The Parallax View is another film about the paranoid decade of the 70's. Warren Beatty plays Joe Frady a reporter. After a senator is murdered at a luncheon that Joe is denied access to, he finds out all of the reporters that had been present at the luncheon are being murdered as well. Joe decides he is going to figure out who is behind all of the murders.
I really like this movie, much like The Conversation its shows the paranoia of the decade very well. With all of the unethical things the government did in the 70's, things like Watergate and Vietnam. After those what else could the government be capable of doing. We have the same worries now. The government hasn't actually even given us any reason to think they are anymore trustworthy than they were in the 70's. In fact, the govenment and its officials have given us even more reasons to not trust them.
The most profound part of the film for me is the montage Joe watches when he starts working for the Parallax Corparation. It actually reaminds me of another 70's film A Clockwork Orange. After Alex (Malcolm McDowell) gets arrested for raping and robbing a woman he signs up for an expriamental therapy and they show him a montage much like the one Joe watches. The two videos are meant to do two different things. The film from A Clockwork Orange is meant to kick Alex of his criminal behavior. The film from The Parallax View was meant to turn Joe into an assassan. Although I guess that shows the power of subliminal messaging right, Alex couldn't even listen to Beethoven again. What if the government really could control our minds through films, who knows what the world would be like then.
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