You always have to question what you’re seeing, why you’re being shown this scene this way, but most importantly - what are you not seeing? I get fixated on little things here and there that make the film feel different because it changes my perception of events. Each time I see it I feel like I’m getting a fresh experience even though I know the outcome.
#The parallax view movie
I love a movie that messes with you and keeps you guessing but also makes you question everything you’re looking at. The Parallax View is the kind of movie that I love to revisit again and again. The climax of the film is a classic example of tactical misdirection every edit throws you off making you guess when and how something might happen. Just when you think something is going to happen - nothing does.
There are stretches where the film is frightfully thrilling, and there are moments where it’s frustratingly dull, making you think nothing is going on. This is a movie I give myself a headache trying to figure out. And then you have a number of shots and angles and audio cues designed specifically to keep you on your toes but are in all likelihood just a bunch of bunk. When there is a conspiracy, you don’t see it. When you think there’s a conspiracy, there isn’t. Our brains want to make some sort of linear line with Joe and the story and the corporate conspiracy of the Parallax Corporation to the point we’re blinded from seeing the reality.Īnd that’s what I love about this movie, you can’t trust a damn thing you see in it. The Parallax View makes you question every shot in the film.
All The President’s Men made you feel like Richard Nixon was personally standing behind you at every turn in the film even though he never makes a real appearance in that film. It could have been the hero - or the killer. Klute was a frightening descent into voyeurism. But we also can be blinded from a more important truth that’s staring us right in the face. That’s why conspiracies are so damn enthralling and consuming. Or if the material is exciting and gets the blood pumping, we dig deeper and deeper looking for more “truth.” We suddenly become amateur detectives and believe we’re the only ones who can solve the mystery. In life and in movies when presented with information we tend to take things at face value. That’s the position Beatty’s Joe finds himself - and by extension the audience - in. Conspiracies can make for great cinema - as Pakula demonstrates with The Parallax View and All The President’s Men - but they’re a dangerous hobby when you get deep into stuff like Q and lose all focus on reality. A good book or podcast about the JFK assassination or the identity of Jack the Ripper is always a fun way to waste time, but I’ve never gone full-tilt boogie into that realm. I’ve never been one to go into conspiracy theories beyond cursory examinations for fun. Or by extension, what you assume to be a lie can’t actually be the truth. Just because you’re looking at something one way, doesn’t mean it’s true. Open the other and the image changes again. It’s that space between your right and left eyes. Parallax by definition means you can’t always trust what you see. But whenever he thinks he’s figured out the picture, it changes leading him further down a dark and deadly path. Now, with numerous witnesses dead including a former lover, reporter Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) is trying to sort out the pieces of the puzzle. During a celebration at Seattle’s famous Space Needle, he was gunned down seemingly at random by a lone nut. Three years ago on July 4th, an idealist senator was rising in the ranks becoming the face of the party - and a movement for peace and prosperity.
“It is our further conclusion that he acted entirely alone, motivated by a misguided sense of patriotism and a psychotic desire for public recognition.”
0 kommentar(er)
