VeteranLight
I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
InformationRap
This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Darin
One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.
Hitchcoc
This is such a good film because the portrayals are so realistic. Donald Sutherland has been reduced lately to playing quirky bad guys. We forget that early on he was a leading man playing complex characters. In this movie we were exposed to the world of prostitution for one of the first times. Jane Fonda is victimized by a man who is fixated on her. She is involved in the investigation of a disappearance and Sutherland is the cop, Klute, who is brought in to investigate. As they explore her situation, he begins to fall in love with her. He also begins to become invested in her life because other prostitutes are dying at the hand of the monster they are pursuing. While uncomfortable to watch, this is well worth our time to view.
Mr-Fusion
"Klute" appealed to me as a crime thriller (and with Alan Pakula's name attached, you know it's going to be good), and I'll freely admit that it took me a while into the movie's running time to realize that's not what the movie's really about. First off, Jane Fonda owns this movie (Sutherland, despite top billing and a title named for his character is the supporting player). It's really about her call girl character's feeling trapped in a world for which she has no love; the self-loathing and uncertainty, her very mental state are what make this an interesting character. And calling it a memorable performance is putting it lightly. In a movie that deserves attention for its lighting, atmosphere and twisty narrative, you can't get her out of your head.7/10
MisterWhiplash
Jane Fonda as the call-girl/wannabe actress Bree Daniels, with a superb hair-do and a (mostly) take-no-s*** personality is the reason to see Pakula's Klute, despite being named after the male main character. It's such a performance - and a character - that is risible and powerful in its confidence, dynamic, occasionally frightened, occasionally VERY sexy, volatile, and gives a lot in those psychology sessions that are basically to the camera/us. She looks like she's constantly THINKING even as she is reacting with a cutting remark or a cut-the-BS moment. And when she makes that talk-seduction of the old man, it's one of the most memorable moments in any 70's film.Sutherland is very good as well, though he has the trickier role as he has to downplay everything as the straightforward cop. The final monologue is gripping and intense from the villain, and yet it's one of those handful of villain monologues that really not just hold up over time, but show up so many others in its wake. It's terrifying in how simple the actor speaks the words and Fonda listens. Klute isn't all great, but it's all of a cool, rocking-but-eerily-jazzy 70's period piece too (think of it, in a way, as the East-Coast sister to Dirty Harry).I wish the plot were just a little stronger, but as a film that relies on its characters it fares quite well. Luckily, Gordon Willis - on the film that likely got the ball really rolling with his nickname "The Prince of Darkness" - is there to make things look unique in the noir-frame of the style. It's so dark you might be left in the dark... until you're not.And Roy Scheider is here, intermittently only (sadly) as a pimp. Chief Brody as a pimp. Need I say more?
MartinHafer
In the late 1960s and into the 70s, a lot of Hollywood films tried very hard to upend the old notions of movies. Instead of the nice old Production Code, the late 60s brought in all sorts of deliberately unsavory things--things meant to challenge traditional morality. Think about it...films like "Bonnie & Clyde" and "The Wild Bunch" brought violence to a whole new level. Additionally, films like "Sex and the Single Girl", "Midnight Cowboy" and this movie, "Klute" brought sex out of the closet and right into the audience's faces. Because of this, back in 1971 this film really had a big impact and brought Jane Fonda an Oscar for playing a prostitute. But is it good? I would say yes...but certainly not great. While Fonda's performance is very good, the story itself seems almost like an episode of "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit". It was novel then but today it doesn't seem quite to groundbreaking. Overall, I'd score this one an 8 back in '71 and a 6 today.
