The Parallax View | 1974
- Locations |
- Los Angeles, California;
- Washington State
- DIRECTOR |
- Alan J Pakula
One of the best of the paranoia thrillers of the 1970s, with echoes of the Kennedy assassinations. It's the centrepiece of Alan J Pakula's brilliant trilogy, between Klute and All The President's Men.
The opening political assassination takes place atop Seattle's Space Needle, 400 Broad Street, the familiar landmark erected for the 1962 World's Fair and featured, not surprisingly, in Elvis Presley's 1962 film It Happened At The World's Fair. Its outline is probably now more famous from the credits of Frasier.
It's open to the public and, for a fee, you can zoom in 41 seconds up to the 518-foot-high Observation Deck with its revolving glass floor.
The miniature train where reporter Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) meets up with the ex-FBI agent (Kenneth Mars) is the Griffith Park & Southern Railroad, 4400 Crystal Springs Drive in Griffith Park, Los Angeles. Opened in 1948, it's still in business.
The dam, at fictitious town of 'Salmontail' where Frady comes close to being drowned, is the Gorge High Dam, one of three major dams on the Skagit River between Newhalem and Diablo in north Washington State. You can view it from Gorge Dam Viewpoint on the North Cascades Highway (State Route 20).
When Frady is summoned to the 'Parallax Corporation' to experience the disturbing audio-visual recruitment test, the headquarters is 600 South Commonwealth Avenue at Lafayette Park, Los Angeles. Formerly the LA Superior Court Tower, there are plans to convert it into apartments.
I was delighted to discover that the undulating features still exist on the forecourt. I hope the change to residential use doesn't see them removed.
The climactic assassination was filmed inside the Los Angeles Convention Center on Figueroa Street in Downtown LA before it was revamped and drastically enlarged to become the structure we know today.