The Parallax View

The Parallax View is a 1974 American political thriller film produced and directed by Alan J. Pakula, and starring Warren Beatty, Hume Cronyn, William Daniels and Paula Prentiss. The screenplay by David Giler and Lorenzo Semple Jr. was based on the 1970 novel by Loren Singer. The story concerns a reporter's investigation into a secretive organization, the Parallax Corporation, whose primary focus is political assassination. Plot In Seattle's Space Needle, TV journalist Lee Carter witnesses the assassination of presidential candidate Charles Carroll. An investigation by a congressional committee attributes the assault to a single suspect who was killed in the aftermath. Three years later, Carter visits ex-boyfriend Joe Frady, an investigative newspaper reporter. She tells him that six witnesses to the assassination have since died and she fears she will be next. Soon after, Carter is found dead of a drug overdose. Guilty over disregarding Carter's pleas, Frady visits the small town of Salmontail to probe the drowning death of Judge Arthur Bridges, another witness to Carroll's assassination. The local sheriff, Wicker, offers Frady his assistance and escorts him to a huge dam where Bridges met his fate. As the dam's floodgates open, Wicker pulls his gun on Frady.