Klute · reception & legacy
1971 · Alan J. Pakula
How Klute has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
In 1971 it was received as a sleek thriller carried by a career-best Jane Fonda; today it's revered as the opening chapter of Pakula's 'paranoia trilogy' (with The Parallax View and All the President's Men) and a Gordon Willis shadow-drenched masterclass, cemented by its Criterion canonisation.
What's debated
The perennial fan gripe: it's called Klute, but everyone agrees it's Bree's movie — which feeds the larger debate over whether it's a proto-feminist character study or a thriller that keeps its heroine under male surveillance.
Its footprint
Fonda's shag haircut became one of the most copied cuts of the decade — people still ask salons for 'the Klute'. Her Best Actress win, at the peak of her anti-war notoriety, came with the famously terse speech: 'There's a great deal to say, but I'm not going to say it tonight.'
Where it stands
A steady canon climber — the connoisseur's pick of the paranoia trilogy, a Letterboxd favourite for the Fonda performance and the Willis darkness, and a 'you must see this' for New Hollywood completists.