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| Warren
Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels, Paula Prentiss |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Joseph
Frady: "Well, there is a natural bureaucratic tendency to cover
up mistakes but beyond that I got no reason to think any governmental
agency was in on it. Or if they were, that they knew they were."
A
reporter tries to uncover the story behind the assassination of a US
senator.
The Parallax
View may be the greatest conspiracy thriller ever made. The inevitability
of the story line is compelling and greatly helped by a superlative
performance from Warren Beatty. In a novel twist for a conspiracy,
not the government is to blame here but a more sinister corporation
in the
business of recruiting assassins and providing their murderous services
to whoever pays enough. No political sides are taken although the
political
implications of their actions are very serious. And repeat viewers
will find that the moment Beatty appears to have been found out by
this corporation
as an undercover reporter comes earlier each time you see the movie.
Like Beatty, we gradually get a sense of the omnipresent powers behind
the story but only too late do we understand the full implication for
the protagonist. The more Beatty thinks he's uncovering, the closer
he comes to sealing his own fate.
After Klute, this was the second installment of Alan J. Pakula's
trilogy of political paranoia, which concluded with All The President's
Men. But despite the similar themes in all three movies the execution
of the story is very different here. Instead of leading the viewer
by
the hand through dialogue and exposition, Pakula uses movement and
discreet framing in telling the story. The most important revelations
in the
movie don't contain any dialogue at all. Every frame in this movie
has been set up perfectly with astonishing camera angles. Take for
instance
the scene in the morgue: one static camera viewpoint that never strays
from the body for 50 seconds, its focus and framing determining the
course of action Beatty now has to take. There is no dialogue or
further explanation
as Beatty comes into the frame and walks past the camera.
The montage sequence in the middle of the movie, designed as a psychological
test by the Parallax corporation, is a further illustration of the technique
Pakula uses in telling this story: no dialogue, just images and their
juxtaposition creating meaning for the viewer. It enhances the theme
of the movie and our identification with Beatty: it's one of the most
memorable scenes in modern cinema. |
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Identical releases are
available for Region 1 and Region 2.
The
anamorphic widescreen image is framed at 2.35:1. It's wonderful to
finally be able to see the movie in all its widescreen glory:
the anamorphic
enhancement is great and shows off Gordon Willis' outstanding cinematography.
No distracting artifacts are visible in the picture, and
the
colors and fleshtones all look natural and better than you would expect
from such an old film. The darker scenes have poor definition
in
places which is disappointing for the closing scenes that are played
completely in shadows and dark corners.
The original mono sound mix is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0, and
it really does show its age. The track suffers from dated fidelity
and a limited dynamic range that compromises the dialogue.
Compression
and
distortion
are evident in much of the track's harsher sounds.
The
only extra is the theatrical trailer, but it is a stunner. Watch this
one after you've watched the movie though, since it gives
away much of
the story.The
menus consist of no more than a single static menu screen.
Gerard
Castelein
Reviewed: 2001
Click
here for IMDB info on The
Parallax View.
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to return to the front page.
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