After the optimism and idealism of the 1960s came the scepticism and unease of the 1970s. The assassination of President John Kennedy had been shocking and the findings of the Warren Commission had left the majority of the public unconvinced. Most didn't believe that Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone and there was also a strong belief that there had been a high level cover up.
When the President's brother Robert was later assassinated in circumstances which also led many to believe that a second gunman had been involved, public distrust of official explanations grew even deeper and the Watergate scandal reinforced the opinions of those who believed that corruption, cover ups and conspiracies were routinely being practised on a massive scale by ruthless groups who simply served their own interests and certainly didn't hold themselves accountable to the general public.
"The Parallax View" captures perfectly the ominous and unsettling mood of this period when suspicion and cynicism were widespread and an increasingly apprehensive public became convinced that truth and integrity had become the greatest casualties of the era.
When Joe Frady (Warren Beatty), a reporter for a small time newspaper is visited by his ex-girlfriend Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss), she tells him that she's terrified and fears for her life. Three years previously, she'd been a television reporter at an event at the Space Needle in Seattle where she'd witnessed the assassination of Senator Charles Carroll (William Joyce) and since that time six other witnesses had died unexpectedly. Her fear is that she'll be the next witness to be killed. Frady dismisses her concerns as being unfounded and regards the series of deaths as pure coincidence. When Lee's dead body is found shortly after and her death is recorded as either a suicide or the result of an accidental overdose, Frady decides to investigate further.
Frady's investigations lead him to the town of Salmontail where he gets involved in a fight with the local deputy sheriff and survives an attempt on his life before discovering some papers about the Parallax Corporation which appears to be an organisation which hires political assassins. He then meets Senator Carroll's ex-adviser on a boat which is destroyed when a bomb explodes. Frady is presumed dead and this enables him to continue his work under an assumed name.
Frady subsequently applies to join the Parallax Corporation and after being accepted finds himself involved in some tense situations when a bomb is planted on a plane and again when another Senator is assassinated at a convention hall.
The plot of "The Parallax View" is given credibility by the inclusion of elements which are recognisable from the JFK assassination (more than one gunman involved and the untimely deaths of witnesses) and an investigator who like Woodward and Bernstein (in the case of the Watergate investigation) is a newspaper reporter. Furthermore, a powerful montage of images and titles which form part of the psychological test which Frady has to undergo in order to be recruited into the Parallax Corporation, shows a very simple method by which a candidate's values and beliefs could easily be distorted.
Frady is a flawed character who clearly believed he was a good deal smarter than he was and whose career had been set back by what his editor described as creative irresponsibility and drinking. When he embarked on his investigation, he was immediately out of his depth and totally underestimated the degrees of danger and deception he would encounter. On screen, this is symbolised on a number of occasions as he's seen dwarfed against an enormous dam or against the huge exterior wall of a convention hall or minimised in the centre of the frame when he's about to take the Parallax recruitment test.
Importantly, Warren Beatty is always believable as the main character in this movie which so brilliantly conveys the sense of disenchantment and paranoia which pervaded a period of time which was later seen by many as representing an end to innocence.
When the President's brother Robert was later assassinated in circumstances which also led many to believe that a second gunman had been involved, public distrust of official explanations grew even deeper and the Watergate scandal reinforced the opinions of those who believed that corruption, cover ups and conspiracies were routinely being practised on a massive scale by ruthless groups who simply served their own interests and certainly didn't hold themselves accountable to the general public.
"The Parallax View" captures perfectly the ominous and unsettling mood of this period when suspicion and cynicism were widespread and an increasingly apprehensive public became convinced that truth and integrity had become the greatest casualties of the era.
When Joe Frady (Warren Beatty), a reporter for a small time newspaper is visited by his ex-girlfriend Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss), she tells him that she's terrified and fears for her life. Three years previously, she'd been a television reporter at an event at the Space Needle in Seattle where she'd witnessed the assassination of Senator Charles Carroll (William Joyce) and since that time six other witnesses had died unexpectedly. Her fear is that she'll be the next witness to be killed. Frady dismisses her concerns as being unfounded and regards the series of deaths as pure coincidence. When Lee's dead body is found shortly after and her death is recorded as either a suicide or the result of an accidental overdose, Frady decides to investigate further.
Frady's investigations lead him to the town of Salmontail where he gets involved in a fight with the local deputy sheriff and survives an attempt on his life before discovering some papers about the Parallax Corporation which appears to be an organisation which hires political assassins. He then meets Senator Carroll's ex-adviser on a boat which is destroyed when a bomb explodes. Frady is presumed dead and this enables him to continue his work under an assumed name.
Frady subsequently applies to join the Parallax Corporation and after being accepted finds himself involved in some tense situations when a bomb is planted on a plane and again when another Senator is assassinated at a convention hall.
The plot of "The Parallax View" is given credibility by the inclusion of elements which are recognisable from the JFK assassination (more than one gunman involved and the untimely deaths of witnesses) and an investigator who like Woodward and Bernstein (in the case of the Watergate investigation) is a newspaper reporter. Furthermore, a powerful montage of images and titles which form part of the psychological test which Frady has to undergo in order to be recruited into the Parallax Corporation, shows a very simple method by which a candidate's values and beliefs could easily be distorted.
Frady is a flawed character who clearly believed he was a good deal smarter than he was and whose career had been set back by what his editor described as creative irresponsibility and drinking. When he embarked on his investigation, he was immediately out of his depth and totally underestimated the degrees of danger and deception he would encounter. On screen, this is symbolised on a number of occasions as he's seen dwarfed against an enormous dam or against the huge exterior wall of a convention hall or minimised in the centre of the frame when he's about to take the Parallax recruitment test.
Importantly, Warren Beatty is always believable as the main character in this movie which so brilliantly conveys the sense of disenchantment and paranoia which pervaded a period of time which was later seen by many as representing an end to innocence.