Review of The Parallax View (1974) by Luc L — 24 Feb 2014
Interesting, but not entirely coherent. Quite original conspiracy theory and the twists therein. Very powerful ending.
Direction by Alan Pakula is solid: intrigue is built and maintained well.
However, the suspense is based more on style than substance. We are kept in suspense by lack of information, but some of this information is available, the director has just chosen to not reveal it. Plus the links between certain scenes are quite tenuous, at best. So, we have suspenseful scenes occurring in isolation (eg the plane scene), merely for the sake of intrigue and suspense.
By the end of the movie you are still none the wiser what is going on, and how it is going to end, but you know something is going on. The ending resolves this quite well, but until then it is really an illusory trick by the director, creating suspense with a disjointed plot and having the audience buy it.
However, look through all that, and you see the holes in the story.
Good performance by Warren Beatty in the lead role.
This review of The Parallax View (1974) was written by Luc L on 24 February 2014.
The Parallax View has generally received positive reviews.
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