Editing The Parallax View

{{short description|1974 US political thriller film by Alan J. Pakula}}
{{for|the book by Slavoj Žižek|The Parallax View (book){{!}}''The Parallax View'' (book)}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox film
| name           = The Parallax View
| image          = Parallax_View_movie_poster.jpg
 
| caption        = Theatrical release poster
| screenplay     = [[David Giler]]<br />[[Lorenzo Semple Jr.]]
| based_on       = {{Based on|''The Parallax View''<br>1970 novel|[[Loren Singer]]}}
| starring       = {{Plainlist|
* [[Warren Beatty]]
* [[Paula Prentiss]]
* [[Hume Cronyn]]
* [[William Daniels]]
* [[Kenneth Mars]]
* [[Walter McGinn]]
* [[Kelly Thordsen]]
* [[Jim Davis (actor)|Jim Davis]]
}}
| director       = [[Alan J. Pakula]]
| producer       = Alan J. Pakula
| cinematography = [[Gordon Willis]]
| editing        = John W. Wheeler
| music          = [[Michael Small]]
| studio = {{Plainlist|
* Gus Productions
* Harbor Productions
* [[Doubleday (publisher)|Doubleday Productions]]
}}
| distributor    = [[Paramount Pictures]]
| released       = {{Film date|1974|06|19}}<ref>{{cite web | url=https://catalog.afi.com/Film/67486-THE-PARALLAXVIEW?sid=8a64f921-50dd-4c9f-8197-9da6301cafbc&sr=9.368086&cp=1&pos=0 | title=AFI&#124;Catalog }}</ref>
| runtime        = 102 minutes
| country        = United States
| language       = English
}}

'''''The Parallax View''''' is a 1974 American [[political thriller]] film starring [[Warren Beatty]], [[Paula Prentiss]], [[Hume Cronyn]], [[William Daniels]], [[Kenneth Mars]], [[Walter McGinn]], [[Kelly Thordsen]] and [[Jim Davis (actor)|Jim Davis]] 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]].<ref>[[Loren Singer|Singer, Loren]] (1970), ''The Parallax View.'' New York: Dell, {{ISBN|1401069029}}</ref> The story concerns a reporter's investigation into a secretive organization, the Parallax Corporation, whose business is political assassination.

==Plot==
[[Seattle]] television journalist Lee Carter witnesses the assassination of U.S. senator and presidential aspirant Charles Carroll atop the [[Space Needle]] during a campaign stop. The suspected killer, a waiter, is killed during the pursuit. The real killer, disguised as a waiter, escapes. The assassination is officially determined to have been the work of a single man acting alone. Six witnesses die over the next three years. Carter fears she will be next, and goes to ex-boyfriend Joe Frady, an investigative newspaper reporter in [[Oregon]], for protection; he turns her away. Shortly afterwards Carter is found dead; the death is ruled to be suicide from [[Alcohol (drug)|alcohol]] and [[barbiturate]] overdosing.

Feeling guilty about disregarding Carter's pleas and suspicious about her death, Frady investigates the drowning death of Judge Arthur Bridges - another witness - in the nearby small town of Salmontail. Wicker, the local sheriff, takes Frady to a place below a dam where Bridges died. Wicker holds Frady at gunpoint as the floodgates open, but it is Wicker who drowns. At Wicker's home, Frady discovers documents from the ''Parallax Corporation'', an organization recruiting "security" operatives. Frady takes a Parallax personality test document from Wicker's home to a local psychology professor, Nelson Schwartzkopf. Schwartzkopf determines the test is used to identify homicidal psychopaths and gives it to a known psychopath to learn the "correct" answers.

Frady meets with Austin Tucker, an aide to Carroll and another witness, on Tucker's yacht; Tucker has survived two murder attempts since the assassination. Tucker saw the real assassin and gives Frady an image of the assassin in disguise. A bomb destroys the yacht. Tucker is killed, and Frady - sitting at the bow - is thrown into the water and presumed killed. Frady tells his editor, Bill Rintels, that he will use his official death and a [[pseudonym]] to infiltrate Parallax. A few days later, Frady is recruited for training by Parallax official Jack Younger.

Frady visits Parallax's Los Angeles headquarters where he is observed for reactions to montages of disturbingly edited and [[Subliminal stimuli|subliminal]] still photographs and images that juxtapose pro- and anti-American attitudes. Frady spots Carroll's assassin while leaving and follows the assassin, who puts a bomb aboard an airliner in checked baggage at [[Hollywood Burbank Airport]]. Frady boards the flight, mistakenly believing the assassin to be on board, and sees another U.S. senator who is also considering running for president. Frady surreptitiously warns a flight attendant. The jet returns to the airport and is evacuated before it explodes.

Younger confronts Frady about the latter's alias. Frady's cover story and a second alias mollifies Younger. Later, at the newspaper office, Rintels listens to a recording of this conversation and stores it with other evidence. That evening, Rintels is killed by poisoned food delivered by the assassin, disguised as a deli delivery boy. The evidence is gone by the time Rintels' body is discovered.

Frady goes to Parallax's office in [[Atlanta]], where he has been assigned a security position. There, he follows the assassin to a rehearsal for a political rally for another presidential aspirant, Senator George Hammond. Frady chases the assassin. Hammond is killed by an unseen sniper. Frady finds the rifle on the catwalks and then is spotted by security. Frady flees, realizing he is being [[Frameup|framed]] as a [[Scapegoating|scapegoat]], and is killed by security.

Six months later, another official investigation reports that Frady was a paranoid lone gunman who killed Hammond out of a misguided sense of patriotism.

==Cast==
[[File:Warren Beatty Photoplay, 1961.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Warren Beatty]] portrayed the protagonist Joseph Frady.]]
{{Cast listing|
* [[Warren Beatty]] as Joseph Frady
* [[Paula Prentiss]] as Lee Carter
* [[Hume Cronyn]] as Bill Rintels
* [[William Daniels]] as Austin Tucker
* [[Kenneth Mars]] as former FBI agent Will Turner
* [[Walter McGinn]] as Jack Younger
* [[Kelly Thordsen]] as Sheriff L. D. Wicker
* [[Jim Davis (actor)|Jim Davis]] as Senator George Hammond
* [[Bill McKinney]] as Parallax assassin
* [[Stacy Keach Sr.]] as Commission Spokesman #1
* [[Anthony Zerbe]] as Professor Nelson Schwartzkopf (Uncredited)
* [[William Jordan (actor)|William Jordan]] as Tucker's aide
* [[Edward Winter (actor)|Edward Winter]] as Senator Jameson
* Chuck Waters as Thomas Richard Linder
* [[Earl Hindman]] as Deputy Red
* [[William Joyce (actor)|William Joyce]] as Senator Charles Carroll
* [[Jo Ann Harris]] as Chrissy, Frady's girl
* [[Craig T. Nelson#Personal life|Doria Cook-Nelson]] as Gale from Salmontail
* [[Ford Rainey]] as Commission spokesman #2
* [[Richard Bull (actor)|Richard Bull]] as Parallax goon
}}

==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]].<ref name="slate">{{cite news|last=Kirshner|first=Jonathan|date=July 27, 2016|title=In the Dark|url=https://slate.com/culture/2017/07/alan-j-pakulas-film-the-parallax-view-constructs-a-labyrinth-of-overlapping-conspiracies.html|work=Slate|access-date=September 20, 2020|archive-date=October 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031124652/https://slate.com/culture/2017/07/alan-j-pakulas-film-the-parallax-view-constructs-a-labyrinth-of-overlapping-conspiracies.html|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Robert Towne]] did an [[Robert Towne|uncredited rewrite]] of the screenplay.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Lefcourt |first1=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uSEAvBhF0fIC&dq=Robert+Towne+Parallax+View&pg=PA108 |title=The First Time I Got Paid For It: Writers' Tales From The Hollywood Trenches |last2=Shapiro |first2=Laura |date=2009-02-18 |publisher=Hachette Books |isbn=978-0-7867-4522-7 |language=en |access-date=2022-07-29 |archive-date=2023-01-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121155933/https://books.google.com/books?id=uSEAvBhF0fIC&dq=Robert+Towne+Parallax+View&pg=PA108 |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[File:Gorge Dam (36251748603).jpg|thumb|The [[Skagit River Hydroelectric Project|Gorge Dam]] was used as a filming location{{citation needed|date=November 2023}}]]

===Cinematography===
Frady is often filmed from great distances, suggesting that he is being watched.<ref name="slate"/>

===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 [[Jack Ruby Shoots Lee Harvey Oswald|captures the moment Oswald is shot]]). The montage also uses a drawing of the [[Marvel Comics]] character ''[[Thor (comic book)|Thor]]'', as illustrated by [[Jack Kirby]]. The images 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.<ref name="esq"/> It has been compared to the brainwashing scene in [[Stanley Kubrick]]'s 1971 film ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]''.<ref name="NR">{{cite news|last=Smith|first=Kyle|date=August 14, 2020|title=The Political Noir for the Age of Assassination|url=https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/movie-review-the-parallax-view-seventies-liberal-paranoia-powers-thriller/|work=National Review|access-date=September 20, 2020|archive-date=September 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200924161104/https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/08/movie-review-the-parallax-view-seventies-liberal-paranoia-powers-thriller/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="esq">{{cite news|last=Semley|first=John|date=November 20, 2013|title=The Best Scene in the Best Conspiracy Thriller Ever|url=https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a26032/the-parallax-view-scene/|work=Esquire|access-date=September 20, 2020|archive-date=December 5, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201205132231/https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a26032/the-parallax-view-scene/|url-status=live}}</ref>

==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."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/parallax_view |title=''The Parallax View'' |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |access-date=June 15, 2024 |archive-date=September 27, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200927213902/https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/parallax_view |url-status=live }}</ref> On [[Metacritic]] the film has a weighted average score of 65 out of 100 based on 12 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".<ref>{{cite web |title=The Parallax View |url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-parallax-view |website=[[Metacritic]] |access-date=2021-01-01 |archive-date=2020-11-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115053911/https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-parallax-view |url-status=live }}</ref>

[[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 (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."<ref name="ebert">{{cite news |date=June 14, 1974 |last=Ebert |first= Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |url=http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19740614/REVIEWS/811039998/1023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081112091545/http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19740614/REVIEWS/811039998/1023 |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 12, 2008 |title=''The Parallax View''|work=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |access-date=October 1, 2009 }}</ref> 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."<ref name="canby">{{cite news|last=Canby|first=Vincent|author-link=Vincent Canby|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=EE05E7DF173DA62CA34A4CC6B679988C6896&partner=Rotten%20Tomatoes|title=''The Parallax View''|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=June 20, 1974|access-date=October 1, 2009|archive-date=January 21, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230121155933/https://www.nytimes.com/reviews/movies|url-status=live}}</ref> [[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."<ref name="slate2">{{cite news|last=Simon|first=Art|date=July 21, 2017|title=In The Parallax View, Conspiracy Goes All the Way to the Top—and Beyond|url=https://slate.com/culture/2017/07/the-parallax-view-is-a-70s-paranoid-classic-about-evil-corporations-and-political-assassinations.html|work=Slate|access-date=September 20, 2020|archive-date=October 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031124803/https://slate.com/culture/2017/07/the-parallax-view-is-a-70s-paranoid-classic-about-evil-corporations-and-political-assassinations.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

''[[Time (magazine)|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''."<ref name="schickel">{{cite magazine|last= Schickel|first=Richard|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943929,00.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081222052324/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,943929,00.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=December 22, 2008|title=Paranoid Thriller|magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]]|date= July 8, 1974|access-date=October 1, 2009}}</ref>

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."<ref name="nashawaty">{{cite magazine|last=Nashawaty|first=Chris|url=https://ew.com/article/2006/07/12/parallax-view-and-other-great-beatty-roles|title=The Parallax View and other great Beatty roles|magazine=[[Entertainment Weekly]]|date=July 12, 2006|access-date=October 7, 2022|archive-date=October 13, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221013015902/https://ew.com/article/2006/07/12/parallax-view-and-other-great-beatty-roles/|url-status=live}}</ref>

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 (franchise)|Dragnet]]''’s [[Joe Friday]] and the schoolyard taunt [']fraidy cat.'"<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.filmscoremonthly.com/notes/parallax_view.html |title=The Parallax View |website=[[Film Score Monthly]] | date=2010 |access-date=May 29, 2023 }}</ref>

The motion picture won the Critics Award at the [[Avoriaz#Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival|Avoriaz Film Festival]] (France) and was nominated for the [[Edgar Award|Edgar Allan Poe Award]] for [[List of Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay winners|Best Motion Picture]]. Gordon Willis won the [[National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Cinematography|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".<ref>{{cite news|last=Cox|first=Alex|date=November 19, 2013|title=''The Parallax View'': a JFK conspiracy film that gets it right|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/nov/19/the-parallax-view-kennedy-assassination|work=The Guardian|location=London|access-date=September 20, 2020|archive-date=October 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201031152039/https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2013/nov/19/the-parallax-view-kennedy-assassination|url-status=live}}</ref> Film critic [[Matt Zoller Seitz]] has called it "a damn near perfect movie".<ref>{{cite tweet |author-link=Matt Zoller Seitz |user=mattzollerseitz |number=309891733985058816 |date=March 8, 2013 |title=THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974). Dir: Alan J. Pakula. DP: Gordon Willis. A damn near perfect movie. }}</ref>

==See also==
* ''[[Arlington Road]]''
* [[Assassinations in fiction]]
* ''[[Executive Action (film)|Executive Action]]''
* [[List of American films of 1974]]
* [[List of cult films]]
* [[List of films featuring surveillance]]
* ''[[The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)|The Manchurian Candidate]]''
* [[Permindex]]
* ''[[Winter Kills (film)|Winter Kills]]''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb title|0071970|The Parallax View}}
* [http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s76parallax.html DVD Savant review of the montage]
*[https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/7272-the-parallax-view-dark-towers ''The Parallax View: Dark Towers''] an essay by Nathan Heller at the [[Criterion Collection]]

{{Alan J. Pakula}}
{{David Giler}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Parallax View, The}}
[[Category:1970s American films]]
[[Category:1970s English-language films]]
[[Category:1970s political thriller films]]
[[Category:1970s psychological thriller films]]
[[Category:1974 films]]
[[Category:American neo-noir films]]
[[Category:American political thriller films]]
[[Category:English-language political thriller films]]
[[Category:Films about assassinations]]
[[Category:Films about conspiracy theories]]
[[Category:Films about journalists]]
[[Category:Films based on American thriller novels]]
[[Category:Films directed by Alan J. Pakula]]
[[Category:Films scored by Michael Small]]
[[Category:Films set in Atlanta]]
[[Category:Films set in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Films set in Oregon]]
[[Category:Films set in Seattle]]
[[Category:Films shot in Los Angeles]]
[[Category:Films shot in Washington (state)]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by David Giler]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Lorenzo Semple Jr.]]
[[Category:Films with screenplays by Robert Towne]]
[[Category:Paramount Pictures films]]