In the late 1960s and into the 70s, a lot of Hollywood films tried very hard to upend the old notions of movies. Instead of the nice old Production Code, the late 60s brought in all sorts of deliberately unsavory things--things meant to challenge traditional morality. Think about it...films like "Bonnie & Clyde" and "The Wild Bunch" brought violence to a whole new level. Additionally, films like "Sex and the Single Girl", "Midnight Cowboy" and this movie, "Klute" brought sex out of the closet and right into the audience's faces. Because of this, back in 1971 this film really had a big impact and brought Jane Fonda an Oscar for playing a prostitute. But is it good? I would say yes...but certainly not great. While Fonda's performance is very good, the story itself seems almost like an episode of "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit". It was novel then but today it doesn't seem quite to groundbreaking. Overall, I'd score this one an 8 back in '71 and a 6 today.
Review of Klute
