The middle film in director Alan J. Pakula’s later-termed “Paranoid Trilogy” (preceded by 1971’s Klute and followed by 1976’s All the President’s Men), 1974’s The Parallax View is the weakest of the trio, though not without some interest, particularly in our current QAnon-era. Called by Slate critic Jonathan Kirshner “the mother of all conspiracy movies,” the film opens with a July 4th celebration at the top of Seattle’s Space Needle that is interrupted when awaiter assassinates a senator (with obvious echoes of the murder of Robert F. Kennedy).
Three years later, witness Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) tells investigative reporter Joseph Frady (WarrenBeatty) that several other bystanders present when the senator was killed have died mysteriously and she fears for her own life. Cut to the morgue, where Lee lies dead, which sends Frady on a journalistic expedition—despite the initial skepticism of his newspaper boss, Bill Rintels (Hume Cronyn)—that will ultimately lead to the Parallax Corporation, a sinister, vaguely right-wing entity that recruits violence-prone social misfits who are then conditioned (in Manchurian Candidate fashion) into becoming killers for hire by powerful entities.
One of the highlights of the film is the Clockwork Orange-like image/music reel that potential assassins watch—mixing sex, violence, and patriotic symbols with words including “Love,” Me,” “Home,” “Country,” “Enemy,” “God,” and “Happiness” flashed throughout. The Parallax View is loaded with action pieces in large settings, including an exploding boat seemingly in the middle of the ocean, a dam releasing a thunderous avalanche of water, and a chase in a mostly empty Los Angeles Convention Center. But the suspense fizzles in some of the more extended scenes, while the story, in general, suffers from a meandering script (the film had multiple writers, including script doctor Robert Towne).
Making its Blu-ray debut with a fine restored 4K digital transfer, extras include a new introduction by filmmaker Alex Cox (who pines on why the lone assassin theory in JFK’s assassination is wrong), interviews with director Alan J. Pakula from 1974 and 1995, a new featurette on cinematographer Gordon Willis, a new interview with Jon Boorstin (assistant to Pakula on The Parallax View), and a leaflet with an essay by critic Nathan Heller and a 1974 interview with Pakula.
Although it has many faults, The Parallax View is also a time capsule movie of the Watergate era in which skepticism and cynicism were rampant and conspiracies were everywhere—kind of like today. A strong optional purchase.