Moustroll Good movie but grossly overrated

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Leofwine_draca THE PARALLAX VIEW is another gripping conspiracy thriller from the decade that made so many of them. Warren Beatty plays a crusading reporter investigating the mysterious deaths of a number of his peers, deaths which may or may not be connected to the murder of a politician at which he was present a few years previously. This film is different from the others I've watched, far less complex in terms of plot. It's very much a visual experience which reaches a high in a montage of imagery which attempts to get across what it feels like to be brainwashed. Beatty is a solid lead and there are some good supporting players like Anthony Zerbe and Hume Cronyn, while the level of suspense and paranoia is high. There are also some great set-pieces, particularly early on, with the only let down being the bit where they don't have the money to show a plane exploding. The film's air of ambiguity helps a treat too.

Martin Bradley One of the best of all conspiracy theory movies and a brilliant political thriller, "The Parallax View" came from a time in the mid-seventies when American cinema appeared to have reached a peak in providing intelligent, grown-up entertainments that were both fun to watch and which required bringing your brain into the cinema with you rather than leaving it in the foyer with the popcorn. It begins with a political assassination on top of Seattle's Space Needle. At this stage the audience doesn't have apply any guesswork; we can see the set up. We can see the killing of the apparent assassin and we can see the real assassin get away.Step forward three years to a grubby Warren Beatty, who was there that day working as a reporter and who is now being contacted by another reporter, (Paula Prentiss in a tight cameo), who was also there and now fears for her life. It seems almost anyone who was there at the time is already dead; cue Warren off to uncover the truth. If the plot feels reasonably predictable, the treatment is superb. Alan J Pakula was the director, working from a screenplay by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr and the great Gordon Willis was the cinematographer, working a lot more in the light for a change and there's an excellent supporting turn from Hume Cronyn as Beatty's editor and a brilliant one from the underrated William McGinn as the guy tasked with recruiting assassins. There's a twist in the tale you will probably see coming but it doesn't lessen the effect. As I said, this is a smart piece of multiplex entertainment from a time when movies like this were commonplace. Those, as they say, were the days.

SnoopyStyle Independent minded Senator Carroll is assassinated on top of the Space Needle. The assumed killer falls to his death and a commission declares him to be a lone gunman. Three years later, Lee Carter pleads with reporter Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) to investigate the Carroll assassination. The people around Carroll on that day are getting killed off. Frady finds something disturbing. He is attacked by Sheriff Wicker. He kills Wicker and discovers the name Parallax Corporation among the sheriff's belongings. His boss is Bill Rintels (Hume Cronyn) doesn't believe him at first. He suspects that they are recruiting psychopaths and he intends to infiltrate the organization.The first half is really compelling. There is a good sense of paranoia. It fades a little after the plane bombing. They couldn't film the plane exploding. It's the first sign of the movie's limitations. I wish the movie could find the next gear but it's not really there. I also wasn't impressed with the long montage sequence that Frady sits through. It could be much more compelling but it feels derivative of 'A Clockwork Orange'. It's still a very good paranoid thriller.

arturomeade This movie is as bad as most T.V. series of that time, the worse Columbo plot is a master piece compare to this movie (with all my respect to Columbo). The film is naive, full of holes and unnecessary scenes of flying cars and fights type Starsky and Hutch. The movie start as a bad action film then suddenly turns "dark" "experimental" and "intelligent". The acting and production are as bad as can be, in fact is so bad that is almost enjoyable as a comic film. Unless you are on the mood for a bad bad movie this is not worth to watch. If you are fan of The Charlie Angels, or The million dollar man you are gonna love it.