Showing posts with label Conspiracy Films. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conspiracy Films. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

The 1974 Conspiracy Classic, "The Parallax View"


Check out this recent episode of Cineverse where we discuss the seminal 1970s conspiracy thriller, director Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View, starring Warren Beatty. 

This is a film I discuss extensively in my book, CONSPIRACY FILMS: A TOUR OF DARK PLACES IN THE AMERICAN CONSCIOUS and it’s one of the films regularly screened in my class on the history of conspiracy theories and conspiracy films. As I argue in my book, The Parallax View is one of a small handful it films from the late 1960s and early 70s that established the conspiracy theory film as a distinct genre with its uniques set of archetypes that set it apart from other thrillers, mysteries, and action films. 

 

The narrative follows Joseph Frady, an intrepid reporter (Beatty), as he embarks on an investigation into a series of enigmatic deaths associated with the clandestine Parallax Corporation. Frady's pursuit unveils a perilous network of political intrigue and secrecy.The Parallax View delves into government corruption, assassination, and the manipulation of public perception. The film benefits from the stylish guidance of Pakula, who adeptly weaves a web of tension and paranoia throughout the story. The cinematography, editing, and skillful use of visual symbolism further contribute to its lasting impact. 

 

As all successful films hold a mirror to their times, reflect the most unsettling freefolating anxieties of the culture that created them, The Parallax View shows us how the JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King assassinations, followed by the Pentagon Papers and Watergate scandals, birthed an era of suspicion and conspiracy theories. Speculations about conspiracies that have been proven nonexistent beyond a shadow of a doubt (JFK, RFK, MLK) and very real instances of corruption and conspiracy (Pentagon Papers, Watergate) birthed an era of justified and healthy suspicion and skepticism in officialdom, institutions of power, and the elites. But, as we see today, the reach of conspiracism is ongoing and often toxic and destructive to a society. Check out The Parallax View and ponder how we can spot that line between healthy suspicion and the poisonous fantasy worlds of Pizzagate and QAnon.

Friday, December 7, 2018

The California fires: It was aliens!!


Not to say "I told you so," but...I told you so. In the preface to my book, Conspiracy Films: A Tour of Dark Places in the American Conscious," I predicted that no matter what major world event - especially something bad - hits the headlines, within hours the Internet would be flooded with conspiracy theories about how the real cause of the event is some evil, sinister plot by a hidden cabal of super villains. The mainstream media, of course, are in on it all and are "keeping everyone asleep."

So the latest calamity we have been watching on the news over the past several weeks, the massive wildfires that swept through California, is now being blamed on a grand conspiracy of the "New World Order," the "globalists," the "internationalists," the Rothschild banking organization, the military, the CIA, and the Illuminati. Check out this Mercury New article about the latest in the conspiracy theorizing about the fires. But for the most cringe-inducing part of the whole article, read the feedback from all the conspiracy believers. Not to give anything away, but the comments make for a very strong argument for why laws for the involuntary hospitalization for mental illness need to be toughened. What scares me more than the idiocy of the conspiracy theories is the fact that the people who wrote the comments after that article are out there walking around on our streets.

Of course, I'm not surprised that the California fires inspired conspiracy theories. I'm surprised, though, by the high absurdity of it all. As the Mercury News article explains, the mainstream of the fire-conspiracy-believers is convinced that the fires were caused by military-controlled laser weapons fired either from space or from aircraft. I, quite foolishly and naively, thought the conspiracy web pages and YouTube videos would be claiming that "mysterious" figures have been running around in the California wilderness setting fires. Conspiracists, though, are proving to be infinitely more creative than I am, apparently. Laser weapons are much cooler and scarier than merely guys sneaking around in the brush and setting fires. Even the rhetoric of the conspiracists is full of high-tech-sounding jargon like "DEW," or "directed energy weapons" and "geoengineering." Could have come out of a real slick technothriller!

Then, according to this article, other subcultures of the fire-conspiracists are certain that space aliens caused the fires. And I'm not kidding either. Check out the article!

Spreading this nonsense, of course, are the usual suspects. Believers in the "Pizzagate" and "false flag" mass shooting conspiracies are on the bandwagon. Alex Jones' Infowars website has numerous videos espousing the theory. Because, you know, Jones is still alive. These sociopathic New World Order conspirators who are willing to launch a ray gun attack on California, murdering dozens of people so far, have not yet figured out how to kill off Jones and keep him from spreading the "truth."

Another scuzzy little web page that has gone all in on the fire conspiracy is the "State of the Nation: Alternative News, Analysis, and Commentary" page. Aside from their very long list of Satanic pizza gate conspiracy links, the fires now have jumped to the top of their agenda.

All of this would be laughable, were it not for the fact that people had lost their lives in these fires. Others had their homes, their livelihoods wiped out. For bottom-feeding lowlife like the people behind "State of the Nation" and Alex Jones, it's another perfect opportunity to profit off the grief of others.

Friday, October 19, 2018

My big reveal!!


So I need to take the opportunity on the public forum to finally reveal my true identity to the world. I am the Antichrist!

Yes! And that is why I took the role of a college professor when I came to Earth. This is the profession that gives me the greatest opportunity to corrupt the most minds. Young, innocent, impressionable minds!

OK, so I’m kidding. But this is actually part of my introduction to the Do It Yourself Conspiracy exercise in my Conspiracy Films class. Through the reverse scientific process, by cherry-picking facts, making spurious connections, anyone can “prove” that just about any event in the world is but a part of a massive conspiracy. Even the most ridiculous of the supernatural, Antichrist and Satanic conspiracy theories can be proven true through the deceptive presentation of actual facts. The exercise is designed to help students develop critical thinking skills and help them understand how unethical communicators can manipulate the into believing the most patently absurd claims. In the age of fake news spreading through the internet and YouTube channels claiming to prove that the Earth is flat and that all entertainers are Satanic Illuminati conspirators plotting to take over the world (completely nuts, isn’t it? The only Satanic Illuminati conspirators around are teaching on college campuses) through the use of chemtrails and tainted vaccines that cause autism, I do believe that this is one of the most important exercises I give any of my classes.

But here is the proof that Barna William Donovan is the Antichrist himself:

The name! “William Donovan” was the founder of the CIA, the organization behind the biggest conspiracies of the late twentieth century. Assassination – from JFK to RFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., John Lennon, Tupac Shakur, Princess Diana, and Michael Jackson – coverups from the Moon landing to the Roswell crash. And 9/11 anyone? Who but the CIA could have pulled that off?

Take a look at my books! Doesn’t all that violent imagery make you wonder? Blood? Guns? Testosterone? “A thirst for violence?” Who but the Antichrist would write such things?

Look at my blog posts arguing that there is no connection between media violence and real world violence? Is that not part of the most vile of Satanic deceptions??

Check out all the positive references to Lucifer, Satanists, and Baphomet. The work of the great deceiver himself!

Then let’s check out the fact that I teach at a Jesuit university. The Jesuits have also been accused of some of the biggest conspiracies in history. Check out this link to Jesuit conspiracies.

And let us not forget that Adam Weishaupt, the founder of the Illuminati, was trained by…wait for it…the Jesuits!!

And how about the location where I teach? Saint Peter’s University is on John F. Kennedy boulevard in Jersey City.  So a link between the CIA, the Jesuits, and JFK? Coincidence, right? Well, I’ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn if you believe that!

And how about the Satanic numerology of Saint Peter’s University’s location. You, I’m sure, are familiar with the oft-proven Satanic symbolism of the number 13. So guess where Saint Peter’s University is located…?

2641, John F. Kennedy boulevard!

And 2641 adds up to…13!!!!

So can any of this really be a coincidence?

Of course it can. This is a simple parlor trick that can be used to prove anything anyone wants to prove. Some of my students have “proven” that they had relatives who took part in the JFK assassination. 

And hopefully they all walked away from the class wiser to the ways of all the deception spreading through the Internet and social media today like a malignant virus.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Looking at conspiracy cinema

This may be a belated start to a new year of blogging, but I am just able to put a new link in to the amazon.com page for my forthcoming book, CONSPIRACY FILMS.

Due this June 30th from McFarland publishers, the book will be one of the most comprehensive histories of conspiracy theory films ever written. Tracing a decade-by-decade chronicle of some of the most pervasive conspiracy theories in modern American culture, the book will then look at the films they helped inspire.

From JFK to Roswell, alien abductions, men in black, secret societies like the Masons and the Illuminati, I document our culture's most colorful fears and the movies they turn up in.