The Parallax View (1974)

Director:

Alan J. Pakula

Writers:

David Giler (writer) and
Lorenzo Semple Jr. (writer) ...

Release Date:

14 June 1974 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Tagline:

There is no conspiracy. Just twelve people dead.

Plot:

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.

Plot Keywords:

Assassination | Conspiracy | Reporter | Senator | Investigative Reporter

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

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)

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Brazil:12 | UK:AA | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Canada:R (Ontario) | France:U | Norway:16 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | USA:R (certificate #23909)

Filming Locations:

Gorge Dam, Skagit River, Washington, USA

Company:

Doubleday Productions

Trivia:

The opening sequence was designed to mirror that of Robert F. Kennedy's 1968 assassination.

Goofs:

Continuity: The sheriff's police cruiser switches from a 1973 Plymouth Satellite Custom to a 1973 Dodge Coronet where Frady takes a shortcut through a construction site. And when he crashes the cop car in a local Safeway, the cop cruiser is a 1973 Plymouth.

Quotes:

Gail: They say a martini is like a woman's breast: one ain't enough and three is too many.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Echelon Conspiracy/Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li/Crossing Over (#1.1)" (2009)

Soundtrack:

Moon River

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?