If there's an underrated film director who needed a retrospective documentary on his life and career then Alan J. Pakula was that director. This was so greatly made, informative, insightful and exicting that after you see it you might look at all his films under a new perspective. The
man behind "All the President's Men", "Klute", "Sophie's Choice" among others, was a skilled craftsman who used of his films to pyschoanalyze society
as he himself was interested in seeing the human condition and its complexities in all the movies he made, as he was curious about the issues
he brought on screen and the people he met in his life.
"Alan Pakula: Going for the Truth" chronics the life, work and the bizarre death of a talented filmmaker/producer who left an important
legacy in film history. Collaborators such as Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman, Harrison Ford, Robert Redford, Jane Fonda, Kevin Kline, family members, and admirers
such as director Steven Soderbergh, highlight everything they could about the director, the family man and the friend. Special details are given
to films such as "To Kill a Mockingbird" - of which he was a producer; the paranoia trilogy ""Klute, "The Parallax View" and "All the President's
Men") and how those movies changed the way we look at historical facts and conspiracy theories; his great collaboration with cinematographer
Gordon Willis, the "prince of darkness"; and also how he was a key director on telling about the female perspectives (Jane Fonda was very enthusiastic
about this bit, as they collaboration on three occasions).
Here's a humanist director more interesting in talking about people, society, sharing and telling a great story rather than making big budget
flicks that get box-office results but are soulless and empty. He's one of the key directors from the New Hollwywood with a vision, an aesthetic
and his own manner of telling a story, even if in the 1990's many consider his works slow or tedious, they work their case in great manners that
are lost these days - I saw the 2024 "Presumed Innocent" miniseries and it's pitiful if compared to his cinematic version done in 1990.
Obvious that some films aren't discussed or at least mentioned - I really like to see the prophetic "Rollover" getting discussed, and also
"Comes a Horsemen", mostly about the tragedy that happened on the set - but it doesn't diminish the man's legacy. Speaking of paranoia and tragedy,
many folks talk about conspiracy theories on Kubrick's sudden death; but I find it more likely to believe when it comes to Pakula's car crash when a metal
pipe swerved on the road and hit his windshield. The future film he was working is revealed in the doc, but it makes me wonder what kind of amazing and
thrilling stories he'd be working if living in the 21st century. And I would be the one in the audience attending. 10/10.
