Parallax View: The Incredible Montage

"The Parallax View" (1974) by Alan J. Pakula. More info about the sequence at this page:
http://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s76p...

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[Trevor m]

This is a great example of Brecht's alienation effect. In that its a film within a film that has more to do with Pakula's view of 60s America than anything to do with the Parallax corporation's vetting process. Must have been great seeing this in the Cinema for the first time. In the sense that all the audience was sitting the parallax test. Genius.

[Unscouted]

Frankie Boyle.

[Castle Bravo]

Yeah, it was spooky seeing it in a theater on its' release. The whole film was like that though. I think the idea of the film was described visually in the scene where Beatty's character is led to the flood gates of a dam and it's going to open up and drown him. The idea of being swept away by forces far beyond his abilities to control.

[intrptr]

Further. This is how the book (and the movie) took an angle on JFK assassination . "They" either programmed Oswald or pinned it on him.

[intrptr]

If I get you, yah, they eventually figured out Beatty's character didn't fit the profile. I added that at the end they overcame this by leading him along and then pinning the assassination on him instead of letting him do it. They "Patsied" him anyway.

[Metamusik]

I'm assuming SonOfMontag is referring to the Montage as another test and not the written exam. 

[Metamusik]

Recently saw it in the cinema for the first time. Took me by complete surprise and the effect was indeed stunning.

[MisterFuturtastic]

This test reminds me of the scene at the beginning of Bladerunner "you flip the tortoise on it's back Leon"

[Liberator27]

4:44 Who are those people depictured with kalashnikovs and a sack over their heads?

[flectz]

great song

[intrptr]

No, in the movie he fools them in the initial phase of the test by submitting the results of a serial killer in jail that he got to take the test in his place. Thats in the beginning of the movie when he decides to penetrate the organization. But then they turn the tables on him by framing him for the assassination instead of getting him to do it. Brilliant flick.

[SonOfMontag]

The test is meant to bio-electrically vet good candidates for training as political assassins -- "lone gunmen", with a backup hit-team in the field. Like Warren finds out about.

I've always wondered: Was it through the Parallax Test that they found out conclusively that Beatty wasn't a genuine psycho? I would think so...