One of the most praised sequences of the 1974 film The Parallax View was the assassin training montage. Most of the images used were of anonymous figures or patriotic backgrounds, featuring among others Richard Nixon, Adolf Hitler, Pope John XXIII, and Lee Harvey Oswald (in the picture taken moments after his shooting). The montage also uses a drawing by Jack Kirby of the Marvel Comics character Thor. It juxtaposes the concepts of LOVE, MOTHER, FATHER, ENEMY, and ME. The montage "captures the confusion of post-Kennedy America" by demonstrating the decay of values and longstanding traditions. This is due to the original Loren Singer-novel, of which the film is based on, following witnesses of John F. Kennedy's assassination who were killed, despite the screenplay shifting the victim to a fictional politician closely resembling Robert F. Kennedy. As the film's director Alan J. Pakula described the picture as "sort of an American myth based on some things that have happened, some fantasies we may have had of what might have happened, and a lot of fears a lot of us have had . . . The Parallax View was a whole other kind of filmmaking for me". Stay tuned!
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