BY TODD GARBARINI
The
late Loren Adelson Singer, who passed away in 2009, has published several
novels as an author, among them That’s the House, There (1973), Boca
Grande (1974), and Making Good (1993). His first work, 1970’s The
Parallax View, published by Doubleday, was written as an answer to his disdain
for the printing business he worked at with his father-in-law and proved to be
enough of a success to permit him to become a paid author. The inspiration for
the book came from the covert operations he assisted in while training with the
Office of Strategic Services and was penned following the high-profile political
assassinations of the 1960’s. It also provided the blueprint for the film of
the same title directed by the late Alan J. Pakula, the second in his informally
named “paranoia trilogy,†bookended by Klute (1971) and All the
President’s Men (1976).
The
Parallax View concerns
the mysterious workings of a corporate entity, The Parallax Corporation, that
appears to be behind the assassinations of political nominees regardless of
which side of the aisle they sit on. It is 1971 and Charles Carroll (William
Joyce) is campaigning while at a luncheon atop Seattle’s Space Needle. Lee
Carter (Paula Prentiss) is covering the event for a television news story and her
ex-boyfriend, newspaper reporter Joe Frady (Warren Beatty), attempts to gain
access to the event but is denied entry when Carter shrugs him off. An
associate of Carroll’s, Austin Tucker (William Daniels), speaks with Carter in
a short on-camera interview. Two sinister-looking waiters (Bill McKinney and Richard
Bull) serve food when suddenly the former shoots and kills Carroll in front of
shocked and horrified guests. A chase ensues and the other “waiter†falls to
his death.
Three
years later, a shaken Carter goes to Frady and unleashes a tale of paranoia,
revealing that several witnesses at the luncheon have all died under mysterious
circumstances. Frady initially brushes off her concerns until Carter is found
dead 24 hours later. Out of guilt, he begins to investigate the deaths and in a
major scene lifted straight from the novel he nearly dies himself, outsmarting
a “sheriff†who sets Frady up to be drowned at the hands of a deluge running
out from a dam (in the novel it’s a “helpful hotel managerâ€). Frady manages to
secure documents concerning the Parallax Corporation from the sheriff’s house
and tries to convince his skeptical editor, Bill Rintels (Hume Cronyn), of the
links to the deaths. Frady then turns his attention to Austin Tucker and
accompanies Tucker and his aide on a yacht ride to talk – until a bomb onboard
kills both men and Frady narrowly escapes by jumping overboard. It seems that
wherever Frady goes, a Parallax minion is not too far behind. This sets in
motion a series of near logic-defying events which results in an ending of ambivalence.
To
fully appreciate this film in 2021, one needs to be aware of the climate of
fear and panic that must have pervaded the zeitgeist in the 1960’s and 1970’s
when seemingly no one could be trusted. After the assassinations of John F.
Kennedy in November 1963, Malcolm Little/Malcolm X in February 1965, Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr. in April 1968, and Robert F. Kennedy in June 1968, who really
could? The film was shot in the Spring of 1973 while the country was in the
Watergate scandal and points to evil forces at work that Frady hope to get to
the bottom of. In the novel, Joe’s name is Malcolm Graham and works with Austin
Tucker to uncover the mystery.
Conspiracy
thrillers of this era concerned with Everyman against the Establishment often
possessed creepy, minimalist musical scores and The Parallax View is no
exception. Michael Small provides an excellent theme on the heels of his work
for Klute prior to passing the baton to David Shire on All the
President’s Men (Mr. Shire coincidentally scored Francis Coppola’s, his
then-brother-in-law, masterful The Conversation in 1974). It is
reminiscent of the music he would later write for John Schlesinger’s Marathon
Man (1976).
Walter
McGinn, the late actor who sadly died in an automobile accident in March 1977,
is excellent as Jack Younger, a rep from The Parallax Corporation who is sent
to feel out and vet Frady (who is assuming the identity of “Richard†and
wanting to give the impression that he died on the boat) based on his (forged)
test results. One can only wonder if Jack has fallen for Frady’s/Richard’s ploy,
or if he is actually privy to the deliberate subterfuge – given how meticulous
and cold The Parallax Corporation is, and the transpiring of events during the
film’s ending, one has to assume the latter. The audience is made to believe
that the Corporation is for more sophisticated than the average company at the
time, if they have access to top-of-the line intelligence and money-is-no-option/sophisticated
surveillance equipment. A shrewd viewer will beg the questions: how did The
Parallax Corporation manage to keep several steps ahead of the subjects it
intended to kill? Assuming they did had access to top security equipment, how were
they able to harness it? One could theoretically drive themselves crazy
pondering such questions.