The Parallax View

 Year:  1974

Director:  Alan J. Pakula

Screenplay:  David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on the novel The Parallax View by Loren Singer

Starring:  Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels, Paula Prentiss

Running Time:  102 minutes

Genre:  Thriller

Three years after a politician is murdered at the Seattle Space Needle, the witnesses seem to be dying of apparent accidents or natural causes.  Television journalist Lee Carter (Prentiss) who witnessed the murder is convinced that the witnesses are being deliberately killed, and that she is next on the list.  She contacts her ex-boyfriend, hard-bitten newspaper reporter Joe Frady (Beatty) for help.  Joe doesn't believe her at first, until Lee dies of an apparent drug overdose.  Joe starts to investigate and finds himself drawn into a complex and dangerous conspiracy, centred around the sinister Parallax Corporation.

 As American as apple pie

Based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer, with an intelligent and sometimes darkly funny screenplay by David Giles and Lorenzo Semple Jr., The Parallax View is a surprisingly bleak work, with a genuinely shocking conclusion, but it still has all the ingredient of an exciting thriller: fights, chases (including an impressive car chase), and a desperate race against time.  Warren Beatty gives an impressive performance as the tough, but surprisingly vulnerable reporter, whose silver tongue and quick fists do little to top him quickly getting out of his depth.  Director Alan J. Pakula, who had previously made Klute (1971) and would go on to make All the President's Men (1976) creates an atmosphere of chilly menace.  Throughout the film there is this constant sense of a vast conspiracy, even the way the film is photographed, with many scenes being viewed from a distance, or from overhead, putting the viewer in the place of a spy observing the proceedings.  The film's most impressive set-piece is the striking assassin training sequence where a series of fragmented still images and words are flashed in quick sensation.  Following the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, not to mention Watergate and Richard Nixon, the 1970s were an era of bleak political thrillers, but the theme of paranoia, alienation and conspiracy still feels very much of the moment.  

The Parallax View
  

"It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis

Year of Publication:  1935
Number of Pages:  376
Genre:  Political fiction, dystopia

Senator Berzelius "Buzz" Windrip, a vain, outlandish, racist, sexist demagogue is voted President of the Unites Sates of America, with promises that he will make angry, white voters proud, prosperous and powerful, and, more or less, that he will Make America Great Again.  Before long he becomes the dictator of a totalitarian United States.  The rise of Windrip, and America's descent into tyranny, is shown through the increasingly appalled eyes of small town newspaper editor Doremus Jessup who soon learns, to his horror, that it can happen here.

This is a powerful anti-fascist novel that, distressingly, feels possibly more timely now than it did when it was first published in 1935, at the height of fascism in Europe.  While the book is very much of it's time, it's set during the late 1930s and references several real-life people and events of the time, it is still readable today.  And this is a very readable book.  Lewis was a good writer, with a memorable turn of phrase and a dab hand in writer striking one-liners.  In the early stages of the book it is often laugh out loud funny, but as the novel progresses, and the situation becomes more serious, the laughs quickly vanish.  This book is a must read for anyone, just to see where we are and where we may be headed.  Remember, not only can it happen here, but it is happening here.

The Front Runner

Year of Release:  2018
Director:  Jason Reitman
Screenplay:  Matt Bai, Jason Reitman and Jay Carson, based on the book All the Truth is Out:  The Week Politics Went Tabloid by Matt Bai
Starring:  Hugh Jackman, Vera Farmiga, J. K. Simmons, Alfred Molina
Running Time:  113 minutes
Genre:  Drama, politics

In 1988, US Senator Gary Hart (Jackman) is running as the Democratic candidate for the President of the United States.  Despite his initial success, Hart's presidential bid is scuppered due to scandal, when allegations surface of an extra-marital affair.

This is an interesting and well-acted enactment of a real-life political scandal.  However, you never really get a sense of who Gary Hart is, he dismisses any scandal or examination of his personal life as being irrelevant, which is really the theme of the film, whether or not someone's personal life should be made public.  Hart comes across as prickly, defensive and not particularly likeable, despite a great performance from Hugh Jackman and, in the age of Donald Trump, Hart's scandals seem almost quaint.  Interestingly the film never really states whether Hart had an affair or not.  The film does a good job of taking you inside a political campaign and political journalism, and manages to be always interesting and entertaining.  It does have some points to make about separating the public from the personal, despite being dated and never really exploring it's central character., 

Hugh Jackman is The Front Runner