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This is next in my series in which I list a group of films that have some relevance to events in the world today. This time, the idea of an overthrow of the government has been in the news of late, so here are ten of my favorite films about coups d’etat.
What are some of yours?
1927 October (Ten Days that Shook the World) – directed by Grigori Aleksandrov and Sergei Eisenstein, it is an exciting, at times almost surrealistic, look at the lead up to the October Revolution.
1933 Duck Soup – Not the most successful of The Marx Brother’s films, but it is the best, this satire of war was directed by Leo McCarey and revolves around the country of Sylvania trying to overthrow the government of Freedonia headed by Rufus T. Firefly, played by who else, but Groucho Marx.
1962 Seven Days in May – With a screenplay by Rod Serling and directed by John Frankenheimer, a Marine Colonel, played by Kirk Douglas, discovers his superior officer, played by Burt Lancaster, plans to lead the military in a takeover of the US.
1962 The Manchurian Candidate – John Frankenheimer again, but with a screenplay by George Axelrod. A group of American soldiers have been brainwashed when captured during the Korean War to help eventually stage a coup of the US.
1969 Burn! – Gillo Pontecorvo’s follow up to The Battle of Algiers follows an agent provocateur, played by Marlon Brando, as he is sent by the sugar industry to overthrow a Portuguese colony in the Caribbean by instigating a slave revolt.
1969 Z – Directed by Costa-Gavras and based on a true story, a liberal, anti-nuclear candidate is assassinated in Greece. But though people try for justice, it ends in a military coup.
1970 Start the Revolution Without Me – A satire of the French revolution and literature thereof. One half of two sets of identical twins end up getting separated at birth; one set grows up aristocratic, one poor. Both get caught up in the intrigue on the eve of the overthrow of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Not a fully successful movie, but Gene Wilder and Donald Sutherland are hysterical playing two parts.
1971 Bananas – Written, directed and starring Woody Allen as a man who is dumped by his activist girlfriend. He decides to win her back by becoming involved in the revolution in a Latin American country.
1980 Dogs of War – A British tycoon wanting the
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Finally, I have published a collection of three of my plays, 3 Plays, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08478DBXF as well as two collections of short stories, The Starving Artists and other stories, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FS91CKJ and The Five Corporations and the One True Church and other stories, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KY5Z3CF.
Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out the second edition of my screenwriting book, More Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader published on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GD1XP9Y
Howard Casner - Rantings and Ravings 