become entangled in one of the biggest corruption scandals in political history. The pair slowly realize the immensity of the Watergate Hotel robbery as it pertains to President Richard Nixon and his corruptible cabinet as they’ve engaged in highly illegal activity. They gain information from the mysterious “Deep Throat” and uncover what it means for the country. All The President’s Men is an exhilarating piece of procedural, but also highlights how important the work of journalists is and the dread that comes with the feeling of being watched.

Related: The Best Movies About American Presidents, Ranked

3 The Manchurian Candidate

The Manchurian Candidate marked the arrival of John Frankenheimer, whose successive run in the 1960s marked a director whose heightened visual style and control of story within set-pieces would show a director whose flourishes would age wonderfully. His political thriller starring Frank Sinatra in what should be considered his greatest performance is about the frenzy of a deep state and the political mistrust that grew in the era of John F. Kennedy. Playing a soldier touted as a war hero but brainwashed when held prisoner without remembering, Sinatra must come to consciousness before it’s too late.

2 Blow Out

Brian De Palma’s masterpiece Blow Out, as an amalgamation of genres that would create a tone and style unique to itself, is the director at the height of his powers. Most importantly, it’s the political subtext that makes De Palma’s film so invigorating. The director took inspiration from the Kennedy assassinations, Watergate, Hollywood satire, and Hitchcock to craft his story around an audio engineer who gets in over his head. John Travolta is great, as he uses his technical prowess of audio equipment to delve deep into the mystery of the murder he witnessed, and De Palma’s commentary on how governments commit big crimes to cover up their small ones is perfect.

1 JFK

JFK is Oliver Stone at the peak of his hallucinatory, paranoid, fever dream powers. Crafting a masterpiece of aesthetic, storytelling, entertainment, and editing with his strongest, most reliable collaborator, cinematographer Robert Richardson, JFK is a three-hour ride packed densely with character and twisty plot corridors. Also backed by a searing score from maestro John Williams, Oliver Stone gave Americans a reason to rethink what had been told to them about the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Looming large over the American psyche, Stone’s opus to questioning America’s power institutions was a box office smash and racked up two Oscars along with eight nominations.

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