Saturday, July 16, 2011

The Parallax View (1974)

Director: Alan J.Pakula. Cast: Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, Hume Cronyn. 102 min. Rated R. Political/Thriller.


In an obvious reference to the JFK assassination, a senator is killed atop the Seattle Space Needle, the government calls it a closed lone-gunman case, and then, the reporters who witnessed the event are mysteriously killed one by one. Spiced with a touch of Kubrick's Clockwork Orange and Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much, the late Pakula (expert in political conspiracies) rarely disappointed, but although the AFI classified this as one of the best thrillers ever, the slow pace can hardly be called thrilling. Beatty once again sticks his head into politics.


PS: This reminded me of a much more entertaining 1979 French film I saw as a kid with almost the exact same story, I as in Icarus (I ... comme Icare), starring Yves Montand. Hoping to watch it again.

Mo says:

No comments:

Post a Comment