4 Films from Alan J. Pakula
A thoughtful filmmaker who got his start working in the cartoon department at Warner Bros., director Alan J. Pakula was most noted for his so-called paranoid trilogy, three films made in the 1970s that tapped into the deep-rooted paranoia felt towards the government and other untrustworthy institutions.
Pakula first made a name for himself as a producer and earned an Academy Award nomination in 1962 for To Kill a Mockingbird. By the end of the decade, he made his film debut as a director and went on to helm some of Hollywood's biggest films. Sadly, Pakula's life was tragically cut short in 1998 in a freak car accident while driving on the Long Island Expressway. He was 70. Here are four classics from Pakula's early career.
After making his film debut with the cutesy throwback, The Sterile Cuckoo, Pakula made the first of his vaunted paranoid thriller trio, Klute. Starring Donald Sutherland, the film focused on private detective John Klute (Sutherland), the family friend of a missing executive (Robert Milli), tasked with finding his whereabouts. All Klute has to go on is a letter addressed to a New York City prostitute named Bree Daniels (Best Actress winner Jane Fonda), an aspiring actress who turns tricks while remaining emotionally unattached. As Klute follows her, he realizes that Bree might be in danger, which leads to him contacting her and the two somehow falling in love. A dark and atmospheric movie, Klute was a far cry from Pakula's lighthearted debut and promised better things to come.
The second movie in Pakula's famed paranoid trilogy, The Parallax View tapped into the conspiracy theories of the Kennedy assassination while the winds of corruption were blowing over the Watergate scandal. The movie starred Warren Beatty as journalist Joe Frady, who misses the assassination of a sitting senator in Seattle, only to be confronted by a fellow journalist (Paula Prentiss) afraid for her life. After she winds up dead, Frady goes to a small town where other witnesses have mysteriously died and finds himself posing as someone else in order to infiltrate the shadowy Parallax Corporation which supposedly recruits assassins. While he digs deeper into the mysterious corporation, Frady becomes lured into an assassination plot from which he cannot escape. Though it received mixed reviews at the time, The Parallax View lives on as a classic conspiracy thriller movie.
The third and final installment to Pakula's paranoid trilogy, All the President's Men definitely ranks as the best. Released just two years after Richard Nixon resigned amidst the Watergate scandal, the film starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two Washington Post reporters whose investigation of a break in at the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate Hotel leads them to a possible connection between the burglars and the White House. Woodward and Bernstein "follow the money" with the help of the mysterious informant Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) despite the reluctance of editor Bill Bradley (Jason Robards). All the President's Men was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
A heartbreaking movie about the Holocaust, Sophie's Choice was one of Pakula's most emotionally powerful films, thanks to an Oscar-winning performance from lead actress Meryl Streep. Set in 1947 Brooklyn, the film featured Streep as a Polish refugee in a relationship with a volatile research chemist (Kevin Kline) who makes the acquaintance of an aspiring Southern writer (Peter MacNichol)—who's based on the novel's author William Styron—and slowly starts to reveal her tragic ordeal during the war, which leads to the unearthing of her dark and horrible secret. Pakula directed Sophie's Choice with an unflinching hand and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Pakula first made a name for himself as a producer and earned an Academy Award nomination in 1962 for To Kill a Mockingbird. By the end of the decade, he made his film debut as a director and went on to helm some of Hollywood's biggest films. Sadly, Pakula's life was tragically cut short in 1998 in a freak car accident while driving on the Long Island Expressway. He was 70. Here are four classics from Pakula's early career.
1. 'Klute' – 1971
After making his film debut with the cutesy throwback, The Sterile Cuckoo, Pakula made the first of his vaunted paranoid thriller trio, Klute. Starring Donald Sutherland, the film focused on private detective John Klute (Sutherland), the family friend of a missing executive (Robert Milli), tasked with finding his whereabouts. All Klute has to go on is a letter addressed to a New York City prostitute named Bree Daniels (Best Actress winner Jane Fonda), an aspiring actress who turns tricks while remaining emotionally unattached. As Klute follows her, he realizes that Bree might be in danger, which leads to him contacting her and the two somehow falling in love. A dark and atmospheric movie, Klute was a far cry from Pakula's lighthearted debut and promised better things to come.
2. 'The Parallax View' – 1974
The second movie in Pakula's famed paranoid trilogy, The Parallax View tapped into the conspiracy theories of the Kennedy assassination while the winds of corruption were blowing over the Watergate scandal. The movie starred Warren Beatty as journalist Joe Frady, who misses the assassination of a sitting senator in Seattle, only to be confronted by a fellow journalist (Paula Prentiss) afraid for her life. After she winds up dead, Frady goes to a small town where other witnesses have mysteriously died and finds himself posing as someone else in order to infiltrate the shadowy Parallax Corporation which supposedly recruits assassins. While he digs deeper into the mysterious corporation, Frady becomes lured into an assassination plot from which he cannot escape. Though it received mixed reviews at the time, The Parallax View lives on as a classic conspiracy thriller movie.
3. 'All the President's Men' – 1976
The third and final installment to Pakula's paranoid trilogy, All the President's Men definitely ranks as the best. Released just two years after Richard Nixon resigned amidst the Watergate scandal, the film starred Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two Washington Post reporters whose investigation of a break in at the Democratic national headquarters at the Watergate Hotel leads them to a possible connection between the burglars and the White House. Woodward and Bernstein "follow the money" with the help of the mysterious informant Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook) despite the reluctance of editor Bill Bradley (Jason Robards). All the President's Men was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director.
4. 'Sophie's Choice' – 1981
A heartbreaking movie about the Holocaust, Sophie's Choice was one of Pakula's most emotionally powerful films, thanks to an Oscar-winning performance from lead actress Meryl Streep. Set in 1947 Brooklyn, the film featured Streep as a Polish refugee in a relationship with a volatile research chemist (Kevin Kline) who makes the acquaintance of an aspiring Southern writer (Peter MacNichol)—who's based on the novel's author William Styron—and slowly starts to reveal her tragic ordeal during the war, which leads to the unearthing of her dark and horrible secret. Pakula directed Sophie's Choice with an unflinching hand and earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay.
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