The Parallax View Is the Best Political Assassination Thriller

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Summary

  • Released during a bleak era,
    The Parallax View
    taps into widespread paranoia and distrust of government institutions.
  • The film’s protagonist, played by Warren Beatty, finds himself immersed in a vast conspiracy beyond his understanding.
  • The dark and fatalistic ending of
    The Parallax View
    reflects the film’s commitment to maintaining a bleak vision with merciless honesty.

As a cinephile with a deep appreciation for the 70s cinema, I find myself utterly captivated by Warren Beatty’s performance in “The Parallax View.” Being someone who has been immersed in the world of politics and activism, Beatty’s portrayal of Joseph Frady resonates on a profound level. The film’s exploration of paranoia as a representation of intelligence is a theme that echoes in the political landscape even today.

Introduced in 1974, “The Parallax View” stood out as one of the most disheartening films during a particularly disillusioned decade. One of the chilling elements of this movie, featuring Warren Beatty as a journalist whose probe into a senator’s murder uncovers a vast web of conspiracy, is its uncanny resemblance to the somber times it portrays.

In the wake of Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination six years prior, and with Richard Nixon about to become the first U.S. president to resign just two months later, The Parallax View was released during a time when public sentiment was particularly cynical and pessimistic. This mood made people more receptive to questioning government institutions, entertaining conspiracy theories, and viewing them in a negative light than at any other point throughout history.

be cautious and don’t trust anyone blindly.

The Parallax View Is the Ultimate Conspiracy Thriller

In the opening scene of The Parallax View, a palpable feeling of suspicion and paranoia is introduced as Warren Beatty’s character, journalist Joseph Frady, attends a political rally atop Seattle’s Space Needle. During this event, an assassin disguised as a waiter murders a U.S. senator, while the actual culprit escapes unnoticed. Three years pass, and several eyewitnesses to the murder meet untimely, suspicious deaths. Frady initially dismisses his ex-girlfriend Lee’s (also a witness) theories about a conspiracy, but he starts to question her paranoia after she dies under mysterious circumstances.

With growing certainty that Lee’s fear was valid, Frady initiates his independent probe. During this investigation, he unearths documents pertaining to the movie’s central entity, The Parallax Corporation – a company known for recruiting psychopaths and transforming them into deadly assassins. After filling out a written Parallax personality assessment, the supposedly deceased Frady, who had faked his death in a boat explosion that also claimed another witness, applies to join Parallax under a false identity.

Following communication with a representative from Parallax, Frady journeys to their LA base. Inside, he finds himself in a dimly lit room undergoing intense psychological manipulation through a barrage of culturally significant visuals designed to evaluate his suitability as an assassin. This well-known training sequence, reminiscent of the mind control scene in Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange, incorporates a diverse array of historical and pop culture icons, such as Adolf Hitler and Marvel Comics character Thor. These iconic figures are interwoven with black text on white backgrounds bearing phrases like “country,” “father,” “god,” “happiness,” and “self.”

Through showing the terrifying montage solely from his perspective without any response shots of Frady, the viewers perceive the montage in the same way he does. This leaves them with a similar task to gauge their emotions towards this rapid succession of vivid images and symbols, which are so fast-paced and captivating that it’s hard to look away.

Warren Beatty Plays a Paranoid Hero in The Parallax View

During the 1970s, a period known for its boom in conspiracy and paranoia-themed movies, Warren Beatty, with his captivating charm and stardom, proved to be an ideal choice for portraying the paranoid protagonist Joseph Frady in “The Parallax View.” This was because in the 1970s, paranoia wasn’t seen as a symptom of delusion or madness, but rather as a sign of intelligence – a trait that Beatty excelled at showcasing through his acting career.

Furthermore, given Beatty’s well-known political activism, particularly his longstanding support for the Democratic Party, it raises questions about whether Beatty, who rarely, if ever, discusses The Parallax View, may have been as deeply affected by the events that served as inspiration for the film as the character Frady appears to be by the political assassination depicted at the beginning of the movie.

In the vein of ’70s characters grappling with paranoia, such as Jack Nicholson’s Jake Gittes in Chinatown, Gene Hackman’s Harry Caul in The Conversation, and another Hackman role, Harry Moseby in Night Moves, Frady steps into the mystery of The Parallax View. Initially believing he understands the situation, he soon finds himself engulfed in a conspiracy that eclipses his expectations in intricacy and scope. Similar to his paranoid-hero contemporaries, Frady’s character weaknesses – his anti-authoritarian leanings and impulsive, disorganized nature – serve him as potential candidates for the Parallax but hinder his objective of unmasking and stopping the Parallax conspiracy. Regrettably, he is fated to play the role of a pawn in this grand scheme.

The Parallax View Is About the Death of Hope

In the movie “The Parallax View,” Warren Beatty’s charisma is skillfully employed to instill in viewers an assumption that his character, Joseph Frady, will ultimately triumph or at least endure until the film’s conclusion. This expectation arises particularly strongly after Frady overcomes such a challenging series of obstacles to reach this crucial stage.

“The Parallax View” challenges our expectations with one of the bleakest endings in cinematic history, demonstrating the film’s unwavering dedication to its grim vision, devoid of any sentimentality or compromise. The disheartening and chilling climax is as discouraging as it is frightening, leaving the viewer with a sense that Frady was fighting an insurmountable odds from the start. You can rent “The Parallax View” on Prime Video and Apple TV.

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2024-08-03 22:34