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Post by PaulsLaugh on Mar 9, 2024 9:32:22 GMT
I remember seeing this film when it came out 1974 and liked it back then. However, I couldn't get past the first 30 minutes on this second viewing. I guess knowing the ending doesn't help, but I was struck how pedestrian this movie is considering the director. It has all the usual movie clichés of that era, with a bar fight, car chase, and a life and death fight struggle down a flooding river that is very poorly done. At one point, you can see the stuntman stand up in the middle of river before letting his body fall back into the waves. Not Alan J Pakula's best work.  |
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Post by politicidal1 on Mar 9, 2024 13:39:21 GMT
I saw it once and thought it was alright.
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Post by Captain Spencer on Mar 9, 2024 14:02:46 GMT
I remember seeing this film when it came out 1974 and liked it back then. However, I couldn't get past the first 30 minutes on this second viewing. I guess knowing the ending doesn't help, but I was struck how pedestrian this movie is considering the director. It has all the usual movie clichés of that era, with a bar fight, car chase, and a life and death fight struggle down a flooding river that is very poorly done. At one point, you can see the stuntman stand up in the middle of river before letting his body fall back into the waves. Not Alan J Pakula's best work. Plus it has that feeling of extreme paranoia, like some other movies of that era. I liked it. |
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Post by Teleadm on Mar 9, 2024 15:50:30 GMT
PaulsLaughAt last someone else! It started great atop Seattle's Space needle but then turned confusing
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Post by Isapop on Mar 9, 2024 17:26:52 GMT
Fine work by Michael Small
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Post by timshelboy on Mar 9, 2024 19:45:02 GMT
8/10 near definitive 70s paranoia
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Post by Carl LaFong on Mar 9, 2024 20:04:44 GMT
7.5/10
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Post by petrolino on Mar 9, 2024 21:45:23 GMT
This is one of my favourite movies. I have it on dvd. I've heard filmmaker Alex Cox has recorded a piece for Criterion on the film. His introduction to a screening of 'The Parallax View', that he recorded as host for the film series 'Moviedrome', is one of my favourites.
I watched an astonishing performance from Alex Cox recently. He plays a mathematician in his friend Álex de la Iglesia's conspiracy thriller 'The Oxford Murders' (2008) which I enjoyed greatly. It features a good deal of intellectual sparring between principal cast members Elijah Wood, John Hurt, Leonor Watling, Jim Carter, Danny Sapani, Burn Gorman, Dominique Pinon, Anna Massey and Julie Cox. Wood is an interesting actor from Iowa who can surprise - I remember him playing an extreme scene agape with Matt Dillon in Wayne Kramer's crime movie 'Hustlers' (2013) that was particularly intense - and you can see the Englishman Hurt relishing every on-screen minute of mind games he enters in to with Wood. I must say, it has some cast all round and Watling always delivers; she's sensational in Mariano Barroso's legal thriller 'Dark Impulse' (2011) which I also saw recently.
But I digress. I'm a big fan of Alan Pakula whom I consider to be one of the great directors of the 1970s - 'Klute' (1971), 'The Parallax View' (1974), 'All The President's Men' (1976) and the underappreciated western 'Comes A Horseman' (1978) are films I'll always seek to revisit.
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Post by SuperDevilDoctor on Mar 11, 2024 3:21:11 GMT
That "mind conditioning" sequence is a banger, though.
And still relevant as hell today (i.e., MAGA).
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Post by ZolotoyRetriever on Mar 23, 2024 21:41:08 GMT
I'm quite fond of TPV for several reasons, not least of which is that I'm from Seattle and am quite familiar with the prominently featured Space Needle (having visited it more than a few times - in years both before and after this film was made), and I also appreciate a glimpse back in time (now 50 years ago) when Seattle wasn't crowded, overbuilt, and full of modern city problems (drugs, homelessness, crime - yeah, they all existed back then, but not nearly to the extent we see today, not even close). I enjoyed the twisty plot and offbeat characters, the "mind conditioning" sequence, the growing sense of paranoia... Yes, this to me is a great movie, one worth revisiting in the future.
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Post by jervistetch on Mar 23, 2024 22:35:36 GMT
In a scene from the “Gone Are The Days” files, Beatty’s character boards an airliner, finds his seat and then proceeds to buy his ticket from the flight attendant.
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Post by mikef6 on Mar 31, 2024 15:31:16 GMT
The middle film in Pakula's "Paranoia Trilogy"
Klute (1971)
The Parallax View (1974)
All the President's Men (1976)
The "car chase" is not of that era. It is still very much with us and I am pretty sick of it. A couple I have seen recently which are ALL car chase are "Ambulence" and "Baby Driver."
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Post by Doghouse6 on Mar 31, 2024 16:41:48 GMT
In a scene from the “Gone Are The Days” files, Beatty’s character boards an airliner, finds his seat and then proceeds to buy his ticket from the flight attendant. On a carrier like PSA, some of those tickets were well under $20. |
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Post by PaulsLaugh on Mar 31, 2024 19:32:46 GMT
The middle film in Pakula's "Paranoia Trilogy" Klute (1971) The Parallax View (1974) All the President's Men (1976) The "car chase" is not of that era. It is still very much with us and I am pretty sick of it. A couple I have seen recently which are ALL car chase are "Ambulence" and "Baby Driver." My point though, it is full cliches even for 1970s movie. Pakula was not an action director. As the movie itself goes, it’s entertaining enough, but not up to Klute or AtPM’s level is all. It’s a 7/10, but the other two are 9.5 and 10. |
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Post by Stammerhead on Mar 31, 2024 20:54:07 GMT
It’s been some time since I last watched it but I remember liking it more on the 2nd go. As already mentioned in this thread the music is great, I love the motivational video and the ending is wonderfully downbeat.
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