I've been curious to see this since it came out (I was too young then), as it sounded interesting. But no one has ever really claimed this as some underrated classic, and while many idiosyncratic suspense films and cop thrillers of the 1970s have since gotten some of the appreciation they didn't get then, "Man on a Swing" is still a misfire--a movie whose intriguing elements never really turn into "something," or "go anywhere." Even the ambiguity of providing no conventional resolution (because the real-life case didn't have one) doesn't really work, because Perry's direction doesn't make a central virtue of paranoia and ambiguity, unlike better films such as the same year's "The Conversation" or "The Parallax View."
So what we get is a long, somewhat plodding murder mystery with a glum Cliff Robertson not making enough of his role, a host of good supporting actors not really given the chance to do much with theirs, and Joel Grey simply making too much of his part as the clairvoyant. He certainly livens up the film, but as the movie is primarily naturalistic in tone and cinematic style, his very showy, theatrical performance is kind of like placing a snow leopard in a pen of domestic cats and expecting us to think "Yeah, I suppose that makes sense." There are moments when the mixture approaches a kind of chill uncanniness that would have made a bolder film truly haunting. But this one doesn't commit to any path enough to make an impression more than of strong but elusive potential frustratingly unfulfilled.
So what we get is a long, somewhat plodding murder mystery with a glum Cliff Robertson not making enough of his role, a host of good supporting actors not really given the chance to do much with theirs, and Joel Grey simply making too much of his part as the clairvoyant. He certainly livens up the film, but as the movie is primarily naturalistic in tone and cinematic style, his very showy, theatrical performance is kind of like placing a snow leopard in a pen of domestic cats and expecting us to think "Yeah, I suppose that makes sense." There are moments when the mixture approaches a kind of chill uncanniness that would have made a bolder film truly haunting. But this one doesn't commit to any path enough to make an impression more than of strong but elusive potential frustratingly unfulfilled.