MovieChat Forums > The Parallax View (1974) Discussion > Scene in the wrong place?

Scene in the wrong place?

posted 18 years ago by Roy_Bland
7 replies | jump to latest

I have always loved this film, but have long been puzzled by the fact that one scene appears to be in entirely the wrong place. When Beatty meets Kenneth Mars on the novelty railway he asks him how he might establish an identity in line with that sought by the Parallax Corporation -- somebody with a violent background -- but at this stage in the film he knows nothing about Parallax or about their preferred candidates. The scene clearly was supposed to appear later in the film. Bizarre. Any comments?

[–] gnolti 18 years ago

Hmmm...

This is not a psychotic episode. This is a cleansing moment of clarity.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] gnolti 18 years ago

I watched the scene again last night and heard no mention of Parallax Corporation. It was a smart idea to have a backup secret identity in place beforehand, though.

This is not a psychotic episode. This is a cleansing moment of clarity.

[–] Roy_Bland 18 years ago

Oh there is no mention of the Parallax Corporation. But the specific identity he is seeking is one defined by the information he later learns about Parallax. There is -- at this point -- no reason for him to ask Mars how to look as if he had a violent past.

God, I sound a bit like a conspiracy theorist myself.

[–] kinnyhova 18 years ago

watchn it right now and you are right.

[–] m-t1 17 years ago

Interesting idea. So much so that I've just watched the beginning of the film again to check it out.

The follwing is just my opinion:

I agree, it's weird that Frady asks for his alias to be 'a social misfit' (or how ever he expresses it) before he knows that this is going to be especially useful in the investigation. But, even so, I don't think that the scene is in the wrong place. I just think that were are supposed to believe that Frady asks for this as it could come in useful for all sorts of situations.

Right after the car chase scene, Frady is talking to his editor. Frady tells him that the sheriff didn't know who he was as he hadn't given him his name. And he says that he registered at a hotel under a false name - presumably the one which the Mars character gave to him. (The fact that he didn't give a name to the sheriff seems a bit weird too. The fact that they both met up at the dam implies that they must have spent quite a lot of time talking to each other at some point.)

Or I suppose that the scenes could still be out of order, but then Frady would have had to use his own false name at the hotel before then getting another one from the Mars character later on. Either way, I agree that the film doesn't deal with the 'social misfit' request especially well. It would have perhaps been better if a line of dialogue had been added to explain why Frady wanted this, if the scenes were originally to be put in this order.

[–] JohnnyJohnson (400) a year ago

Perhaps Frady was finally convinced that Lee was correct that she was on a "list" to be killed, and that he was next, and decided to get a fake ID of someone no one would care about. If he were to continue his investigative reporting it'd probably be best if he's seen as just some loser misfit that isn't a threat to anyone and just wants to live below the grade. It just seems he would have changed his look along with that and not have his $400 Beverly Hills haircut throughout, but WB is, well, oh so vain. Plus, there likely is SOME photo of Frady at the Space Needle that day, that a company like Parallax would be on top of, and possibly noticed he tried to go up in the elevator with the Senator and Lee and whoever else. And lo and behold the same guy with the same hairdo is going around questioning the deaths, and he looks just like that journalist....

As brilliant as some feel the writing is in this movie, it has to be noted that they were basically writing the script as the movie was going, so there are going to be plot points that won't make sense. Hume Cronyn even asked the producers two days before he filmed his scenes if he was going to be a police chief or an editor. It was either brilliant to some or horribly thrown together to others.