Conspiracy Thrillers

Conspiracy Thrillers Movie Club: The Parallax View

Why Alan Pakula’s conspiracy flick makes you feel like you’re being brainwashed, too.

The Parallax View (1974)
The Parallax View.

Illustration by Slate. Photo by Doubleday Productions.

To learn more about and join Slate’s Conspiracy Thrillers Movie Club, visit Slate.com/thrillers.

In this fifth episode of Slate’s Conspiracy Thrillers Movie Club, Sam Adams is joined by Matt Zoller Seitz, the editor in chief of RogerEbert.com and TV critic for New York, to talk about The Parallax View. They discuss the film’s famous brainwashing scene and the Kuleshov effect, the strange character of protagonist Joe Frady, and what makes a true paranoid thriller.

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