The Parallax View
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| The Parallax View | |
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| Directed by | Alan J. Pakula |
| Produced by | Alan J. Pakula Warren Beatty |
| Written by | Novel: Loren Singer Screenplay: David Giler Lorenzo Semple Jr Uncredited: Robert Towne |
| Starring | Warren Beatty Hume Cronyn William Daniels and Paula Prentiss |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1974 (USA) |
| Running time | 102 min. |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
- This article is about the film, not the book by Slavoj Žižek.
The Parallax View is a 1974 movie directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Warren Beatty (who was also a producer), adapted by David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr and Robert Towne (who was uncredited) from the 1972 novel by Loren Singer. The film is a political thriller about a reporter's investigation into an obscure and murderous organization, the Parallax Corporation.
The Parallax View is one of a trilogy of political thrillers directed by Pakula, along with Klute (1971) and All the President's Men (1976).
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[edit] Plot
Beatty plays reporter Joe Frady. A colleague and former lover of his, Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss), is present at the assassination of Presidential hopeful Senator Charles Carroll at Seattle's Space Needle. The assassin dies just after his target and the assassination is officially reported as the work of a single individual. Carter feels there is more to the killing and her idea seems justified when six of the witnesses to the death also die.
Frady follows up her investigation after she herself turns up dead (ostensibly of an overdose) and he finds the conspiracy leads to the Parallax Corporation. Frady believes Parallax detects certain types of personalities and recruits them as sociopaths capable of amoral assignments, such as political assassinations. He fakes a psychological test by pretending to be a sociopath and is soon contacted by a member of the Parallax corporation, who assures him he's just the man they want to hire.
He is accepted for the Parallax therapy, leading to a memorable sequence when Frady is bombarded with a montage of emotional images, words and music; the links between the words and images shifting as the sequence progresses and speeds up. The montage is filmed in a subjective manner. Frady and his reactions are not shown - the montage is projected at the audience. Such montages were popular in the film schools of the 1970s and can be seen in other contemporary films. Later on, he observes a member of the corporation heading to a car and driving off. Frady follows the man, who he sees pick up a bag from a trunk and check it in at an airport. Frady gets on the plane, and then realizes that a Senator is sitting in First Class and the corporation member isn't aboard. Frady then leaves a written bomb threat for the flight attendant, and the plane lands and is evacuated, just before the luggage bomb is detonated.
The action culminates when Frady, continuing his investigation, tails (he believes covertly) Parallax conspirators to a dress rehearsal of a political rally for another U.S. Senator. Frady hides in the rafters of the auditorium trying to secretly observe what the men, who are also walking around the rafters, are up to. Too late, Frady realizes he's been set up. Having Frady follow them to this specific location was actually what they intended all along. As Frady discovers he's trapped, the senator is shot and killed. Frady then notices a rifle that's been planted at his location. As those on the auditorium floor look up to the catwalks for the gunman, they see Frady moving about. He tries to hide and evades the initial search for him. He sees a doorway to his left filled with white light, and knows that he could be next. He makes a mad sprint for the doorway, hoping to escape, but as he is about to reach it is killed by a silhouette wielding a shotgun.
In the final scene, the same committee who determined that the assassination of Senator Carroll was the work of just one individual announces that the assassination of Senator Hammond was also the work of just one individual - Joe Frady himself.
The distinctive anamorphic photography with long lens, unconventional framing and shallow focus was supervised by Gordon Willis.
[edit] Miscellany
The above-mentioned montage film sequence was imitated in the music video for the Billy Joel song "Pressure".
The aforementioned montage was also mimicked in The Game.
The music video for the Soundgarden song "Blow Up the Outside World" features frontman Chris Cornell being forced to watch scenes from this film.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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