4. Seven Days In May
John Frankenheimers 1964 paranoia cinematic chess-game is one of the best films of its decade and, in some cases, a forgotten American classic. Populated with wall-to-wall great performances, led by Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, the film is set at the height of the cold war, where a weakened President and a popular four-star general face off in a battle for control of the US government. President Jordan Lyman (Fredric March) has successfully negotiated an arms treaty with the Soviet Union, but this is an act of cowardice in the eyes of General James Mattoon Scott (Burt Lancaster), the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. When one of Scotts men, Colonel Jiggs Casey (Kirk Douglas) discovers that senior military officers are plotting a coup to overthrow the president, he faces a race against time to form a group of reliable and loyal officials and get the evidence to President Lyman in time to stop Scott and the force he is building around himself. Inoffensively but pointlessly remade in 1994 as The Enemy Within, starring Forrest Whitaker and Jason Robards, Seven Days In May stands as one of the true greats in the conspiracy thriller genre.
Gareth Howie
Contributor
I'm a part-time writer, part-time stand-up comedian, full time movie geek who strongly believes Martin Brest's MIDNIGHT RUN is one of the greatest, if not THE greatest, movie ever made!
(... This is the bit where you mutter "You must be some sort of friggin' comedian if you think Midnight Run is the greatest movie ever made!")
I'm a massive junkie for 'revenge' and 'conspiracy' movies and I'm an even bigger fan of all things John Carpenter, Albert Brooks, Coen Brothers, Sidney Lumet, Paul Thomas Anderson, Tony Scott, Christopher Nolan, Michael Mann, Oliver Stone, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante, David Fincher, Wes Anderson and Shane Meadows.
I'm on Twitter at @gazzhowie if you'd like to validate my existence by following me - and my movie review archive can be found at www.gazzhowie.tumblr.com!
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Gareth