Yes! Are you looking for conspiracy thrillers or espionage thrillers or both?
Definitely start off with "Three Days of the Condor" with Robert Redford and the BBC series "TInker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" with Alec Guinness. These are 1970's features, but excellent, and in the case of Condor, was a big influence on Rubicon. "Parallax View" is good as well. I would also recommend "The Company", a mini-series starring Michael Keaton, Chris O'Donnell, and Alfred Molina about the early years of CIA and there relations with foreign intelligence services at the time (MI6, Mossad, etc.).
From the looks of your own suggestions, it seems like you're looking for more recent movies, which titles escape me at the moment. There were so many good ones made during the Cold War, I could list off tons from those decades. Though, all those you've listed are definitely great. The upcoming remake of "Tinker, Tailor" with Gary Oldman and Colin Firth looks incredible, too.
Check out the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aco15ScXCwA
Books by John Le Carre and Graham Greene have been adapted for the screen quite a lot over the years and, in the case of Greene, dealt with ordinary men who get trapped in dangerous spy conspiracies. "Our Man in Havana" was made into a film back in the 50's, and as much as I like Alec Guinness, I thought the book was much better. Le Carre's earlier books gave more of an authentic look into the lives of people involved in intelligence tradecraft. They are very flawed, broken people, due largely to the nature of their work. You see that spies are humans after all. Great stuff.
Lastly, I loved Rubicon. Shame about it getting cancelled, but hope these suggestions tide you over.
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Burklayton
13 years ago
Both, and I'm open to films and such that are purely drama but with an espionage backdrop as well.
I've seen TDotC. I liked it quite a bit and it was quite original in some respects. I do think it has dated a bit; not so much in cinematography and the like, as I love classic film and am unbothered by such things. However I think the sentiments of paranoia it conveys are a bit simple and it has some of the faults inevitable of a 70s film in the thriller genre (some action required, even if it doesn't really fit).
Despite that, I still quite like the film. Its Rubicon influence drips off, certainly, and it vehemently disobeys the laws of Stupid Movie Characters. I was quite impressed with Redford wrapping his arms around his hostage when he needed to sleep, and soon added it to my repertoire in case I should need to become a fugitive!
Haven't seen [either] Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. I shall add them to the ol' list. The upcoming one definitely gives me a Rubicon vibe. I'm also obtaining "The Company" as we speak.
Recent movies being what I've listed is more coincidental. Syriana and Constant Gardner are simply what came to mind when I think Rubicon in movie form. Though I will say that modern films can have numerous advantages to older films. Cinematography is on a whole other level of artistic control now, and you can really delve into it to create the specific types of emotions (such as paranoia) you want to pull out of the audience. Rubicon, for all its 70s genre influence, was also very modern in the best of ways. It's a shame most modern film is such schlock, it's a waste of potential.
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