The Parallax View

For the book by Slavoj Žižek, see The Parallax View (book).
The Parallax View
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAlan J. Pakula
Screenplay byDavid Giler
Lorenzo Semple Jr.
Based onThe Parallax View
by Loren Singer
Produced byAlan J. Pakula
Starring
CinematographyGordon Willis
Edited byJohn W. Wheeler
Music byMichael Small
Production
companies
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
  • June 19, 1974 (1974-06-19)
[1]
Running time
102 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Parallax View is a 1974 American political thriller film starring Warren Beatty, with Hume Cronyn, William Daniels and Paula Prentiss in support. Produced and directed by Alan J. Pakula, its screenplay is by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr., based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer.[2] The story concerns a reporter's investigation into a secretive organization, the Parallax Corporation, whose business is political assassination.

Plot

TV journalist Lee Carter witnesses the assassination of U.S. senator and presidential aspirant Charles Carroll atop the Seattle Space Needle. The apparent shooter, a waiter, is chased, but falls to his death, while the actual killer, disguised as a waiter, vanishes in the chaos. An investigation by an official panel attributes the killing to a single man who acted alone.

Three years later, Carter visits ex-boyfriend Joe Frady, an investigative newspaper reporter in Oregon. She tells him that six witnesses to the assassination have since died and she fears she will be next. Soon after, Carter is found dead from an alcohol and barbiturate drug overdose in a suspected suicide.

Feeling guilty about disregarding Carter's pleas and suspicious of her sudden death, Frady goes to the nearby small town of Salmontail to probe the drowning death of Judge Arthur Bridges, another witness to Carroll's assassination. The local sheriff, Wicker, offers Frady his assistance and escorts him to the dam where Bridges met his fate to investigate. As its floodgates open, Wicker pulls his gun on Frady.

After a desperate struggle in which the sheriff drowns, Frady escapes in the sheriff's squad car and races to the sheriff's home. There, he uncovers documents from the Parallax Corporation, an organization recruiting "security" operatives. Later, Frady contacts a local psychology professor, Nelson Schwartzkopf, who assesses a Parallax personality test taken from Wicker's desk. He deems it a profiling exam to identify homicidal psychopaths.

Austin Tucker, an aide to Carroll and witness to his assassination, agrees to meet Frady. He reveals there have been two attempts on his life since Carroll's murder. He has identified that another waiter was involved in the assassination and shows a slide image of him to Frady. Shortly after, a bomb goes off on his yacht, killing Tucker and his bodyguard. Sitting on the bow away from the blast, Frady is blown into the water and is also presumed dead by the authorities. He swims ashore and tells his editor, Bill Rintels, he will use his apparent death as cover for applying to Parallax Corp. under an alias.

Days later, Parallax official Jack Younger contacts Frady to tell him Parallax has accepted him for training. On his first visit to its Los Angeles headquarters, the corporation measures Frady's reactions as he watches a montage of disturbingly edited and subliminal still photographs and images that juxtapose pro- and anti-American attitudes. After leaving the offices, Frady spots the fake waiter at the offices and then trails this Parallax operative to Hollywood Burbank Airport, where the man sends a bomb aboard a passenger jet in the checked baggage.

Believing the Parallax operative has boarded the jet, Frady also boards the plane but cannot find him, spotting instead another United States senator who, like the ill-fated Carroll, is now considering running for president. Frady surreptitiously passes a note on a paper napkin to flight attendants about the bomb, and the jet returns safely to the airport and is evacuated just before it explodes.

Back at his apartment, Frady is confronted by Younger about his fake alias, but mollifies him with a cover story. Later, at the newspaper office, Rintels listens to a recording of the conversation between Frady and Younger. He then places it in an envelope with other recordings. That evening, he is poisoned by the same Parallax assassin – from the Space Needle shooting and the plane bombing – disguised as a deli delivery boy dropping off dinner, and when Rintels's body is discovered the recordings have vanished.

Frady flies out to the Parallax headquarters in Atlanta, where he has been assigned to a security position. There, he follows the same Parallax operative to a large exhibit hall, where a dress rehearsal for a political rally is underway. This is for another presidential aspirant, Senator George Hammond. Frady chases the operative and watches from the hall's catwalks as Hammond drives toward the exit in a golf cart. The Senator is then fatally shot by an unseen sniper.

Frady finds the rifle lying on the catwalks but is spotted on the catwalk and falsely identified as the shooter. Realizing too late he is being set up to be framed as a scapegoat for the shooting, he attempts to flee, but is shot and killed at the exit by a security man. Six months later, another official investigative committee reports that Frady was a paranoid lone gunman who killed Hammond out of a misguided sense of patriotism.

Cast

Warren Beatty portrayed the protagonist Joseph Frady.

Production

Development

The film is based on a novel by Loren Singer. The novel followed witnesses of John F. Kennedy's assassination who were subsequently killed, but in the screenplay they see an assassination more like that of Robert F. Kennedy.[3] Robert Towne did an uncredited rewrite of the screenplay.[4]

The Gorge Dam was used as a filming location[citation needed]

Cinematography

Frady is often filmed from great distances, suggesting that he is being watched.[3]

Montage

Most of the images used in the assassin training montage were of anonymous figures or important historical figures, featuring among others Richard Nixon, Adolf Hitler, Pope John XXIII, and Lee Harvey Oswald (the photograph that captures the moment Oswald is shot). The montage also uses drawings by Jack Kirby from Marvel Comics' Thor. They are juxtaposed with caption cards showing the words 'LOVE', 'MOTHER', 'FATHER', 'HOME', 'ENEMY', 'HAPPINESS', and 'ME'. The montage "captures the confusion of post-Kennedy America" by demonstrating the decay of values and longstanding traditions.[5] It has been compared to the brainwashing scene in Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film A Clockwork Orange.[6][5]

Critical reception

At the time of its release, The Parallax View received mixed reactions from critics, but the film's reception has been more positive in recent years. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 87% based on 45 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The site's critics consensus says, "The Parallax View blends deft direction from Alan J. Pakula and a charismatic Warren Beatty performance to create a paranoid political thriller that stands with the genre's best."[7] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[8]

Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three out of four stars upon its release. While Beatty offered a good performance in an effective if predictable thriller, Ebert said the actor was not called upon to exercise his full talents. Ebert also noted similarities to the 1973 film Executive Action, but said Parallax was "a better use of similar material, however, because it tries to entertain instead of staying behind to argue."[9] In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "Neither Mr. Pakula nor his screenwriters, David Giler and Lorenzo Semple, Jr., display the wit that Alfred Hitchcock might have used to give the tale importance transcending immediate plausibility. The moviemakers have, instead, treated their central idea so soberly that they sabotage credulity."[10] Joseph Kanon of The Atlantic found the film's subject pertinent: "what gives the movie its real force is the way its menace keeps absorbing material from contemporary life."[11]

Time magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "We would probably be better off rethinking—or better yet, not thinking about—the whole dismal business, if only to put an end to ugly and dramatically unsatisfying products like The Parallax View."[12]

In 2006, Entertainment Weekly critic Chris Nashawaty wrote, "The Parallax View is a mother of a thriller... and Beatty, always an underrated actor thanks (or no thanks) to his off-screen rep as a Hollywood lothario, gives a hell of a performance in a career that's been full of them."[13]

Alexander Kaplan at Film Score Monthly wrote, "Beatty brought his relaxed, low-key charm[,] making his character’s fate even more shocking, while the supporting cast provided ... memorable performances, including Paula Prentiss’s heartbreakingly terrified reporter[.] ... Pakula observed that Frady 'imagines the most bizarre kind of plots, (but) is destroyed by a truth worse than anything he could have imagined.' The film’s ending ... suggests that Parallax may have been onto Frady the whole time, another subversion of his heroic status. Even the hero’s name is unheroic, 'Joe Frady' suggesting a mocking mixture of Dragnet’s Joe Friday and the schoolyard taunt [']fraidy cat.'"[14]

The motion picture won the Critics Award at the Avoriaz Film Festival (France) and was nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture. Gordon Willis won the Award for Best Cinematography from the National Society of Film Critics (USA).

Reviewing films depicting political assassination conspiracies for The Guardian, director Alex Cox called the film the "best JFK conspiracy movie".[15] Film critic Matt Zoller Seitz has called it "a damn near perfect movie".[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ "AFI|Catalog".
  2. ^ Singer, Loren (1970), The Parallax View. New York: Dell, ISBN 1401069029
  3. ^ a b Kirshner, Jonathan (July 27, 2016). "In the Dark". Slate. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  4. ^ Lefcourt, Peter; Shapiro, Laura (2009-02-18). The First Time I Got Paid For It: Writers' Tales From The Hollywood Trenches. Hachette Books. ISBN 978-0-7867-4522-7. Archived from the original on 2023-01-21. Retrieved 2022-07-29.
  5. ^ a b Semley, John (November 20, 2013). "The Best Scene in the Best Conspiracy Thriller Ever". Esquire. Archived from the original on December 5, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  6. ^ Smith, Kyle (August 14, 2020). "The Political Noir for the Age of Assassination". National Review. Archived from the original on September 24, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  7. ^ "The Parallax View". Rotten Tomatoes. Archived from the original on September 27, 2020. Retrieved June 15, 2024.
  8. ^ "The Parallax View". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2020-11-15. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  9. ^ Ebert, Roger (June 14, 1974). "The Parallax View". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on November 12, 2008. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
  10. ^ Canby, Vincent (June 20, 1974). "The Parallax View". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 21, 2023. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
  11. ^ Simon, Art (July 21, 2017). "In The Parallax View, Conspiracy Goes All the Way to the Top—and Beyond". Slate. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  12. ^ Schickel, Richard (July 8, 1974). "Paranoid Thriller". Time. Archived from the original on December 22, 2008. Retrieved October 1, 2009.
  13. ^ Nashawaty, Chris (July 12, 2006). "The Parallax View and other great Beatty roles". Entertainment Weekly. Archived from the original on October 13, 2022. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  14. ^ "The Parallax View". Film Score Monthly. 2010. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
  15. ^ Cox, Alex (November 19, 2013). "The Parallax View: a JFK conspiracy film that gets it right". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on October 31, 2020. Retrieved September 20, 2020.
  16. ^ @mattzollerseitz (March 8, 2013). "THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974). Dir: Alan J. Pakula. DP: Gordon Willis. A damn near perfect movie" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
Wikiquote has quotations related to The Parallax View.

Read other articles:

Pemantau sensor

Pemantau sensor (Hanzi: 監察御史; harfiah: 'Pemantauan & Investigasi') adalah para pejabat Badan Sensor dalam birokrasi sipil kekaisaran Tiongkok selama Dinasti Sui (581-618) hingga Dinasti Qing (1644-1912). Mereka bertanggung jawab atas penyelidikan dan pemakzulan, termasuk tugas-tugas seperti: Mengumpulkan keluhan dari rakyat Mengulas penanganan narapidana Memakzulkan pejabat karena pelanggaran Sejak Dinasti Yuan, pemantau sensor juga berwenang untuk mengajukan protes atau s...

 

 

Ein Gedi

Air terjun Shulamit di Nahal David. Koordinat: 31°27′0″N 35°23′0″E / 31.45000°N 35.38333°E / 31.45000; 35.38333 Air terjun Daud (David falls), Ein Gedi. The Window Dry fall (Air terjun Jendela Kering), dengan pemandangan ke arah Ein Gedi dan Laut Mati, Israel. Ein Gedi (Ibrani: עין גדיcode: he is deprecated ; Arab: عين جديcode: ar is deprecated ; En-Gedi) adalah oasis yang terletak di sebelah barat Laut Mati, dekat dengan Masada dan goa Qumran. ...

 

 

Deputi Bidang Politik, Hukum, Pertahanan, dan Keamanan

Deputi Bidang Politik, Hukum, Pertahanan dan Keamanan Kementerian Perencanaan Pembangunan Nasional Republik Indonesia/Badan Perencanaan Pembangunan NasionalGambaran umumDasar hukumPermen PPN/Kepala Bappenas Nomor Per.005/M.PPN/10/2007 Tentang Organisasi dan Tata Kerja Kementerian PPN/Bappenas [1]Susunan organisasiDeputiIr. Slamet Soedarsono, MPP, QIA, CRMP, CGAP [2]Direktur Politik dan KomunikasiDrs. Wariki Sutikno, MCPDirektur Aparatur Negara-Direktur Hukum dan RegulasiPrahes...

Out of the Silent Planet (song)

2000 single by Iron Maiden Out of the Silent PlanetSingle by Iron Maidenfrom the album Brave New World B-sideWasted Years (live)Aces High (live)ReleasedOctober 23, 2000Recorded1999-2000GenreHeavy metalLength6:25 (album version)4:10 (single version)LabelEMISongwriter(s)Janick Gers, Bruce Dickinson, Steve HarrisProducer(s)Kevin Shirley, Steve HarrisIron Maiden singles chronology The Wicker Man (2000) Out of the Silent Planet (2000) Run to the Hills (Live in 2001) (2002) Limited Edition cover Ou...

 

 

From Now On (album)

From Now OnAlbum studio karya Will YoungDirilis14 Oktober 2002GenrePopDurasi52m 29sLabel19 Recordings, RCA, BMGProduserPer MagnussonDavid KreugerJörgen ElofssonCathy DennisOskar PaulAbsoluteMike PedenFabien WaltmannStephen LipsonRichard 'Biff' StannardJulian GallagherKronologi Will Young From Now On(2002) Friday's Child(2003)Friday's Child2003 From Now On adalah album pertama pemenang pop idol Will Young. Album ini dirilis tahun 2002. Daftar lagu Evergreen (Jörgen Elofsson, Per Magnusso...

 

 

Venon (Isère)

Pour les articles homonymes, voir Venon. Venon Panorama de Venon vue depuis le chemin entre le col du Gourlu et le Mûrier. Administration Pays France Région Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Département Isère Arrondissement Grenoble Intercommunalité Grenoble-Alpes Métropole Maire Mandat Marc Oddon 2020-2026 Code postal 38610 Code commune 38533 Démographie Gentilé Venonais Populationmunicipale 801 hab. (2021 ) Densité 185 hab./km2 Géographie Coordonnées 45° 10′ 22″...

Point Tupper Generating Station

Point Tupper Generating StationThe Point Tupper Generating Station viewed from the northPoint Tupper Generating Station, Nova ScotiaCountryCanadaLocationPoint Tupper, Nova ScotiaCoordinates45°35′13″N 61°20′53″W / 45.5869°N 61.3481°W / 45.5869; -61.3481StatusOperationalCommission date1973Owner(s)Nova Scotia PowerThermal power station Primary fuelCoal,Power generationNameplate capacity150 MWExternal linksCommonsRelated&...

 

 

Chromebook Pixel

2013 Google laptop Not to be confused with Pixelbook. Chromebook PixelChromebook PixelManufacturerGoogleTypeChromebookRelease dateFebruary 21, 2013; 11 years ago (2013-02-21)DiscontinuedMarch 1, 2017; 7 years ago (2017-03-01)[1]Operating systemChrome OSCPUIntel Core i5-3427U (2013) Intel Core i5-5200U (2015) Intel Core i7-5500U (2015 LS)Memory4 GB DDR3 RAMStorage32 GB SSD (2013 and 2015) 64 GB SSD (2015 LS)Display12.85 in (326 mm...

 

 

Grace Kelly

Grace KellyGrace Kelly pada tahun 1954Putri Pendamping MonakoPeriode19 April 1956 – 14 September 1982Informasi pribadiPemakamanKatedral MonakoWangsaWangsa Grimaldi(melalui menikah)Nama lengkapGrace Patricia KellyAyahJohn B. Kelly, Sr.IbuMargaret Katherine MajerPasanganPangeran Rainier IIIAnakPutri CarolinePangeran Albert IIPutri StephaniePekerjaanAktris Grace Patricia Kelly (12 November 1929 – 14 September 1982) adalah aktris Amerika Serikat pemenang Academy Award, dan berge...

Comfort cab

Locomotive design This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.Find sources: Comfort cab – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this message) A BNSF GE Dash 9-44CW, a modern comfort cab locomotive A comfort cab is a design found on most modern North American diesel l...

 

 

Saeed bin Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum

In this Arabic name, the surname is Al Maktoum. Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Hasher Al MaktoumSheikhSheikh Juma bin Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum (left) and Sheikh Saeed bin Maktoum bin Hasher Al Maktoum (right)Emir of DubaiPredecessorButti bin Suhail Al MaktoumSuccessorRashid bin Saeed Al MaktoumBorn1878DubaiDied9 September 1958(1958-09-09) (aged 79–80)DubaiIssueBy Sheikha Hessa bint Al Murr Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum Sheikh Khalifa bin Saeed Al Maktoum Sheikha Shaikha bint S...

 

 

Harpiste

Cet article est une ébauche concernant la musique classique. Vous pouvez partager vos connaissances en l’améliorant (comment ?) selon les recommandations des projets correspondants. La harpiste Emily Levin. Un harpiste est un musicien qui joue de la harpe. Liminaire Il existe plusieurs catégories de harpistes : harpiste celtique, harpiste sud-américain, harpiste africain, harpiste de jazz. En Irlande, la harpe était réservée aux hommes, qui ne s'appelaient pas harpistes ma...

David Diehl

American football player For the American football player born in 1918, see Dave Diehl. American football player David DiehlDiehl with the Giants in 2013Memphis TigersPosition:Offensive quality control coachPersonal informationBorn: (1980-09-15) September 15, 1980 (age 43)Chicago, Illinois, U.S.Height:6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)Weight:310 lb (141 kg)Career informationHigh school:Brother Rice (Chicago)College:IllinoisNFL draft:2003 / Round: 5 / Pick: 16...

 

 

ST depression

Depression of the ST segment on an electrocardiogram Illustration of upsloping ST segment depression ST depression refers to a finding on an electrocardiogram,[1][2] wherein the trace in the ST segment is abnormally low below the baseline. Causes It is often a sign of myocardial ischemia, of which coronary insufficiency is a major cause. Other ischemic heart diseases causing ST depression include: Subendocardial ischemia[3] or even infarction.[4] Subendocardial...

 

 

Moon Boot

Snow boot brand For the orthopedic device, see walking boot. Not to be confused with moon shoes. Moon BootIndustryFootwearFounded1969; 55 years ago (1969)FounderGiancarlo ZanattaHeadquartersGiavera del Montello, ItalyProductsFootwear for women/menParentTecnica GroupWebsitemoonboot.com Moon Boots Moon Boot is a snow boot brand first created as après-ski wear in the early 1970s by manufacturer Tecnica Group of Giavera del Montello in Italy.[1] History They became a po...

Penghargaan Saturn

Saturn AwardThe Saturn AwardDeskripsiBest in science fiction, fantasy and horror film and televisionNegaraAmerika SerikatDipersembahkan olehAcademy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror FilmsDiberikan perdana1972Situs webhttp://www.saturnawards.org/ Penghargaan Saturn adalah sebuah penghargaan yang diadakan setiap tahun oleh Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films untuk menghormati karya terbaik di fiksi ilmiah, fantasi, dan horor dalam film, baik itu film bioskop maupun tel...

 

 

胡安

胡安（Juan），也常譯為璜，是西班牙文名字，為西班牙語的「約翰」。经常会被不懂西班牙文的人以英语发音错译为“朱安”。其名最早来源于希伯來語：יוחנן‎，意指「對神的忠誠」，可以指： 西班牙人名 胡安·普约尔·加西亚 胡安·卡洛斯一世（Juan Carlos I）西班牙国王卡洛斯三世的第六代子孙 胡安·庞塞·德莱昂（Juan Ponce de León)首任波多黎各总督 胡安·安东尼�...

 

 

Dutch–Portuguese War

Conflict for sea dominance from 1601 through 1661 Dutch–Portuguese WarPortuguese galleon fighting Dutch and English warshipsDate1598–1663LocationAtlantic Ocean, Northeastern Brazil, West Africa, Angola, East Africa, India, Ceylon, Burma, Strait of Malacca, Moluccas, Indochina, Macau, Formosa, JapanResult Treaty of The HagueTerritorialchanges Disestablishment of Portuguese Ceylon, Portuguese Malacca, Portuguese Gold Coast, Portuguese Ambon, Portuguese Negapatam, Portuguese Arguin, Portugue...

Wijchen

WijchenMunicipality BenderaLambang kebesaranCountryNetherlandsProvinceGelderlandLuas(2006) • Total69,58 km2 (2,686 sq mi) • Luas daratan66,83 km2 (2,580 sq mi) • Luas perairan2,75 km2 (106 sq mi)Populasi (1 January 2007) • Total41.673 • Kepadatan591/km2 (1,530/sq mi) Source: CBS, Statline.Zona waktuUTC+1 (CET) • Musim panas (DST)UTC+2 (CEST) Wijchen (pelafalan da...

 

 

Jake Cain

English footballer (born 2001) Jake Cain Cain in 2019Personal informationFull name Jake Steven Cain[1]Date of birth (2001-09-02) 2 September 2001 (age 22)Place of birth Wigan, EnglandPosition(s) MidfielderTeam informationCurrent team Swindon TownNumber 16Youth career2010–2023 LiverpoolSenior career*Years Team Apps (Gls)2020–2023 Liverpool 0 (0)2021–2022 → Newport County (loan) 25 (0)2023– Swindon Town 40 (3) *Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of 00:...