THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974) **1/2 Like the assassination of John F. Kennedy, many tracks are left to follow. No one could miss the Warren Commission lone gunman intro, the multiple gunmen, the clutch of dying witnesses. Before we start talking, we all have to know what we're talking about. Only then, when we start talking, can it be obvious that no one knows what we're talking about. Of course the whole thing is fictitious, just like the Warren Commission findings. The symbolism works on a subconscious level, and the few plot foundations are unsubtle but ring true, but we're ultimately left with the feeling that the principals don't know anything more about what really happened than we do, perhaps a little less since they've followed so many strands so far. As a film it runs out of steam after an hour or so, and leans heavily on cincematic devices, however sensitively rendered. Of course Warren Beatty has no difficulty whatsoever pulling off the iconoclastic handsome hero, somehow portraying the deep but unobtrusive Casanova without so much as sharing a single love scene, or even more than a few lines each with very few women. Ronda Copland breezes through maybe two frames as hippie free love culture without overt philosophical framework incarnate but, like real life, she's gone entirely too soon. Or perhaps just soon enough, timing is an essence beyond punctuality. Alan J. Pakula's incredible "psychological test sequence" is terrriffic, anyone who asks what it's about has already missed much of the point, though some portion of the rest may have to do with the interspersed stills of a Klan lynching and JFK. The music is appropriate, but I'm not sure about good. I think I would have preferred Bob Dylan, and for once he would have added clarity and a sense of the linear. The opening shot of the faux Warren Commission informs us of an assassination of which we know little, but we can tell they're a little off. The closing shots of the Commission inform us of an assassination of which we know some truth, and we understand that they're both full of shit and aware of it.
back to Brilliant Observations on 1776 Films home
go back home, or send me email
no more reviews! I want to buy your novel!