Here are the other two - -
Doctor Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb - - at this point, I was probably already convinced that the biggest threat to world peace came from Washington, not Moscow, but the film, a beautifully-shot B&W thriller with farcical overtones, reinforced all my prejudices with style and humour. Peter Sellers was magnificent in all three of his roles, but particularly as Dr. Strangelove, graphically representing the fusion of old-world Nazi insanity with the demented American militarism of the Cold War. That theme was taken even further in The Music Box, with Jessica Lange, which dealt specifically with the absorption of European Nazi collaborators into the American state security apparatus - - obviously a greater threat than the absorption of merely scientific and technical personnel. It (Strangelove) didn't just promise apocalyptic fantasies, it delivered them, albeit in an overly broad satirical manner, which I think contributed to the audience enjoyment of the experience by considerably lightening the mood of the message. I remember exiting the theatre and remarking at the time on the more or less up-beat nature of the crowd, despite the disturbing theme and discussing the fact that however serious its motif, a film (bottom line) still has to entertain.
And another long-time fave, The Parallax View (Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss and Hume Cronyn,) confirming all my paranoid fantasies of the Secret Government and the pre-determined conclusions of various governmental investigations of political assassinations, such as the Warren Commission. The opening and closing scenes of the film, both featuring almost identical parodic versions of the Warren Commission and its Report, both ring true and are particularly scary in that the final Commission Report (if watched carefully) seems to go even further in the direction of a fascist state than the first one. Some particular gems from the body of the film - - the initial assassination in Seattle; Beatty's retort to the Sheriff's Deputy who is attempting to provoke him into a barroom fist-fight; the psychological test film that The Parallax Corporation shows to its potential (psychopathic) hired assassins; the ominous musical background with the mournful trumpet solos that foretell another assassination or killing; and the last political assassination of the film. A more recent development of the theme of a secret government of totally unaccountable assassins was the Coen Brothers' Burn After Reading, an even darker POV, but leavened with some very funny scenes. (a very funny Brad Pitt, Frances McDornand and George Clooney, hilarious small part played by Tilda Swain as a cold-blooded English bitch, and two guys playing an agency guy and his boss who are realistic and hilarious.)
