I'm still wrapping my head around Warren Beatty's career - it's so random. After Bonnie and Clyde he made a disaster (The Only Game in Town) and a film that seemed to disappear ($) then two of the cultiest movies of the seventies: McCabe and Mrs Miller and this.
It's an astonishingly shot movie - Gordon Willis does a sensational job with unusual framing, use of shadow and light, long shots. The film is constantly off kilter and unsettling. (Kudos to the art department as well).
Gorgeous "tinkle music" score. Very very strong cast - Beatty's shaggy haired reporter in over his head is actually in line with his most effective screen persona: man who is slightly hapless. He's still a stud muffin - Prentiss is his ex and he's got some woman staying over early on who is never seen again.
Paula Prentiss scores in her small role as does everyone else really: Hume Cronyn, Jim Davis (craggy, smoking senator), William Daniels, Kenneth Mars.
The car chase feels dumbly inserted. The ending is amazing. The plot makes no sense if looked at too closely. But it works.
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