1974 Directed by Alan J. Pakula
An ambitious reporter, investigating a senator's assassination, realizes witnesses to the shooting are systematically dying and discovers a multi-million dollar corporation which serves as a front for the recruitment of political assassins.
Warren Beatty Hume Cronyn William Daniels Paula Prentiss Kenneth Mars Kelly Thordsen Earl Hindman Anthony Zerbe Walter McGinn Jim Davis Bill McKinney William Joyce Bettie Johnson Doria Cook-Nelson William Jordan Ted Gehring Lee Pulford Chuck Waters Alma Beltran Edward Winter Stacy Keach, Sr. Ford Rainey Richard Bull Jo Ann Harris Joan Lemmo
With Watergate providing ammunition to feed the creative juices of directors and writers in Hollywood, Alan Pakula reached back a little further for the second part of his paranoia trilogy. It serves as a critique of the Warren Commission's findings from almost a decade earlier, a report that always seemed destined to deliver pre-determined answers, rather than the truth.
The apparent whitewash sowed the seeds for the decades of conspiracy theories around the assassination of John F Kennedy that were to follow. Pakula grows one of these into his own take on the rumours, placing Warren Beatty at the heart trying to track down the truth.
He plays investigative reporter Joseph Frady who works for a small-time newspaper. We first…
'This is an announcement, there will be no questions' is the final line of The Parallax View, and it could not be more apt in summing up a film deep rooted in post-Watergate paranoia. Alan J. Pakula delivers a fairly compact thriller with a long reach, tapping carefully into corporate conspiracy as he seeks to bring forth the growing mistrust of the age in political power, and the consequences of too many unknown figures being given too much reach into the lives of ordinary Americans. Warren Beatty's journalist everyman could well be us, caught up in a situation we don't full understand filled with an ominous sense of danger, which Pakula threads across the tapestry of his film. The result…
A 1970s political thriller that features a magnetic lead performance and sure-handed direction, Alan J. Pakula's "The Parallax View" may not be as significant as some of its genre contemporaries; but it is, nonetheless, an engrossing and well made piece of work. Shot in manner that builds distrust and slow-pulling tension, the film is visually compelling and narratively engaging.
"The Parallax View" is built around a reporter investigating a shadowy company's connection to the assassination of a Washington lawmaker. The story itself is straightforward, but Pakula delivers it in a way that shakes its audience with subtle and unsubtle violence, jolting reveals, and an ill-at-ease tone. He builds a world where no one can be trusted, and his protagonist is…
If you shot a film noir in color this is what it would look like. Every frame is covered in shadow and saturated with darkness, externalizing the inner troubles of the characters and twisted corruption of the events portrayed. The plot is your typical paranoid conspiracy theorist's wet dream, a story built on the idea that the law is an insufficient condition to bring about justice. Warren Beatty effectively plays the vigilante journalist driven to the edge by his convictions and his pursuit of the truth.
It's good, check it out if you like 70's political thrillers.
This superb conspiracy thriller from Alan J Pakula is probably the lesser of the trilogy of these he made behind Klute and All The President's Men, but it's a sign of how great they are that this excellent film trails behind them.
This one sees reporter Warren Beatty launching a personal investigation as to why numerous individuals that were present at the assassination of a prominent US senator have suddenly started turning up dead themselves, in numerous different and unusual ways. A conspiracy inevitably unfolds, as does a lack of sympathy and understanding from those he works with.
The formula is a pretty well worn one by now but I would imagine it was a lot fresher back in 1974.…
This would probably still be a five-star film alone if it were just the Parallax brainwashing sequence, a stunning indictment of American institutionalized racism, fascism, classism, and violence that just goes to show how even still images and relaxing music can be overwhelmingly cinematic in the right context. Fortunately, the movie itself manages to hold up phenomenally well against its pivotal scene as a dazzlingly, unabashedly weird entry into the annals of American conspiracy cinema, melding eerie, voyeuristic wide-shot framing and jagged editing with just enough mordant absurdity to keep the darker aspects digestible (I don't think I'll ever not be able to laugh at Pakula situating a key scene of exposition between adult characters on a child-size train ride). Just about as perfect as conspiracy thrillers get.
The Parallax View is an intense political thriller which features some incredibly chilling scenes that I won't soon forget.
As 70s conspiracy films go, this is pretty standard. The easiest comparison is to Three Days of the Condor, but that one is at least more optimistic. Also, that one has an attempt to mix action and suspense--Parallax View is a suspense film that has a random bar brawl and dam fight. There's also a good 20 minute sequence without dialogue, which, while insanely well-handled, is jarring compared to the rest of the film.
Heck, if this movie is similar to any other movie, it's probably Miracle Mile. Because it sets up all of these points, and its only resolution is 'yes, it happened, this is the way things have gone, now move on.' Now, the ending to this one…
I really liked the cinematography in this film. The play on space, lighting and moment kept the spectator in suspense and framing funneled towards the action. There was a play on distance and the subject throughout the film where the most knowledge gain was perceived distant from the camera.
Side note, I loved Warren Beatty’s hair.
Favorite quotes:
“I’ve never tried to kill my self successfully”
“Don’t touch me unless you love me”
Simon Ramshaw 255 films
Recently, I've become aware that certain films are able to transcend the medium by being completely self-assured in their atmospheres…
Jason Bullok 1,000 films
A list of Edgar Wright's favorite 1000 Movies per his list on Mubi on July 27th, 2016.
twitter.com/edgarwright/status/758339515421433856 mubi.com/lists/edgar-wrights-favorite-movies
