Films the Conversation and the Parallax view and its influence on the audience - Essay Example

Written and directed Francis Ford Coppola, "the Conversation" is a reflection of underlying sense of distrust and the morality of wiretapping in the early 1970's America. Coppola's film came at a time when America faced growing inflation followed by political volatility in the face of failure of Vietnam War and President Nixon's Watergate scandal which involved lies, deceits and illegal wiretapping. General public were disillusioned about the American Government and a sense of cynicism prevailed. In the midst of such American psyche, the Conversation by Coppola was released and the movie reflected the growing sense of fear psychosis and secrecy in the American society. The film's central character Harry Caul is depicted as a guarded, secretive, paranoid and moralistic character. Caul, an expert surveillance man, who during routine wire tapping job hears snatched of conversation between a couple which led him to believe that the couple might me in danger. When he tried to delve deeper into the crisis surrounding the couple, he soon discovered a world of deception, lies, betrayal, and murder, depicting a society characterised by moral degradation. The twist of tale in the movie is deceptive use of sentimentality. Seemingly innocent people turned out to have sinister motives. Caul who with the help of his sophisticated surveillance systems bugged and gathered information from people became the victim himself and he was bugged and spied on right at his home. Unable to protect his privacy any longer, in whatever way he tried, smashing his entire surveillance system was the only option left for him. The movie depicted that the even the best bugger of the west coast with his total reliance on technology failed to protect himself from bugger. The system of bugging to which most of the Americans during the 70's became more or less familiar after the Watergate scandal, was something which most the people have realised cannot be detected easily. This led to paranoia, particularly in the political circuits in the 70's. However, as is shown in this movie, the unreliability of technology was encountered in the Watergate bugging system as well. The manually operated surveillance bug used in the Watergate scandal, although appeared to be without fault, was the undoing for the Nixon administration. Authority on wiretapping soon after the Watergate Scandal broke out referred to the equipments used to eavesdrop on the Democratic National Committee's headquarters as sloppy and amateurish. Harry Caul is depicted as the microcosm of America at the 70's. He is shown as an anti hero in the sense that he can effortlessly bug anybody at anytime, anywhere. He is dedicated to his work which becomes an obsession, and he doesn't seem to care about fellow humans and their sufferings. He himself is a paranoid and secrecy is his moral. He swears by secrecy in anything remotest connected to him, perhaps it's the realisation in his sub conscious mind that how important a person's secrecy is which he is constantly violating. However, when he overhears a conversation of a couple he was bugging, his conscience prevailed over his sense of professionalism and he got entangled in a web of deceptions and lies. The movie is insightful and penetrating and divulges deep into the fears in everyone's mind, which is lying dormant. The conversation is about paranoia, invasion of privacy, bugging and nagging conscience of people. In the Watergate scandal, the people involved although were aware of the immorality of their act, did not think it to be objectively wrong. Harry initially had no notion about the immorality of his job but finally he had which destroyed him. Though the script was written in the mid 60's, the release of the movie coincided with the Watergate Scandal and the script that finally emerged had in it issues of personal responsibility and encroachment of technology on the privacy of individual. The film is not a response to any one political event, rather it is a generalised commentary on the erosion of privacy and individuality in America. The use of paranoia is the central theme of the movie and how paranoia has invaded the psyche of the average American is depicted through the main character. Through superb technique and special effect, the movie creates an overpowering effect of paranoia. Harry, the bugger, is shown to be so disconnected from his fellow humans that he becomes a misfit to the society. The movie shows corporate malevolence at the highest level, when Harry's boss gives him the task of tailing his wife. Coppola through another scene depicts institutional corruption at highest political level when Harry after witnessing a murder scene outside his apartment turns his view inside to focus on the T.V. screen where President Nixon is discussing the Watergate scandal. A political thriller, the film "The Parallax view" can be termed as a disguised version of the Kennedy assassination. A prominent senator who is making his bid for President from Seattle's Space Needle, is murdered by gunman. A dozen or so witnesses die after the assassination. Joe Frady, reporter in a Seattle based newspaper decides to investigate the senator's assassination after one of his close friend, who is witness to the assassination, and believes it to be part of a larger conspiracy, dies suddenly under mysterious circumstances. Frady picks the thread of investigation and finds the conspiracy leads to Parallax Corporation. The journalist's investigation into the deaths led him to discover a conspiracy of gigantic proportion and it is soon discovered that the Parallax Corporation is the mastermind behind the assassinations and subsequent murders. In order to uncover the identity of the conspirators, he tries to pose as an anti-social personality in order to delve deeper to extract the concrete truth. His selection through rigorous tests made him believe that he's finally reached the heart of the conspiracy. How wrong he could be for he is digging his own grave. The film shows how one is drawn into a plot and led into an assassin's net carefully and is cornered with no alibi. This disquietingly chilling plot is directly associated to the conspiracy theories behind Kennedy's assassination. The movie skilfully captures the political unrest and conspiracy which was so much a part of 1970's political scenario. The film's gloomy unfathomable storyline is similar to the scenes of America in the 1970's. Assassination, conspiracy, scandal at Pentagon, Watergate, had tarnished the image of the government and has done irreparable damage. People have lost trust in their democratically elected government and the benevolent faade of the government was destroyed. Like most of the 1970's films, when conspiracy and corruption at the government level was rampant, the movie does not give any clue, and neither revealed any truth. In the Parallax View, rather than depicting conspiracy as a defeatable enemy, it is shown as lethal power. The Parallax Corporation is shown to have unlimited power. The question about Kennedy's assassination and the Watergate scandal of 1974 are stark realities which proved general publics ignorance about constant threat to democracy and freedom. The scenes behind the Parallax Corporation where Frady undergoes some qualifying tests, reveals how patriotic values can be perverted and manipulated to serve a corrupt system. The Parallax defines modern conspiracy theory. The movie attempts to describe a conspiracy involving shadowy government agencies. In a nation where political assassination has become all too frequent, an anti-social reporter when enters a labyrinth in search of a conspiracy, gets embroiled in the web and gets sucked up. The movie is marked different other contemporary movies in the sense that the nefarious corporation which trains assassins and carry out political murder is depicted not as a fantasy or a figment of one's imagination but as a most probable occurrence. During the making of the film the legacy of Watergate was just forming and The Parallax View expressed it in a clear message. The 70's scenario was such that no American had faith in the government anymore, be it government bulletin or press release. The Pentagon papers has clearly documented that congress had been coerced into Vietnam, with deliberate lies and deception, even though it was all too clear from the beginning that what America was doing in Vietnam was terribly wrong. The JFK assassination theory was stronger than ever. The killings of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were quickly resolved as the work of independent assassins. But the American citizens were never convinced about the assassination story and suspected bigger conspiracy behind the murders and felt that the assassin had been protected. In this movie, Frady speaks for the average American and delves deeper into the conspiracy. In the Parallax View, the audition film within the Parallax Corporation to test the potential assassin is a classic example of emotional intimidation through which the receptive viewers moves through confusion and a desire to conform and accept the premise of the film. In the 70's America, one can encounter political propaganda, verbal attack and counter attack by various political parties. The sole aim of these parties is to lure the voters with lies and deception. As the parties are able to garner support and enrich their vote banks through deception, in a similar way the Parallax Corporation is shown to become an all powerful entity with technological superiority, political connection and whose deceptions are shielded by an all powerful system. Anybody desirous of finding the truth, like Frady gets trapped and annihilated. To conclude, both the movies released in the 70's are influenced by the happening in America during that time period. While intrusion of privacy, wiretapping, lies, deceits at the highest level, fear psychosis in mind of the American public, were depicted in the Coppola movie "the Conversation" through the surveillance expert Harry, the Parallax View based on conspiracy theory drew its storyline from assassinations of J.F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Since both the movies drew their inspiration from real life situation, every image seen in the movies have the potential of affecting the audience greatly. Presenting the most dangerous and volatile political issues of the 1970's in a lucid pattern, both the movies have earned critical acclaim. Read More