Poll

What's your favorite film by Alan J. Pakula?

haven't seen any
2 (9.1%)
don't like any
1 (4.5%)
The Sterile Cuckoo
0 (0%)
Klute
1 (4.5%)
Love and Pain and the Whole Damn Thing
0 (0%)
The Parallax View
3 (13.6%)
All the President's Men
14 (63.6%)
Comes a Horseman
0 (0%)
Starting Over
0 (0%)
Rollover
0 (0%)
Sophie's Choice
0 (0%)
Dream Lover
0 (0%)
Orphans
0 (0%)
See You in the Morning
0 (0%)
Presumed Innocent
1 (4.5%)
Consenting Adults
0 (0%)
The Pelican Brief
0 (0%)
The Devil's Own
0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 22

Author Topic: Pakula, Alan J.  (Read 2636 times)

roujin

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Re: Pakula, Alan J. - Director's Best
« Reply #10 on: October 19, 2014, 03:38:08 PM »
1. All the President's Men (1976)

Corndog

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Re: Pakula, Alan J.
« Reply #11 on: March 30, 2016, 08:52:11 AM »
1. All the President's Men (3.5)
2. Sophie's Choice (3.5)
"Time is the speed at which the past decays."

1SO

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Re: Pakula, Alan J.
« Reply #12 on: April 18, 2022, 01:38:47 PM »
Updated Ranking


The Sterile Cuckoo (1969)
★ ★ ½
Young love. She’s as deeply passionate as he is frustratingly passive. They’re perfectly matched until there’s trouble and then his coldness threatens to break her spirit. This is all about Liza Minnelli, in a performance that starts at about an ‘11’ and deepens into the hidden gem of her great career. She’s as unforgettable as her co-star (Wendell Burton) is completely forgettable. This is unlike anything else by Pakula, suggesting an alternate career where he’s a 2nd tier Mike Nichols. I now imagine Klute with Minnelli instead of Jane Fonda.


Klute (1971)
★ ★ ★ - Good
Pakula is in command of this one, with the patience, atmosphere and paranoia that makes for a solid introduction of what he brings to cinema. I prefer more thrills, but I have dozens of films that do that, so I won’t rewatch this as much, but it’s really well-made.
I also want to rewatch Klute (1971) to see if it belongs in my Horror/Thriller 1000.
It does not. Mostly a drama with a couple of mildly thrilling scenes, not a thriller with tension and scares.


The Parallax View (1974)
★ ★
It’s bold to make an assassination film that gives credibility to wild conspiracy theories. There’s a lot of tonally great photography by Gordon Willis, but there’s also tedium broken up by a dose of silliness. This isn’t a film you expect to have a wild barfight, or a Blue Brothers style car chase. The suspense is drawn-out, making you uneasy over the unknown, but what about the sequence that ends in an off-camera explosion where the camera holds on empty pavement until it shakes when the bomb goes off?

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Pakula, Alan J.
« Reply #13 on: April 19, 2022, 12:26:23 PM »
All The President's Men, 65°
The Pelican Brief, 30°

Consenting Adults, 10°
Extraordinary (81-100˚) | Very good (61-80˚) | Good (41-60˚) | Fair (21-40˚) | Poor (0-20˚)

1SO

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Re: Pakula, Alan J.
« Reply #14 on: April 19, 2022, 12:40:34 PM »
Someone else watched Consenting Adults. I only saw it because it was playing in the theater I worked.

Knocked Out Loaded

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Re: Pakula, Alan J.
« Reply #15 on: April 19, 2022, 04:32:23 PM »
I watched it less than a year ago and I have blocked out the reason why completely.
Extraordinary (81-100˚) | Very good (61-80˚) | Good (41-60˚) | Fair (21-40˚) | Poor (0-20˚)

 

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