The Anderson Tapes
Dir: Sidney Lumet
1971
****
Sidney Lumet's The Anderson Tapes represents the beginning of a sub-genre that was quite prolific in the 1970's; the surveillance thriller. The story begins with some old-school crooks getting out of jail. Old habits die hard and the men decide to rob each apartment of an exclusive apartment block. The plan is ultimately flawed as the use of electronic recording equipment, CCTV etc has developed much further than they had though while in prison. The film reflects a mood of futility, paranoia and pervasiveness that only the audience (society) are attuned to, the characters themselves represent the old fashioned and naive. It's an interesting exploration of the ethics of surveillance. Our thieves are anti-heroes, we want them to 'get away with it' but at the same time we know what they are doing is wrong. Lawrence Sanders, who wrote the novel, is commenting on the ethics of the new wave of technological surveillance, Sidney Lumet takes it one step further and shows film lovers just how this will change cinema and the thriller genre. It's a fascinating document of that time and interesting to look back on seeing as it was released just a couple of years before the Watergate scandal. It also represents a new style of cinematography. For the first time the audience sees the turn of events as captured on CCTV, heightening the paranoia and adding to the realism. It's been reproduced and developed many time since but The Anderson Tapes still remains one of the best accomplished. The film also represents the great Christopher Walken's first feature and an impressive debut it is too. It's slick, a little flawed in places but overall a great 70's thriller. It represents a big change for thrillers, different from everything that came before and everything that came after, making it quite a unique piece of cinema.