The Parallax View (1974)

RELAX WITH PARALLAX ?
Another all but forgotten hit of the 1970's, beautifully photographed with a mature (but fantastic) script. Maverick reporter Beatty,along with hundreds of others,witnessed an assassination of a U.S. Senator 3 years earlier. Despite Official U.S. investigations to the contrary, people who were present at the shooting are dying pell-mell, and Beatty's out to investigate Parallax, much to the chagrin of his boss, Cronyn. Beatty is convinced that this organization trains "hit-men" to carry out "big-wig" murders,then covers them up with more murders.A movie not for ths faint of heart, it's also an indictment of pro- forma investigations that fail in their duty, and waste huge amounts of taxpayer money as well.By all means, see this movie which is really timeless in nature.

Spare, dreamlike thriller
"The Parallax View" is a taut thriller about a reporter Joseph Frady (played by Warren Beatty) investigating a political assassination.

The film is strikingly shot - harsh lighting and sound, and harsh surfaces are used to highlight the increasing harshness of the story. The film almost takes on a dreamlike quality - and indeed given Frady's unbalanced past you could consider the film as a figment of his paranoic imagination.

Director Alan J. Pakula would reuse many of the techniques in his next (non-fictional) political film "All the President's Men".

This film certainly needs to be appreciated in its original 2.35:1 format as presented in this DVD. Sadly there are no extras.

This review has been censored for your safety
I recall walking from the theater when this film was first released, determining that I would actively seek out every subsequent film the director Alan Pakula would make. From the understated fear generated from atop the Seattle Space Needle in the opening to the beautifully evocative shot of the investigatory panel (which still looks eerily like a burnished coffin to me before the camera dollies in slowly--the heads of the panel members morphing from ornamental coffin handles to authoritative stone-wallers), the show is a visual treat. Watch the propagandizing "recruitment" film at the film's centerpiece, and try not to think of Kubrick's "A Clockwork Orange" psychic realignment scene. Personally, I'm not a big Warren Beatty fan, but unquestionably I enjoyed his turn in this film as the man driven to uncover Truth, whatever the cost. Try this film backed up against Copolla's "The Conversation" for a great paranoid double-hitter. Then close out your evening with "Marathon Man" and you might start seeing secret signals in stop signs.