Syndykat zbrodni

During the seventies political conspiracy thrillers were popular and this one is one of the most successful (at least in terms of overseas production), however, it is unjustly forgotten today. At the same time, it has the advantage over many others since it is very straightforward and has many excellent action sequences, a conflicting stubborn hero going against everything, a beautiful shoots, a cynical conclusion (which, admittedly, could have gone a step further, as he was both on board of the ship and the airplane, right? ...) and the compelling paranoid atmosphere "you cannot trust anything/anyone", which should be one of the cornerstones of all movies of this subgenre. And yet so many of them forget that. (11.02.2017)

Pakula once again shows himself to be a brilliant amorphous filmmaker who has no definite, fixed style of his own with which he would work with various stories and genres. Thanks to that, however, he is able to piece together an ideal form for each work, which is created in collaboration with other members of the creative team. In this case, that’s the brilliant cinematographer Gordon Willis, who was given maximum space for his characteristic manner of capturing characters in space. Specifically, this means that the characters here do not stand out against their surroundings, but are enveloped by them. These mostly industrial and urban spaces, or rather areas (which also open up to the view outside from the interiors) intensify the gloomy atmosphere, while also illustrating the overarching idea of broader contexts and connections that lie beyond the individual’s insight. At the same time, the narrative seems deliberately reserved, as it denies viewers an absolute omniscient view of the given situations and the central story. It shows us only fragments, pieces, situations seen as if inadvertently, whose meaning we initially cannot comprehend. The meaning is thus all the more impactful and disturbing when it comes with a twist, usually harshly presented with a sharp cut. The Parallax View is an ingenious paranoid thriller that denies viewers the traditional illusory absolution of the genre’s conventional films and the essentially comforting embrace of conspiracy theories. On the contrary, it perfectly captures the unease, elusiveness and bleak helplessness of America plagued by political assassinations in the late 1960s and early 1970s. (08.01.2023)

The inspiration of the Watergate affair and the entire crisis of credibility of American politics under President Nixon is quite evident. But the main source for the script was clearly the assassination of President Kennedy and the subsequent conspiracy theories about a multi-layered conspiracy. Considering that it is a well-known and highly acclaimed thriller, I was quite disappointed with the lack of attention to detail in the screenplay. The script fails to address many things and in many respects gives up on the logic of the storytelling. If the Parallax organization dealt with logistical aspects of assassinations and other illegal operations, then they probably didn't belong among the elite in their field, as otherwise, they wouldn't have made so many mistakes. Even for the initial assassination of the senator, the assassins couldn't have chosen a more difficult place in terms of an escape route. And it seems somewhat easier to get rid of one assassin, instead of struggling for several years to eliminate 18 eyewitnesses. Especially when the only thing they could reveal was the face of a hired hitman, which was captured by telephoto lenses anyway. Director Pakula also didn't deliver his most dazzling performance in terms of directing, which he would later do in his best work, All the President's Men. Overall impression: 55%. (02.04.2010)