Three Days of the Condor
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Movie Reviews of Three Days of the Condor
Movie Review: 1975 CIA Conspiracy Thriller
Summary: 5 Stars
Joe Turner (Robert Redford) works in New York at the "Historical Society", which is the front for a CIA operation that reviews all literature, books, magazines, etc. from all over the world for possible plots and schemes. All ideas are fed into a computer that compares with CIA plots and international issues and threats. Joe is just a researcher, not a CIA Agent, but learns a lot about espionage, just reading books and other materials through his job.
Joe is late to work one rainy day in December and his boss corners him to let him know that a letter he sent the Langley CIA office was dismissed. Joe folds up the letter and puts it in his pants pocket to deal with later. His letter noted a realization that strong relationships were developing between Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and other oil producing countries and thought it was worth the CIA's effort to look into it.
We meet all of Joe's co-workers - 6 of them besides Joe. He starts his work and feeds pertinent information into the computer. Around 11:30 he is the designated person to do the lunch run to the Deli a block away. He ducks out a back entrance to avoid much of the rainy areas. While he is gone, the mailman is rung in the front door security. Other men come with him as they tear up the security tapes. Everyone in the office is killed within minutes and the killers leave. When Joe returns he finds the front door open and his co-workers shot. He soon realizes this is a hit and takes the receptionist's gun to protect himself as he runs to a phone booth to call the main CIA office.
His CIA code name is Condor - and he calls to give his section chief the information of the hit. He is told not to hang up the phone and to call again in two hours. The CIA "clean-up" team arrives within minutes to clear the carnage. They verify the killings to the main office. The New York section chief is stunned and wants to know why a research office would be gunned down. He calls his supervisor at CIA Headquarters.
Joe in the meantime is totally paranoid and dodges and hides until he is to be brought "in from the cold" - but realizes a set up in a back alley is meant to kill him. The agents he was to meet are an old friend (he trusts) and another CIA department head. He realizes his own department head is trying to kill him and shoots him with the gun he picked up. The Department head then shoots the other unknowing agent (a friend that Joe trusted). Now Joe feels he can trust no one. He is desperate and kidnaps a woman that he saw in a clothing store, Kathy (Faye Dunaway). They drive to her apartment and she lets him hide there, although he uses the gun to scare her. He just needs time to figure out what to do next.
The plot thickens and the action escalates. There are exciting twists and turns. Eventually Joe has his revenge. A very rewarding spy movie!
The other interesting notes on this movie is the technology 35 years ago. The computers and phone systems are archaic, but did not detract from the plot. Also the world issues on oil needs of the U.S. seem to always be in the news.
Movie Review: Spy Stuff
Summary: 5 Stars
This has been a favorite movie of mine for years. This 1975 flick was right in keeping with the cold-war spy stuff that so permeated the lives of people at that time. I remember all the spy TV shows and spy movies. Heck, I even remember as a kid going down to the basement when the warning sirens went off (East Coast). I think that was the 1950s. In the 70s, spies were heroes and covert activities were going on everywhere. I wanted to work for the CIA, too, just like in the movies. (I do work for the government, but not CIA.)
Anyway, as you've probably read already, Redford is in his prime and is a spy (Joe Turner) working for the CIA. He just reads books and analyzes them. He looks for things that are out-of-place in the writings, which may point to a covert operation taking place somewhere in the world. If he finds something, he writes a report and (as typical within the government) sends the report forward up the chain-of-command.
Well, guess what? He submits a report on something wierd he finds in the books, goes out to pick up lunch, and returns to find everybody in the library office whacked. This was a somewhat secure location, too. Necessity is the mother of invention, and since Joe Turner feels the need to stay alive, he calls in to Headquarters and goes on the run. As he starts running, he begins to realize that people are after him too. He can no longer be sure who to trust. Joe's cover name is Condor, which he never thought he would use, and Condor becomes a cloak-and-dagger guy, on the run. He enlists the help of Kathy (Faye Dunaway), just someone he picked at random and sensed was harmless. The head bad guy cold-blooded-killer is Max von Sydow (Jobert), and he is outstanding, as always. Jobert really doesn't particularly care who he kills; it's just business. But somehow, you kind of like Jobert. Cliff Robertson works for the CIA as Wiggins and Condor is talking back and forth with Wiggins to try to get to safety somehow. Condor is running from Jobert (and others), hiding and running with Kathy, and trying to work something out with Wiggins.
Well, remember that book report Condor wrote that we talked about in the beginning? Turns out there is something going on. That's why all those people got whacked! (Duh). What's going on has a bunch of people involved, so there are twists and turns and surprises, and there is running and hiding and being clever all over the place. Condor turns out to be quite clever because "he reads books" all the time. Well, knowledge is power.
Great spy story. I have to read the book one day because as good as the movie was, I'm sure the book is even better. Great acting by everyone. 117 minutes long.
Movie Review: an especially prescient film
Summary: 5 Stars
This film has long been one of my Top Ten favorites for the quality of the acting and the screenplay, and for the importance of the theme: that a secret network could operate within the intelligence community beneath the radar of legitimate agency oversight.
The film seems especially prescient now, given that the fictional network's goal was planning a U.S. invasion of the Mideast. Voila, 30 years later, the U.S. has invaded the Mideast. When the Redford character finally confronts the rogue C.I.A. leader of the plan, he connects the dots and says, "This whole damn thing is about oil, isn't it?" Exactly.
Let's be clear about why the U.S. Armed Forces are in Iraq, rather than, say, Ecuador or Nepal: it's the strategic importance of the region's oil. Yes, the plan is to transform Iraq into a democratic nation, which will lead the entire region in that direction. But the U.S. isn't committing its treasure and citizenry to all troubled regions of the globe equally; we are in Iraq because it is the strategic linchpin of the region. Without access to the Mideast oil reserves, the world economy would be shaken to its foundations.
There are many troubled, undemocratic regions in the world--for example, much of Africa; yet we fight now to establish democracy in only one troubled region, the Mideast. Coincidence? No. Simple self-interest. As the Cliff Robertson character says at the film's conclusion: "When the people are cold and their engines stop running, they're not going to ask us why; they'll just want us to go get it."
Realizing that he is an embarrassment to the C.I.A. (the inevitable role of any whistleblower, even a reluctant one), at the film's end Redford gives the entire story to the New York Times. The Robertson character, a C.I.A. station chief who was caught off-guard by the hidden conspiracy, says, "But will they print it?" Redford is taken aback at the implication--that the government could pressure the media to suppress the story--and then he avers, less confidently, "They'll print it."
This is the core of democracy: that a free press keeps a government answerable to its people. Without a free and skeptical press, all the elections in the world mean nothing.
Movie Review: Superb Spy Thriller; Best Of Genre!
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw this suspense/spy thriller when it was first released in the theaters sometime in the late 1970s, while living in London and working for the American government. There's nothing that compares with the paranoia associated with seeing a taut spy thriller, only to exit the theater into a cold, foggy late evening in downtown London. The picture it paints of a murderous renegade network operating within the Central Intelligence Agency is both frightening and plausible, and is delivered by Robert Redford and his production team in a tight, well-developed tale with a convincing thread of interconnecting events that spins way out of control as the protagonist tries desperately to figure out who is at the center of the plot and why he and his cohorts at a special studies institute sponsored by the Agency are targets. For me, this movie is a nonstop roller-coaster ride, with Redford trying in vain to jump off the damn thing before it crashes below! The level of paranoia as well as the multiple levels of deceit and deception depicted in the film seemed a bit outlandish at the time, but given the temper of the times, it somehow seemed much more plausible in the backwash of Watergate and all that was revealed about the machinations of the so-called "invisible government" then. The hero's ability to parse together the facts and learn and adapt as he progresses makes the movie work especially well, and one can relate to his growing frustration as he realizes there just may not be any way out alive. And between the margins of the scenes lie some intriguing questions regarding the role of secrecy in an open and supposedly democratic society that add a measure of intellectual acumen and "gravitas" to the tale.
So popular was this movie at the box office that it spawned a number of other spy thrillers in its wake. The film's cast included not only Redford as the hero, but also starred Fay Dunaway, and Cliff Robertson. This movie makes for an absorbing evening of entertainment, and a surefire way to escape the humdrum of everyday life with a stunning tale of murder, mayhem, and betrayal. I highly recommend this flick. Enjoy!
Movie Review: A Post-Watergate Staple
Summary: 5 Stars
What is it about this movie that makes it so compelling? After countless viewings, I still can't put my finger on it -- but let's consider the crucial elements of "Condor."First, the paucity of dialogue -- in other words, what Redford displays and emotes rather than says -- is powerful. It seems that for the first time in his career, Redford is really challenged to act instead of being just another pretty cinematic face. If ever a man could give the impression of being both haunted and hunted, Redford's a cinch in "Condor."
This is also a great New York City film. Its streets, back alleys, and buildings -- in particular, the World Trade Center -- all play supporting roles. Sidney Pollack makes good use of the then-newly finished twin towers in "Condor," and this viewer lamented their destruction after watching scenes featuring the main lobby and a top-floor office inhabited by CIA deputy director Cliff Robertson.
The grainy quality of the film, matched with an often funky, sometimes melancholy soundtrack scored by Dave Grusin, also adds to the aura of "Condor." It's as if Pollack attempted to do an American sendup of a French intrigue film. Grusin's music also is not what you'd expect in a spy film, in that it has not a hint of the James Bond sound. Then again, the film is not a romantic spy thriller, so it works.
In fact, Pollack and Redford successfuly convey a post-Watergate paranoia that the citizens' government is 'out there' and will stop at nothing to hunt down the truth-seeking rogue. Phone taps and plumbers (disguised, this time, as mailmen) abound. Suitably, "Three Days of the Condor" ends with a very anti-establishment message.
This film deserves to be placed in the list of top twenty great American films of the modern cinematic era (however one judges that). "Condor" is good the first time around and seems to be more enjoyable with subsequent viewings. Far from being a period piece, it stands the test of time as a thriller that is also thoughtful.