HIST390 - Historical Problems Through Film: Conspiracy and Paranoia in the

1970s
Professor Dr. Kyle Riismandel
Spring 2015
Final Exam Questions 1&3.
Due: May 14th
Jose Gonzalez Coronel

Question 1
For question number one I will be constructing an argument
around and about the two last films watched this semester Black Sunday &
Hearts and Minds exemplifying the paranoid style at work as stated by
Richard Hofstadter. These two films are perfect characterization of another
quote that comes to mind when touching upon this topic: The end justifies
the means. Richard Hofstadter writes: the distinguishing thing about the
paranoid style is not that its exponents see conspiracies or plots here and there in history, but that
they regard a vast or gigantic conspiracy as the motive force in historical events. (They
believe) History is a conspiracy set in motion by demonic forces of almost transcendent power,
and what is felt to be needed to defeat it is not the usual methods of political give-and-take, but an
all-out crusade. This is a great concept to understand while watching the Black Sunday film of
1977 and thinking back to what conspiracy is and what the characters of the movie think it to be.
In my point of view the characters from Black Sunday, especially one of the antagonists of the
film Michael Lander, fits perfectly into what the definition of Richard Hofstadter of paranoid style

is. Michael Lander feels the need to be remembered by people or just anyone by any means
necessary, after being a prisoner of the Vietnam war and having a bitter court martial and failed
marriage on his return he feels everything has been a big conspiracy against him and the methods
he will proceed to use are a truly Hollywood all-out crusade. Lander says in one part of the film
the following: I was gonna give my wife and the kids something to remember me by, I was
gonna give the guy that took the picture something to remember me by, I was just gonna give me
this whole son of a bitching country something to remember me by, if they can do it to me, why
shouldn't I be able to do it to them He feels that he should be able to take revenge against a
country and the people in it who didn't care for him and under appreciate what he went through,
so he decided to attempt suicide and take as many lives as he can from a blimp full of explosives,
led by the manipulations of a terrorist woman named Dahlia. There seemed to be no limits and/or
morals as to what these two characters would do to get what they deemed was the right to do, is
with people like this that paranoid style described above works best. Dahlia had her agenda full of
conspiracies of her own, which she would also do everything in her power to see through,
reaching the same or even worse paranoid style as the one seen in Lender, same one Hofstadter
speaks of in his quote.
The documentary-like film, Hearts and Minds 1974, also demonstrates Richard
Hofstadters theory and illustrates specific examples to validate what he considers it to be the
definition of those who exemplify the paranoid style believe history works in this way, and that in
their eyes history is one large conspiracy. The involvement of the Americans in the Vietnam War
is investigated in this film. And a conspiracy of the Americans reasoning to entering the Vietnam
War is projected by the filmmakers to be unlawful and unjustified. The documentary-film focuses
on the people who were against the war and the involvement of the Americans. The filmmaker,

Peter Davis, interviews people involved in the Vietnam War, including the Vietnamese citizens as
well as the Americans stationed there. Peter Davis had to take extreme actions to get live footage
of the war and interviews of people convoluted in the war to demonstrate and try to put a stop this
in what he believes is a conspiracy called history.
Father Chan Tin Saigon is one of the Vietnamese individuals interviewed by Peter Davis.
In this interview, Father Chan Tin Saigon states, we fought against the French for 100 years, and
finally when the war was lost by the French in 1954, the Vietnamese were liberated from foreign
impression, but it was at that precise moment when Americans came to Vietnam. The Americans
were not given a real reason to attack the Vietnamese, but to help the French. As quoted right at
the start of the film, by 1954 the United States was paying for 78% of the French war in
Indochina. Father Chan Tin Saigon continues to say, An invasion of the American army, 500
thousand of them in Vietnam, people of North and South Vietnam fight only for freedom,
independence, and unity. Peter Davis indicates that the Vietnamese people are innocent and
being killed and poisoned by the Americans, who had no real reason to start a war with them. The
conspiracy of the Americans entering the Vietnam War is unjustified as exhibited by these
interviews.
Peter Davis continues to proof his point by showing how the American veterans did not
care about the reasons as to why they are entering a war. The veterans only cared about their job
as a veteran, which is to kill the enemies. One veteran that is interviewed in the film says, And it
felt good and I wanted moreand it wasnt that I wanted more because of politics or whatever, I
couldnt have cared if they were whatever, I just wanted them because they were the opposition.
The Vietnamese people are suffering from the Americans just to fight for their independence and
unification from the Americans. With the numerous clips that Peter Davis brought to the screen in

the Hearts and Minds film, he tried to capture and unveiled what he believed to be a big
conspiracy from the American side. He took his job to another level and it didnt matter what he
would go through either in Vietnam interviewing the citizens there or the veterans back in
American soil, he was determined to prove the conspiracy around the history of the AmericanVietnamese war bringing him closer to what Hofstadter considers as a paranoid style.
These two films discussed briefly in this paper have what I
believe to be the paranoid style but in different manners, given that Black
Sunday is a Hollywood made scenario of a what if? Situation where the
characters explicitly display the paranoid style inside the film as for in the
Hearts and Minds film is the own feelings of the filmmaker who lets us
interpret his paranoid style as a documentary-film brought to the screen.

Question 3
In this paper I will contrast and compare two films that stood out to me in the
course of the semester, not only because of the quality of the movie and the
fast pace scenes in which these two movies were carried out but mainly
because of their pure historical content. One of them that was filmed around
on-going already facts being shown to the public through the media at the
time, and the other film that was actually released only twelve days before an
actual similar real event would transpire in the United States. These two
movies fell into the category of thrillers at the box office but in this paper
they will be treated as historical events.
The films described briefly above are of course All the Presidents men
(1976) and The China Syndrome (1979). These two films share an unmissable
theme, media reporters of the time (1970s) trying to unveil something bigger
than them. These reporters of the truth, while doing a routine story at the
beginning of their respective films stumble upon something larger than what
they original thought it was and they decide to embark in their stories which
turn out to be large conspiracies against the people of the nation, which in
turn affect us as the viewers, knowing it is us, the public of this nation. It is in
this way that the filmmakers make us relate to their story and make us root
for the reporters. When our heroes try to go toe to toe against the giant

institutions in that cinematic world, it gives the audience the sense of

realization of the humongous task the protagonists of these films have ahead
of them.
Even though throughout in All the Presidents men film, the audience is
aware of what the ending looks like, writers of this film did not focus on the
who did it part of the story rather as to how they did it, which is what keeps
the audience hooked. As for The China Syndrome film their ending is a more
cinematic based one, though with a feasible outcome and in within the range
of possibilities when an individual or a group of individuals decide to take on a
powerful Institution.
All the Presidents Men undermined the credibility of the government as
a whole and the corruption behind it, from the (CREEP) committee all the way
to the President of the United States at the time. The large conspiracy behind
the infamous Watergate acts as the centerpiece of this film. As the journalists
revealed more and more of what soon would be Nixons demise, the audience
gets fed all the dark clues and irregularities behind the chain of reaction that
eventually brought down Mr. Presidents administration.
The mix of paranoia and conspiracy plays a big role to cast doubt on the
integrity of any institution and this was the case in the 1970s American
institution led by Richard Nixon. Filmmakers created an atmosphere of
paranoia in All the Presidents men and used different film techniques to do
so, some of which are explained in the next paragraph. The tone of this film is
an obscure one, building up on suspend and surrounding it by fear, the latter

being a main component of paranoia. Also in the film thanks to versatile

camera techniques, show how large this unveiling of news was for the two
journalists. In scenes like the overhead shots displayed when they would
leave the garage and the streets of Washington DC would seem to grow
immensely and our heroes would get lost in all the crowd or when they
appear in the library scene researching through old records and all we are left
seeing is numerous circular desks in the library from above, where they would
also vanished in such a crowded sea full of people and information, making
the audience understand how great of a task they were facing. The paranoia
shown by each character involved in the conspiracy of the film surrounding
everyone that the reporters came in contact with is well detailed by the
filmmakers, showing the faces of fear as if the information revealed were to
see the light of the sun, their lives would be in danger. The audience is left
with these interpretations but nothing is really shown in the film as to who
would take actions against them or whats the actual risk that they were
facing was. Furthermore in the scenes were Deep Throat would reveal
information to them were always in the shadows of a parking lot giving the
sense of fear these paranoid characters were submerged in. As for the film
The China Syndrome a catastrophe can be avoided by stating the true facts of
a first incident that couldve put lots of lives in danger but the abuse of power
of the owners of this American institution decide against it and use cover ups
in order to keep their money maker plant running. This 1979s film shows us
how the reporter of the story teams up with the supervisor from the power

plant who shows a great level of morality and cares for the lives of people
from his town when he and reporter Kimberly discovers a conspiracy in the
making and stands up to the evil corporate owners. The way paranoia is
presented to us in this film is one where the audience is supposed to feel the
same fear our heroes, in this case the reporter and the plant supervisor,
feel from a power plant in bad conditions at the border of a meltdown and
owners of an institution that would go to any extent possible to keep their
money coming in into their pockets at any cost. Lying to the media and
therefore the American people, giving out deceitful accusations against one of
their own workers, calling the supervisor insane and a drunk and even killing
to get what they want is what the filmmakers decided to portrayed in the film
sharing the paranoia experienced in the screen out to spectators real life.
All of those feelings caused by the filmmakers in the films left inside
the publics minds are responsible for the undermined integrity of the
American institutions pictured in 1970s films.
Conspiracy and institutions in the 1970s portrayed in films have a clear
pattern that filmmakers want to expose to its audience: every big institution
has its dark secrets, they are all evil and they do not play by the rules, is just
a matter of the right type of adventurous people to dig in and find these
secrets. Not all American institutions are portrayed as bad in the 1970s films
however, The Newspaper is presented as a source of credible news like for
example when even though the editor of

The Washington Post (All the

Presidents Men) wants to get the big conspiracy news out and wants to

support his two journalists with the story, he cant allow himself to do that to
the American people. The editor of the newspaper needs more proof, he
needs people on the record to corroborate that the story being unraveled has
a truth factor in it.