The 1970s was a golden age of Hollywood, filled with explosive creativity from The Godfather to Star Wars.
It was also a time of political turmoil as the Watergate scandal brought down a president, a shattering of the American dream that was reflected on screen in some of the most compelling films in cinema history.
One of the masters of this era was director Alan J Pakula. In 1971 he made Klute, an unnerving story of surveillance and paranoia. In 1976 he made All the President's Men – perhaps the ultimate conspiracy thriller, as it was based on the real-life events surrounding Watergate.
In between, he drew on shocking real-life murder and intrigue for a film that uses stunning cinematic skill to visualise a chilling spiral into a strange and unpleasant new world.
That film was 1974's The Parallax View. Warren Beatty stars as Joe, a laid-back journalist whose 4th of July is interrupted by the brutal murder of a politician. When Joe's terrified ex-girlfriend turns up claiming that the witnesses are dying in mysterious circumstances, Joe finds himself drawn into a shadowy conspiracy.
Evoking the murders of John and Robert Kennedy, The Parallax View takes us on a dark journey into the shadows of a nation that doesn't recognise itself.
We start in familiar territory as Joe's early investigation plays like a pretty conventional movie. There's a bar fight and even a car chase. But things get more unsettling as we follow Joe deeper into the web of lies.
Slowly, The Parallax View emerges as one of the most visually striking of the paranoia thriller genre. A decent home cinema set-up will emphasise the menace of the film's many deep black shadows, the trademark of cinematographer Gordon Willis, who made such effective use of light and shade in the three Godfather films.
Each shot emphasises Joe's suspicion and increasing alienation, with cleverly-chosen locations full of modernist architecture where tiny human figures seem isolated, spied on, and powerless. The nerve-jangling climax is framed with clinically geometric compositions that obscure as much as they reveal, hammering home the feeling that in this unsettling new era, nothing and no-one can be trusted.
In the middle, the film hinges on one of the most unexpected and arresting sequences of the era, when Joe finds his way into the induction process of a mysterious corporation.
This jarring sequence is a masterclass of editing and sound, an audacious demonstration of the power of cinema to juxtapose images. For modern viewers, it's also an eerily accurate prediction of how quickfire messaging is used to twist the minds of young men towards violence.
This 1974 classic is widely available to rent and buy online, and US viewers can enjoy an excellent 4K Blu-ray from the Criterion Collection. Subversive and chilling, The Parallax View is worth a view.
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