THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR

(September 1975, U.S.)

The decade of the 1970s was many things to many people in the world of motion pictures. For myself, I suppose it was literally everything the decade had to offer; from the fear and terror of THE EXORCIST (1973), JAWS (1975), THE OMEN (1976) and HALLOWEEN (1978), to the music of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (1977), GREASE (1978) and HAIR (1979), to the sci-fi wonderment of STAR WARS (1977), CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (1977) and ALIEN (1979), to the police and political thrills of THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971), THE SEVEN-UPS (1973), THE PARALLAX VIEW (1974) and THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR, based on the 1974 novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady. In fact, in the wake of the Watergate scandal finally coming to end with Richard Nixon's resignation, Sydney Pollack's film could not have been more timely.

Set mainly in New York City and Washington D.C., Robert Redford's character of Joe Turner, with the code name of "Condor", a CIA analyst and researcher who reads books for a living in order to find hidden meanings, messages and other useful information, perfectly captures the fear and paranoia of a man who doesn't know who he can trust, as he's caught in a web of governmental lies an deception. On what is otherwise an ordinary workday with heavy rainfall outside, Joe files a routine report to CIA headquarters on a thriller he's been reading with strange plot elements, noting the unusual language assortment it's been translated into. While awaiting a response to his report, he (quite literally) steps out to lunch, only to return to find all of his coworkers murdered in cold blood. Panicked, he grabs a gun from a desk drawer and is now on the run for his life. As would any CIA agent, his first instinct is make an emergency phone call and ask to be brought in to safety. Believing he can still trust his superiors, he agrees to a secret rendezvous, only to discover that those he works for are out to kill him in order to finish the job they started back at his office.

Desperate for help, Joe forces a woman at random, Kathy Hale (played by Faye Dunaway) to take him to her apartment so can hide and get his thoughts and actions together. In what I suppose can be considered pure cliché, Kathy slowly comes to trust her captor, even to the point where they become lovers, at least for one night. Still, they're both targets now, not only by those involved in the CIA, but by a hired foreign assassin Joubert (played by Max von Sydow). Joubert, like an other assassin, has no prejudices either way against his targets. He's simply a man getting paid to do a job. Though, oddly, one can't help but notice that deep down, Joubert appears to genuinely like and respect Joe Turner, if for no other reason, Joe appears to have the cleverness and the tactical skills to stay alive and evade his hunters, despite being a CIA agent who only reads books, and has no field experience. Even when asked how he's able to survive in certain situations, Joe bluntly replies, "I read books!"

No longer trusting anyone withing the CIA, or "The Company", Joe continues his cat-and-mouse games with the New York deputy director Higgins (played by Cliff Robertson) and inevitably learns that the report he'd filed provided links to a rogue operation inside the CIA to seize Middle Eastern oil fields. Fearful of its disclosure, Joe and his coworkers were ordered killed. During Joe's final meeting with Higgins, Joe is brazenly informed that the oilfield plans are merely a contingency "game" planned within the CIA without approval from above. Higgins defends the project, suggesting that when oil shortages cause a major economic crisis, Americans everywhere will demand that their comfortable lives be restored by any means necessary. Joe, in turn, calmly points to The New York Times building, disclosing that he's been there and he's given them a story. Whether they'll actually print it or not, we're left unsure of, as Joe disappears into the New York City crowd, destined to become a very lonely man.

(at this point, I invite you to return to my blog post for Tony Scott's 2001 thriller SPY GAME, also featuring Robert Redford, in which I discussed how cool I thought it would have been if his character has also been Joe Turner, returned to the screen twenty-six years later. I stand by that opinion now, as well).

As previously mention, Watergate was still a fresh piece of American history by 1975, making the tensions and thrills of THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR all too real and believable as it exposes a variety of CIA misconduct. On the other hand, one may have easily considered it nothing more than political propaganda disguised under the blanket of Sydney Pollack's taut direction and excellent performances by well-known political liberals like Redford and Dunaway. Make these convicted judgments, if you wish, or simply accept it as Hollywood entertainment of the 1970s. For myself, it's both, everything, all of it. That's how I like it!

Favorite line or dialogue:

Joe Turner (to Kathy): "Listen, I work for the CIA! I am not a spy! I just read books! We read everything that's published in the world, and we...we feed the plots...dirty tricks, codes, into a computer, and the computer checks against actual CIA plans and operations. I look for leaks, I look for new ideas. We read adventures and novels and journals. I...I...who'd invent a job like that?"