Films the Conversation and the Parallax view and its influence on the Essay

Films the Conversation and the Parallax view and its influence on the audience - Essay Example 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... 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. 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 â€Å"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.