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 world's 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)
Betty Murray	...	Mrs. Charles Carroll (as Bettie Johnson)
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:

conspiracy | reporter | investigative reporter | conspiracy theory | assassination plot | 

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Taglines:

There is no conspiracy. Just twelve people dead.

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Genres:

Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 September 1974 (Sweden)

Also Known As:

Zeuge einer Verschwörung

Filming Locations:

Griffith Park & Southern Railroad - 4400 Crystal Springs Dr, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Doubleday Productions,Gus,Harbor Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The film is adapted from a 1970 novel by Loren Singer with the same title, about a reporter's dangerous investigation into an obscure organization, the Parallax Corporation, whose primary enterprise is political assassination.

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Goofs

Bill Rintels takes the lid off the coffee cup he just has been delivered and throws it in what is supposed to be an office garbage bin. You can clearly hear the lid hitting the floor and taking a second to stabilize.

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Quotes

Austin Tucker: Now I don't know what you want but if it's money, I'll give you ten thousand dollars to keep me out of it. You don't mention my name, you don't come looking for me. All I want is to stay out of it.
Joseph Frady: Sorry, Mr. Tucker, you've got information I need. Money doesn't mean anything to me. This story's gonna mean more to me than ten thousand dollars.
Austin Tucker: Fella, you don't know what this story means.

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Connections

References The Hour of the Furnaces (1968)

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Soundtracks

Blue Hawaii
Written by Ralph Rainger and Leo Robin

User Reviews

Groundbreaking and brave genre definer.

You won't get any answers from this film. Because giving us definitive answers would be contrary to the entire point of the film. If you have a single definitive answer (or view), then you don't have a parallax (view).

Everyone will come out of this film with a different idea of what it was about or what really happened -- their own interpretations of the information presented to them -- kind of like how conspiracy theorists generally operate.

For example, Zapruder shot his JFK film from one angle -- and 12 other people also shot films or photos at the moments of the assassination, all from different angles (or points of view). Not to mention the many other people who were present that day to witness it, who also saw things from their own point of view. Some folks saw movement in the grassy knoll, others didn't.

In the end, we'll probably never truly know the answers to these sorts of things. And the search for the answers can be a slippery path to travel... Which is what we can only assume Warren Beatty's character learns in the final moments of the film. But really, that's just from my point of view.