3daysofthecondor

AC/AL/SV 1975 117m ENG N/A

CAST: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max Von Sydow & John Houseman

CREDITS: Director: Sydney Pollack; Screenwriters: Lorenzo Semple, Jr/David Rayfiel, based on the book Six Days Of The Condor by James Grady; Producer: Stanley Schneider; Director of Photography: Owen Roizman; Production Designer: Stephen B. Grimes; Editor: Don Guidice; Costume Designer: Joseph G. Aulisi; Music: David Grusin

THE SYNOPSIS

New York City. Joe Turner (Redford) works in a covert department of the C.I.A., analyzing books, manuscripts & documents for Intelligence purposes. One fateful day, he is sent out to pick up lunch for the entire office. In the interim, the shadowy hitman Jubert (Von Sydow) shows up to the office with assassins and rubs everyone out.

Joe returns to discover the carnage and takes off. He calls the crime in to headquarters and is assured by Deputy Chief Higgins (Robertson) that help is on the way. Help arrives, but the agent sent tries to kill Joe. The witty book man injures his attacker and ends up kidnapping a woman named Kathy Hale (Dunaway)--whom he uses to drive out of Manhattan.

Holed up in her apartment--with Kathy held hostage--Joe must figure out the who and the why behind the ghastly murders and attempts on his own life. He eventually convinces Kathy to help him solve the puzzle--which leads to the higher echelons of power in the C.I.A.

THE CRITIQUE

Before Jason Bourne, there was Condor! It has been said that the crafty spy of the famous book series crafted by the late Robert Ludlum may have been inspired by James Grady’s best-seller “Six Days Of The Condor.” If that is the case, then the very popular movie series owes a debt of gratitude to Grady, director Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford.

On its own merits, 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR is a solid thriller steeped in 1970’s post Vietnam/post-Watergate paranoia and undoubtedly fueled by certain realities about our country, our government and our way of life. As directed with expert hands by Oscar©-winner Sydney Pollack (for Out Of Africa; he also helmed Tootsie, The Firm, The Interpreter), the movie moves along with assured pace and contains some terrific acting to boot.

Speaking of the acting forum, Redford, Dunaway, Robertson, Von Sydow and the late, great Mr. John (“They got it the old fashioned way…they earned it”) Houseman are all a pleasure to watch. As the heavies, Robertson, Von Sydow and Houseman make for some benignly-creepy spooks.

On equal terms taut, hokey, prophetic & dated, the screenplay by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. and David Rayfiel (based on the Grady novel) is certainly a relic from the distant 1970’s. It is much a sibling to that other paranoia movie of the day, The Parallax View (1974)—also co-written by Semple, Jr.; directed by the late, great Alan J. Pakula; and starring that other sex-symbol of the day, Warren Beatty.

The opening sequence is fantastically-written and produced; additionally, most of the movie maintains a strong level of intelligence. However, the whole Redford-Dunaway “romance”—capped off by a lyrical, yet unrealistic lovemaking interlude—is quite forced.

Seriously, would you have sex with a man who’s kidnapped you at gunpoint, held you hostage in your own home and tied you up in your own bathroom? If the man in question is hunky, corn husk-haired Robert Redford, then the answer must surely be an unequivocal YES! Or at least that’s what the script would have us believe…

CONDOR’s best elements are: a) Owen Roizman’s handsome widescreen lensing—in which New York never looked intermittently gritty and attractive (by the way: Roizman is a veteran cinematographer who also shot The Exorcist, Network, Tootsie & Wyatt Earp); b) the taut editing by veteran cutter Don Guidice (Pollack’s The Yakuza); & c) the groovy, jazzy chicka-bowm-bowm score by legendary, Oscar©-winning composer David Grusin (who won for Redford’s The Milagro Beanfield War and also composed the scores for most of Pollack’s film oeuvre).

Overall, I dug 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR, yet still felt let down a bit in certain areas. The ending is typical of many 1970’s films (or what I like to call a John Carpenter Ending: cynical, unclear and mysterious). However, Robertson’s little speech to Condor is quite prescient of today’s domestic & global issues.

Yes, I like burgers—but I do not want to see how the cow is murdered and how my food is prepared. In this case, I am an ostrich—with my head in the ground. The same principle holds some water in Robertson’s sharp, blue-eyed diatribe about our society; a kudo for the screenwriters.

What struck me most amusing was how information was disseminated in the movie. Remember, this was a time before the widespread use of the internet, fast computers and microtechnology. Yet, somehow, things got done using pens, papers and the human brain. Amazing!

THE BOTTOM LINE

3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR is a polished-but-taut package that’s definitely a product of its time. A great cast, decent-though-questionable screenwriting, excellent lensing & editing and assured direction by an industry veteran make this one an easy watch. The movie’s message is quite prescient of the modern world’s affairs...and that is its power.