The Parallax View (1974)

An ambitious reporter gets in way-over-his-head trouble while investigating a senator's assassination which leads to a vast conspiracy involving a multinational corporation behind every event in the worlds headlines.

Director:

Alan J. Pakula

Writers:

David Giler, Lorenzo Semple Jr.,

Stars:

Warren Beatty, Paula Prentiss, William Daniels

2 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Warren Beatty	...	Joseph Frady
Paula Prentiss	...	Lee Carter
William Daniels	...	Austin Tucker
Walter McGinn	...	Jack Younger
Hume Cronyn	...	Bill Rintels
Kelly Thordsen	...	Sheriff L.D. Wicker
Chuck Waters	...	Thomas Richard Linder
Earl Hindman	...	Deputy Red
William Joyce	...	Senator Charles Carroll (as Bill Joyce)
Bettie Johnson	...	Mrs. Charles Carroll
Bill McKinney	...	Parallax Assassin
Jo Ann Harris	...	Chrissy - Frady's Girl (as JoAnne Harris)
Ted Gehring	...	Schecter - Hotel Clerk
Lee Pulford	...	Shirley - Salmontail Bar Girl
Doria Cook-Nelson	...	Gale from Salmontail (as Doria Cook)

Storyline

Joe Frady is a determined reporter who often needs to defend his work from colleagues. After the assassination of a prominent U.S. senator, Frady begins to notice that reporters present during the assassination are dying mysteriously. After getting more involved in the case, Frady begins to realize that the assassination was part of a conspiracy somehow involving the Parallax Corporation, an enigmatic training institute. He then decides to enroll for the Parallax training himself to discover the truth.

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Plot Keywords:

assassination | conspiracy | reporter | senator | investigative reporter | 

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Taglines:

There is no conspiracy. Just twelve people dead.

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Genres:

Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

14 June 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Ubice i svedoci

Filming Locations:

Gorge Dam, Skagit River, Washington, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Doubleday Productions, Gus, Harbor Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In the opening sequence at the Space Needle, a news cameraman is holding a TV camera with a KOMO 4 logo on it. KOMO 4 is an actual Seattle news channel, whose broadcasting center is located just across the street from the Space Needle.

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Goofs

When the deputy pulls up to the sheriff's house, he parks pretty much right behind the sheriff's car. Yet the subsequent shot looking out from the house toward the two cars shows the deputy's car quite a bit past the sheriff's vehicle.

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Quotes

Joseph Frady: Look, why don't you go out and bust up a keno game. Do something worthwhile for chrissakes, you two bit vice squad, you're not only dumb, you're dirty.

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Connections

References Shane (1953)

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Soundtracks

"Wild and Woolly West"
Written by Paul Francis Webster and Sammy Fain

User Reviews

A Triumph in Cinematography as Seeing

The term, parallax, has everything to do with seeing, and as such it is particularly fitting for a film that is about seeing on many levels. Gordon Willis' distinctive cinematography is a perfect match for just such an enterprise. His commanding use of light, shapes, and (most of all) darkness creates a sense of uncertainty that flavors this so-called paranoid thriller. Along with under-sung director Alan J. Pakula, Willis is working here with pretty much the same production team that would next give us _All the President's Men_, but they do as well in this earlier film with apparently a lot less. Contrast the newsroom as shown here with the detailed recreation of The Washington Post in ATPM. It seems like Hume Cronyn and Warren Beatty are the whole newspaper in _The Parallax View_. That's fine. It's supposed to be two-bit paper.

We are shown eyewitnesses who don't know what they thought they saw during an assassination attempt. We don't know what we thought we saw either. We are shown conspirators who are constantly seeing around the next corner. We are kept guessing as well. We follow Warren Beatty nervously as he tries to keep ahead of this game. Kenneth Mars even gives Beatty a second false identity just in case the first one is checked. Finally, we take a slide-show psychological exam right along with Beatty, and perhaps we wonder what our own responses to it show us to be. It's a very special film that allows us to trust the filmmakers even though we know they may be giving us unreliable information. That blind trust seems to be the soul of this truly great movie.

Finally, I'd like to cast a vote for Mr. Beatty as one of our true American acting treasures. Where would the great films of the 70s be without his hip, wise-cracking presence? Did we expect Elliott Gould to do all the work?