moonspinner55 Review of The Parallax View

The Parallax View (1974)

An ambitious, but ultimately dissatisfying paranoia thriller from Pakula...

[6/10 · 10 August 2001]

Fascinating premise gets somewhat pretentious, lugubrious treatment from acclaimed director Alan J. Pakula. Conspiracy thriller has newspaper reporter Warren Beatty investigating years-old assassination of a U. S. Senator wherein witnesses to the shooting are all mysteriously dying. Beatty gives one of his better performances here, although the scene in which he defeats a taunting deputy in a bar is fairly absurd (as is the sidebar involving a hick town built around a dam, which seems to be little more than a red herring). Gordon Willis' arty cinematography is exasperating, although a shot early on of assassin Bill McKinney looking up at the Space Needle is chilling; McKinney has few lines but suits his role well, as does Paula Prentiss in small part as a frantic 'next target'. The much-discussed 'Parallax test' (a delineation on how innocent boyhood is corrupted by sex and violence at the expense of Mom and Country) is handled with sledgehammer style, and the unhappy ending is too cynical to swallow whole. **1/2 from ****