One of the best of all conspiracy theory
movies and a brilliant political thriller, "The Parallax View" came from
a time in the mid-seventies when American cinema appeared to have
reached a peak in providing intelligent, grown-up entertainments that
were both fun to watch and which required bringing your brain into the
cinema with you rather than leaving it in the foyer with the popcorn. It
begins with a political assassination on top of Seattle's Space Needle.
At this stage the audience doesn't have apply any guesswork; we can see
the set up. We can see the killing of the apparent assassin and we can
see the real assassin get away.
Step forward three years to a
grubby Warren Beatty, who was there that day working as a reporter and
who is now being contacted by another reporter, (Paula Prentiss in a
tight cameo), who was also there and now fears for her life. It seems
almost anyone who was there at the time is already dead; cue Warren off
to uncover the truth. If the plot feels reasonably predictable, the
treatment is superb. Alan J Pakula was the director, working from a
screenplay by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr and the great Gordon
Willis was the cinematographer, working a lot more in the light for a
change and there's an excellent supporting turn from Hume Cronyn as
Beatty's editor and a brilliant one from the underrated William McGinn
as the guy tasked with recruiting assassins. There's a twist in the tale
you will probably see coming but it doesn't lessen the effect. As I
said, this is a smart piece of multiplex entertainment from a time when
movies like this were commonplace. Those, as they say, were the days.
One of the best of all conspiracy theory
movies and a brilliant political thriller, "The Parallax View" came from
a time in the mid-seventies when American cinema appeared to have
reached a peak in providing intelligent, grown-up entertainments that
were both fun to watch and which required bringing your brain into the
cinema with you rather than leaving it in the foyer with the popcorn. It
begins with a political assassination on top of Seattle's Space Needle.
At this stage the audience doesn't have apply any guesswork; we can see
the set up. We can see the killing of the apparent assassin and we can
see the real assassin get away.
Step forward three years to a
grubby Warren Beatty, who was there that day working as a reporter and
who is now being contacted by another reporter, (Paula Prentiss in a
tight cameo), who was also there and now fears for her life. It seems
almost anyone who was there at the time is already dead; cue Warren off
to uncover the truth. If the plot feels reasonably predictable, the
treatment is superb. Alan J Pakula was the director, working from a
screenplay by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr and the great Gordon
Willis was the cinematographer, working a lot more in the light for a
change and there's an excellent supporting turn from Hume Cronyn as
Beatty's editor and a brilliant one from the underrated William McGinn
as the guy tasked with recruiting assassins. There's a twist in the tale
you will probably see coming but it doesn't lessen the effect. As I
said, this is a smart piece of multiplex entertainment from a time when
movies like this were commonplace. Those, as they say, were the days.
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