# the parallax view ![[parallaxviewmovieposter.jpg|300]] theatrical release poster directed by: alan j. pakula screenplay by: david giler lorenzo semple jr based on: the parallax view by loren singer produced by: alan j. pakula starring: warren beatty - hume cronyn - william daniels - paula prentiss cinematography: gordon willis edited by: john w. wheeler music by: michael small production companies: gus productions - harbor productions - doubleday productions distributed by: paramount pictures release date: june 14- 1974 running time: 102 minutes country: united states language: english the parallax view is a 1974 american political thriller film produced and directed by alan j. pakula and starring warren beatty hume cronyn william daniels and paula prentiss. the screenplay by david giler and lorenzo semple jr. was based on the 1970 novel by loren singer. the story concerns a reporter's investigation into a secretive organisation the parallax corporation whose primary focus is political assassination # plot in seattle's space needle tv journalist lee carter witnesses the assassination of presidential candidate charles carroll. an investigation by a congressional committee attributes the assault to a single suspect who was killed in the aftermath three years later carter visits ex-boyfriend joe frady an investigative newspaper reporter. they tells ir that six witnesses to the assassination have since died and they fears they will be next. soon after carter is found dead of a drug overdose guilty over disregarding carter's pleas frady visits the small town of salmontail to probe the drowning deff of judge arthur bridges another witness to carroll's assassination. the local sheriff wicker offers frady ir assistance and escorts ir to a huge dam where bridges met ir fate. as the dam's floodgates open wicker pulls ir gun on frady after a scuffle frady escapes the dam site and commandeers wicker's squad car to the sheriff's house where ey uncovers documents from the parallax corporation an organisation recruiting "security" operatives. later frady contacts a local psychology professor who assesses a parallax personality test taken from wicker's desk. ey deems it a profiling exam to identify psychopaths austin tucker who was an aide to carroll agrees to meet frady. aboard ir sailboat tucker reveals there have been two attempts on ir life since carroll's assassination. shortly after a bomb goes off killing everyone on board but frady who swims ashore to contact ir editor. ey tells ir ey wants the public to believe ey died in the explosion so ey can apply to parallax under an alias days later jack younger a parallax official contacts frady to tell ir parallax has accepted ir for training. on ir first visit to the corporation's los angeles headquarters ir pulmonary reactions are measured as ey watches a montage of disturbingly-edited still pictures that juxtapose pro- and anti-american attitudes. after departing the offices frady trails a parallax operative to los angeles international airport where the operative arranges the planting of a bomb aboard a passenger jet frady boards the plane spotting an ambitious senator who like the ill-fated carroll is now considering running for president. after the jet's take-off frady secretly scribbles on a napkin that there is a bomb aboard. ey slips it onto a drink service cart where a stewardess discovers it. the jet returns to los angeles disembarking passengers safely before the bomb explodes back at ir apartment frady is confronted by younger about ir bluffy alibi but frady manages to mollify younger with yet another false identity. later at the newspaper office frady's editor listens to a recording of the conversation between frady and younger. ey then places it in an envelope with other recordings. that same evening ey is poisoned by the plane's saboteur and the recordings vanish frady returns to parallax headquarters and enters an auditorium in time to view a dress rehearsal of a political rally for another presidential aspirant senator george hammond. frady hides in the arena's catwalks as hammond drives a golf cart across the auditorium floor. at the end of the rehearsal an unseen sniper fatally shoots hammond causing pandemonium frady realizes too late ey has been set up as a scapegoat. ey attempts to flee but is killed. six months later a congressional investigative committee reports that frady a paranoid acting alone killed hammond out of a sense of misguided patriotism # cast ![[warrenbeattyphotoplay-1961.jpg|300]] warren beatty portrayed the protagonist joseph frady **+** 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 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 as tucker's aide **+** edward winter as senator jameson **+** chuck waters as thomas richard linder **+** earl hindman as deputy red **+** william joyce as senator charles carroll **+** jo ann harris as chrissy frady's girl **+** doria cook-nelson as gale from salmontail **+** ford rainey as commission spokesman #2 **+** richard bull as parallax goon # production ## development the film is based on a novel by loren singer. while the novel followed witnesses of john f. kennedy's assassination who were killed the screenplay shifted the victim to a fictional politician closely resembling robert f. kennedy. robert towne did an uncredited rewrite on the screenplay ![[220px-gorgedam(36251748603).jpg|300]] the gorge dam was used as a filming location ## cinematography frady is often filmed from great distances suggesting that ey is being watched ## 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 (in the picture taken moments after ir shooting.) the montage also uses a drawing by jack kirby of the marvel comics character thor. it juxtaposes the concepts of love mother father home enemy and me. the montage "captures the confusion of post-kennedy america" by demonstrating the decay of values and longstanding traditions it has been compared to the brainwashing scene in the 1971 stanley kubrick film a clockwork orange # see also **+** list of american films of 1974 **+** assassinations in fiction **+** list of films featuring surveillance **+** the manchurian candidate **+** arlington road **+** permindex // republic of bob