Three Days Of The Condor - The Intellectual As Hero

Aug

3

Three Days Of The Condor - The Intellectual As Hero

≡ Category: Drama, Movie Reviews By Country, Recommended, Suspense, United States |
≅ Written by: Michael Kydonieus

Country: United States
Genre: Drama/Suspense
Director: Sydney Pollack
Year: 1975

Rating:

TRASH CINEMA RECOMMENDED MOVIE

Joe Turner (Robert Redford), a CIA analyst who spends his days reading novels, searching for any resemblance to actual CIA covert operations throughout the world, is on the run. He has strong reason to believe that someone wants him dead.

So begins director Sydney Pollack’s Three Days Of The Condor, a decidedly untrashy espionage thriller. You cannot be a dummy and enjoy this film. Blink and you’ll miss a clue. It’s fascinating to watch the hero, Joe Turner, use keen observation and book knowledge to think his way out of his dilemma.

In action movies these days, most conflicts are solved with fists and rocket launchers. It’s refreshing to see a hero triumph using mostly his wits. Don’t get me wrong. There is action, and it’s actually quite visceral, but the real draw here is subtlety and realism.

So why am I telling you guys about Three Days of The Condor, if it isn’t trash cinema? Because it’s really good, that’s why. Just don’t expect the down-and-dirty, sleazy pleasures of a genre flick, okay?

Redford is his usual reliable self as Joe Turner, a man whose eyes miss nothing. Max von Sydow is chilling as a European assassin. His interactions with Turner are fascinating — these guys have more in common than you would think. Cliff Robertson is properly ambiguous as the slippery J. Higgins, a CIA section chief who may or may not be behind the central mystery. I especially enjoyed the performance of Hank Garrett, who is very creepy as another assassin. Faye Dunaway is excellent as Kathy, some poor woman who gets dragged into Turner’s problems through no fault of her own.

Back in the 70s, it was routine to shoehorn a romance into a script no matter how inappropriate it might seem, but between the arduous labor of screenwriter Lorenzo Semple Jr., Dunaway’s subtle character turn, and director Pollack’s sensitive direction, the filmmakers almost get away with it. Besides, if you were a woman, wouldn’t you want to have sex with Redford, back when he was such an awesome stud?

Having Sydney Pollack helm a film pretty much guarantees that it won’t be stupid, but not necessarily that it will be any good (think Havana and Random Hearts). Three Days Of The Condor is actually pretty tense and involving. The premise holds up under scrutiny and is actually pretty frightening if you examine it. For those of you who think that Three Days Of The Condor is unrealistic, that the CIA wouldn’t go to such great lengths to cover up such a seemingly small breach of security, I recommend you see the documentary Taxi To The Dark Side. In that one, some poor Arab taxi driving schmuck got plucked off the street, flown overseas and tortured to death because he might have had some connection to terrorists.

If you decide to rent or buy Three Days Of The Condor, don’t read the blurb on the back describing the movie — it stupidly gives away one of the big surprises of the movie. Instead, settle back and prepare yourself to be challenged and entertained by a movie from a time when it was okay to expect the audience to use their brains.