The Parallax View

Alex Cox Moviedrome intro to 'The Parallax View.' (Nov. 93.)

1993 Moviedrome introduction of The Parallax View by Alex Cox, part of the BBC 2's Kennedy Night broadcast on 21 November 1993. I have also uploaded . 

Good intro to The Parallax View from the greatly missed 'Movidrome.' Cox makes some interesting comments regarding the JFK Assassination - Good Stuff. 

Alex Cox introduces The Parallax View for the BBC2 season Moviedrome. 

1993 short monologue by Gore Vidal, part of the BBC's Kennedy Assassination weekend. I have also uploaded other programmes from that weekend: - The 1993 documentary part of the BBC's Kennedy Assassination weekend. I have also uploaded other programmes from that weekend: - The Zapruder Footage, the .

Now bringing BBC Two's Kennedy Night to a close,

slightly later than scheduled a Moviedrome special;

Alex Cox introduces a highly charged political thriller :

The Parallax View

In September 1963, a man called Richard Case Nagel 

walked into A Bank in El Paso, Texas and fired 

three shots into the wall he then sat down 

outside the bank and waited to be arrested; 

when The Police came for him, he surrendered

peacefully telling them he wanted to be

in federal custody because The President

of The United States was shortly to be

assassinated and he did not want to be

The Patsy when The Assassination occurred.

Nagel was a US Army Intelligence Agent 

and if we can believe a new book about him, also 

A Soviet spy and in itself is not implausible :

Double-agents with questionable loyalties 

are the stuff of John le Carré novels and of

actual spycraft — consider our own 

Kim Philby or Anthony Blunt.

Agents are always being turned and 

working for bothsides simultaneously.

What's interesting about Nagel’s claims, reported 

in the book The Man Who Knew Too Much by the

American journalist Dick Russell is that

he says Lee Harvey Oswald was a double

agent - you don't have to believe all of what 

Nagel says; he's a slippery customer -- he served 

several years in jail for bank robbery 

although he made no actual attempt to rob The Bank 

and he was later arrested by Stasi agents on 

the wrong side of the old East German border 

and exchanged for one of their top spies but

for The Record, Nagel says that he, Oswald

and a number of other military men were 

sent by US Army or Naval Intelligence 

to various Iron Curtain countries posing 

as defectors -- their Mission was to win 

the confidence of their KGB or Stasi minders, 

plant falseinformation and come back with 

the real goods -- in the case of Lee Oswald, 

the real goods might even have been Marina, 

the woman whom he married there : she was 

the niece of a high-ranking Russian-

intelligence Colonel whom The West was 

anxious to have defect. 

Nagel says that he himself became uncertain of 

his loyalties -- he alleges Oswald a mediocre marksman 

whom The Marines had uncharacteristically 

taught to speak Russian, actually went 

over to the other side and returned to 

The United States A Soviet agent just 

as the right-wing conspiracy 

always said he was.

In fact now, on The 30th anniversary of

The JFK assassination we're presented

with TV documentaries and books like

Case Closed and Conspiracy of One 

which, surprise-surprise reveal that Oswald

really did act all alone; he wasn't A Spy

at all, not for Them, not for Us; 

he didn't have any friends 

or co-conspirators 

I really find it risable to see these CIA 

and KGB men shaking their heads and

saying "He was A Nut, We had 

nothing to do with him --" 

Well. what do you think 

They're going to say? 

these men have paid

professional spies employers of

assassins and killers I question the

common-sense of any TV or print reporter

who journeys to Minsk or Langley

Virginia pokes a camera in the face of

Lee Harvey Oswald's case officer and

expects to get the true truth out of the

guy :

it's a trifle naive to say the least

The true truth about The JFK assassination 

was probably known to most

of the major intelligence organizations

within a few days if not a few hours of

its occurrence course --

The Russians have a big file on who killed JFK 

and Robert Kennedy they wouldn't be doing their

jobs if they didn't in the same way The FBI 

must have a file on who killed Enrico Mattei, 

The Italian industrialist who went up against 

the Texan oil boys in the 1960s; 

The Indians undoubtedly know 

who blew up General Zia's plane; 

The Nicaraguans certainly know who ordered

The Murder of Olaf Palme -- they've been

dropping hints to that effect for years;

maybe The French can tell us who killed

Hilda Morel, but of course they won't

because The Purpose of secret intelligence 

is that it be kept secret not from our enemies 

because They know already, nor from our allies 

because They're spying on us too but from us --

because it's very important We don't know now 

thirty years on from the most notable 

political assassination of the century --

Let's consider a few of the

others and they've been a lot and how

the media have explained

Mattei, General Zia, President of Pakistan

General Torrijos, President of Panama 

all died in plane crashes, reason 

for the accident unknown 

Dr. Martin Luther King murdered

by a lone assassin definitely no

conspiracy there --

Palme murdered on the

street by a lone madman 

who evaded The Police for months 

who were no conspiracy there, either --

San Francisco Mayor Moscone and 

supervisor Harvey Milk murdered by a

man who'd been driven temporarily manned

by eating candy bars, no one else involved --

Last year Petrocelli murdered

apparently by her lover who went mad 

and shot himself as well 

no conspiracy at all --

Or maybe it's comforting perhaps to

imagine all these murders mostly of

left-wing politicians were the work of

lone loonies, unpaid-for and unplanned 

but what if they weren't? 

What if there really were conspiracies 

behind one or more of these crimes? 

Which brings us to

the parallax view a feature film

directed in 1974 by Alan J Pakula in it

Warren Beatty and Paula Prentiss played

to reporters in Seattle a lone assassin

murder atop the Space Needle said some

thinking what if the assassin didn't act

alone what if a conspiracy was involved

in this case the murder itself seems

modeled on the Robert Kennedy

assassination but it's gun wielding

waiter

it's elusive second assassin and even a

briefly glimpsed girl in a polkadot

dress the aftermath however is pure JFK

a Warren Commission style cover-up

followed by a series of mysterious

deaths of witnesses and journalists the

JFK murder really was rough on reporters

and witnesses the catalog of witnesses

who died from heart attacks car and

plane crashes gun accidents karate chops

to the neck et cetera is very long and

justly notorious what's less known is

the small core of journalists who lost

their lives investigating the case

tonight Paula Prentiss plays a reporter

clearly based on the popular American

columnist Dorothy Killian

the only journalist allowed a private

interview with Jack Ruby who died of an

overdose of alcohol and barbiturates

after publishing several articles

indicating a conspiracy was involved two

other reporters who dug into the Jack

Ruby story also died one of them shot in

the head by a patrolman in Long Beach

City police headquarters the parallax

view was co-written by Lorenzo sample

jr. who penned the equally paranoid

three days of the Condor along with the

early Batman TV shows he has a fine dark

sense of humor as in the scene where

bait he finds himself aboard a plane

that's carrying a bomb the excellent

cinema scope photography is by Gordon

Willis who also shot the Godfather and

many of Woody Allen's films the parallax

view was influential both on Pakula zone

all the President's Men and on Oliver

Stone's JFK which revitalized the

media's interest in the Kennedy

assassination and contributed to the

release of a large quantity of doctored

US government files a none charitable

listener might suggest that John

Williams soundtrack for JFK was not

uninfluenced by Michael smalls excellent

musical score for parallax view Bakula's

film inevitably refers to the Manchurian

Candidate that prophetic tale of double

agents brainwashing and political

assassination magnificently filmed by

John Frankenheimer in 1962 interestingly

Frankenheimer also made a film about an

attempted military coup in the United

States seven days in May the same year

Kennedy was killed whodunit in tonight's

film a mysterious company called the

parallax corporation appears to be

hiring hit men and Patsy's in order to

commit perfect political crimes Jim

Garrison the New Orleans da who was the

hero of Oliver Stone's movie actually

accused the Canadian based company perm

index of doing much the same thing

hiring political hitmen to kill Kennedy

and to attempt to kill de Gaulle 70% of

the adult American population believed

their president was murdered by a

conspiracy who was behind the conspiracy

dependen

on the political and social informations

of the person that you talk to

right-wingers still claim from time to

time the Khrushchev or Castro did it via

their commie Protege Oswald almost

everyone in Texas seems to think that

Lyndon Johnson had a hand in it people

on the Left are not slow to point out

that Richard Nixon flew out of Dallas on

the morning President Kennedy died

there's tremendous circumstantial

evidence that the Mafia was involved not

least the use of mafia hitman Ruby to

silence the alleged assassin mark Lane

and Jim Garrison always said the CIA did

it Kennedy didn't like the CIA they said

because it led him into a political

fiasco at the Bay of Pigs

he threatened to splinter it into a

thousand pieces and he fired CIA head

Alan Dulles and deputy director Charles

P Cobell whose brother was the mayor of

Dallas on the fateful day it's possible

but the thesis of dick Russell's book

the man who knew too much

presents a new version the CIA says

Russel was by the early sixties pretty

thoroughly infiltrated by the Russians

remember CIA is theoretically a civilian

body which is for turf wars with the US

military since its inception in 1947

Russel speculates the clues pointing

towards CIA as culprits in the

assassination were in fact false laid

there by Texas oil men and an extreme

right-wing faction in the US military

this group stretching beyond the United

States in fact an international fascist

cabal had the president killed

they picked Oswald as the Patsy Russell

says because he had intelligence

fingerprints all over him American

Soviet and remember he was also a paid

informant of the Dallas FBI he was the

perfect fall guy disgruntled alienated

knowing just a little bit too much his

death and that of a few witnesses

satisfies the different power groups

allowing them to maintain much of their

status while the conspirators move a

little higher up the ladder and settle

comfortably into place if it was a coup

it was something of a gentlemanly one

compared to the bloodshed following

Pinochet's takeover of Chile Oh sue

Carter's reign of terror in Indonesia

all quite civilized except for those

witnesses of course and to Dorothy kill

again

these men have paid professional

spies employers of assassins and killers

I question the common sense of any TV or

print reporter who journeys to Minsk or

Langley Virginia pokes a camera in the

face of Lee Harvey Oswald's case officer

and expects to get the true truth out of

the guy it's a trifle naive to say the

least

the true truth about the JFK

assassination was probably known to most

of the major intelligence organizations

within a few days if not a few hours of

its occurrence of course the Russians

have a big file on who killed JFK and

Robert Kennedy they wouldn't be doing

their jobs if they didn't in the same

way the FBI must have a file on who

killed Enrico Mattei

Italian industrialist who went up

against the Texan oil boys in the 1960s

the Indians undoubtedly know who blew