An uncorrupted detective (Donald Sutherland) from rural Pennsylvania  travels to New York City to investigate the disappearance of a local businessman, his only contact being a high rent prostitute (Jane Fonda, an Oscar winner). When his missing person turns out to be a thread in a string of murders, he becomes his new acquaintance's protector and then lover as she becomes the bait to lure the deadly killer. Klute is a well made, typically murky, and often frustrating Alan Pakula film that fits in nicely alongside some of the other thrillers he made in that time frame (The Parallax View, All the President's Men). Fonda is assuredly powerful and sexy and Sutherland makes a nice counter as her introverted partner.

When rookie Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward seeks a courthouse statement from the men who burgled the Democratic headquarters in the Watergate hotel, he thinks he is on to an odd, if unspectacular story. As the various hidden strands begin to reveal themselves, he teams up with jaded reporter Carl Bernstein and begins the tedious and occasionally deadly task of uncovering the greatest political scandal in United States history. Alan J. Pakula's "All the President's Men" is a serpentine, labyrinthine, fascinating, and perhaps possibly a tad too inclusive and precise historical recreation. With Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman in the leads, both excellent as the dogged reporters, we are given an exacting account of the famous Woodward and Bernstein investigation, as well as a detailed look into a 1970s newsroom. With a barrage of names and a seemingly endless amount of paths to follow, the film can be mind numbing at times, but overall succeeds in making the film all the more gripping. The supporting cast is wonderful, most notably Jack Warden and Martin Balsam as Post editors, Jason Robards as its editor, and Hal Holbrook as the mysterious informant Deep Throat (the parking garage scenes are incredibly intense). "All the President's Men" is a painstaking, involving, and ultimately entertaining demonstration in newspaper/investigative filmmaking.

A Seattle journalist is denied access to the Space Needle where a conference with the Senator is taking place when the guest of honor is murdered. As the government committee declares the assassination to be the work of a lone gunman, the journalist's ex-girlfriend/colleague visits him in terror of being murdered as other witnesses to the crime are being mysteriously eradicated. When she turns up dead a few days later, the brazen reporter launches his own investigation which leads him to the abstruse Parallax corporation and, which goes without saying, way over is head. Two years before creating his political thriller classic "All the President's Men" and during the Watergate scandal that provided the basis for that film, director Alan J. Pakula crafted another outstanding, paranoid yet not as successful film based on another landmark event in U.S. history. Using the JFK assassination and the Warren Commission as a springboard, "The Parallax View" brings terrifying believability to ludicrous scenarios. Filmed much in the same manner as "ATPM", Pakula uses slow burn tension and minute detail to concoct an absorbing story. Warren Beatty is brash and cheeky and absolutely perfect for his role as the hero/patsy. I personally do not subscribe to conspiracy theories but Pakula's film does an excellent job of showing how the puzzle pieces can be arranged to form an entirely different picture.