Review of The Parallax View (1974) by George M — 31 May 2012

Old fashioned and not very convincing today, this conspiracy political thriller in the vein of All the President's Men and The Three Days of Condor still has some gripping moments. The airplane bomb sequence is full of suspence and the watrefall scene is a wonderful set-piece.

The cinematography has some nice subtle camera movements and some good -but too obvious- shots that try to capture the paranoia feeling (such as shots of glistering glass-made buildings of Parallax corporation) but it shows its age; especially its color and the television-reportage sensibility can be seen today for the rhetoric devise that it is.

The paranoid psychology of America of the times shines through this short-lived genre of conspiracy thrillers that were a reaction to the uneasiness that individuals were feeling in the midst of a political system that seemed greater than them; the political scandals seemed to be the tip of the iceberg of a whole mechanism that normal citizens had no access.

The messages are always pessimistic and give a sense of disillusionment with politics. But these films never amount to a serious political statement; at their best however they give an echo of Kafka without the existential connotations.

There is a certain charm in them but not any real depth despite their pretentions for the contrary.