Will former FBI Director James Comey's story be one day be turned into a movie? Here's a look at how Hollywood has portrayed past and fictional political scandals in the US.
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Hollywood's political conspiracies
Conspiracies about US politics abound - especially when it comes to Russia, the FBI and the president. While there's no shortage of Hollywood films on the matter, here are some of the most memorable.
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JFK (1991)
The assassination of US President John F. Kennedy has been the subject of conspiracy theories since the moment it took place on November 22, 1963, at the height of the Cold War. While many movies have tackled those theories, this one by Oliver Stone, which considers an alternative conclusion to the FBI's official story of a lone assassination, drew in more than $40 million in box office receipts.
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Nixon (1995)
Perhaps the largest scandal in US history, the Watergate affair that took down President Richard Nixon is captured in Oliver Stone's biographical picture, "Nixon." How could a break-in at an office building in 1972 lead to the US President's impeachment? Through the FBI's investigation, the president's role in the burglary and a tape-recording system in his offices was uncovered.
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All the President's Men (1976)
This political thriller is based on the book written by the two "Washington Post" reporters, Bob Woodward (Robert Redford, right) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman (left), who uncovered President Nixon's role in the Watergate scandal. Their reporting, based on information from an FBI informant they referred to as Deep Throat, led to Nixon's resignation in 1974.
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Thunderheart (1992)
Based on the true story of a 1975 shootout that killed a tribal council member on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation, "Thunderheart" dramatizes the story of a man with Sioux Indian roots, Ray Levoi (Val Kilmer), who moves to the reservation to investigate. Over the course of the investigation, the agent begins to reject the tactics of his fellow FBI agents.
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The Manchurian Candidate (2004)
Frank Sinatra stars in the 1962 original, "The Manchurian Candidate," in which a former POW is brainwashed into becoming an international assassin. The 2004 remake, featuring Denzel Washington, put a contemporary twist on the plot by setting the film during the Gulf War. The thriller takes on a major political tone as it questions the role of fictional corporations in US politics.
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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
The Cold War has long proved a fertile backdrop for Hollywood. Based on a John le Carré novel, the 2011 thriller is set in London in the early 1970s and follows a retired spy in his search to uncover a Soviet agent who has infiltrated the British spy services, MI6. The espionage film stars Gary Oldman (left) and John Hurt (right).
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Wag the Dog (1997)
Taking a more humorous approach to scandalous politics is "Wag the Dog," with Dustin Hoffman (l.) as a spin doctor who concocts a war with Albania in order to save the fictional US President, Robert De Niro (r.), from a sex scandal. The ploy is uncovered by William H. Macy, a suspicious FBI agent. Released in 1997, the film was seen as a tragic commentary on the role the media plays in politics.
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Canadian Bacon (1995)
Director Michael Moore is known for his outspoken politics. In the 1995 comedy, "Canadian Bacon," he imagines what would happen if the US invaded Canada. The biting message has that the US President has done so to boost the economy and his own approval rating. It was the last movie released with John Candy (right) in a starring role.
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Comparisons between the current state of US politics and the plots of Hollywood movies and television series are abundant. As Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek might say, reality has become virtual: It is sometimes difficult to tell the two apart nowadays. So people turn to fictionalized events on television to help them better understand the world in which they live.
As controversy brews in United States politics, cultural critics have been looking closely at television series like "The Americans," a drama about Russian spies living in Washington D.C. at the height of the Cold War and "House of Cards," a thriller with Kevin Spacey as the US President. Others are turning toward Hollywood's reconstructions of major political events over the last century to get a better understanding of what's currently going on in the US executive and legislative branches.
Fidel Castro and filmmaker Oliver Stone, who has tackled many political figuresImage: picture-alliance/Mary Evans Picture Library
The FBI, according to Hollywood
One of the most prolific filmmakers tackling US political controversies has been Oliver Stone. The director has taken a brutal look at the biggest scandals in politics, making box office hits about former US presidents, with his films "JFK" and "Nixon." He has also covered the Vietnam War through a film trilogy and has made three documentaries on Cuba's former dictator, Fidel Castro. While Stone's films center on exploring the scandals, he does so by looking at the major players behind the scenes - which often means US intelligence agencies like the FBI and CIA.
The intelligence services hold a special place in Hollywood's imagination - perhaps because so little is known about what exactly the FBI does. In the unusual comedy "Wag the Dog," a US president, with the help of a media professional, makes up a fake war with Albania to distract from a burgeoning sex scandal. The plot is uncovered by a bumbling FBI agent.
While it's unclear how close to reality the film's plot comes - some of its fans drew parallels to US military involvement overseas in the late 1990s at the height of the Clinton impeachment trial - the movie ultimately had audiences questioning the role media plays in beating the war drums.
Michael Moore's only non-documentary film, "Canadian Bacon," satirized Canada-US relationsImage: Imago/Entertainment Pictures
Tall tales and true stories
That's a topic originally explored in director Michael Moore's 1995 comedy "Canadian Bacon," in which the US president decides to invade Canada. His humorous take on the differences between the two North American countries also looks at the role US intelligence services play in supporting politicians in the country.
Yet not all movies see the spy services as a barrel of laughs. John le Carré made a career out of writing spy thrillers set during the Cold War, a number of which were turned into blockbuster hits, including "Tinker Tailor Soldier."
"All the President's Men," a fact-based drama about how two "Washington Post" reporters broke the Watergate scandal also features an FBI agent - though that's not made clear in the movie. The true source who fed the reporters material - nicknamed Deep Throat - was unknown at the time the film was made. After his death, he was revealed to be an FBI agent eager to get the word out about wrongdoing.
For more films - based both on reality and fictional - that look at US political scandals and the role of the FBI, click through the picture gallery above.
