Sydney Pollack Week: Three Days of the Condor

Hey all and welcome to the beginning of Sydney Pollack Week and I thought I would start us off with a thriller of point and counterpoint or if you prefer spy vs. spy.  With misinformation, a staggering body count and not knowing who to trust this struggle could prove to be very entertaining.  So synchronize your watches, prep a rally point and grab that phone in a shoe.   This is Three Days of the Condor.

Operator, I really want to direct...

Spoilers may surprise you…

With the Cold War in swing the Central Intelligence Agency is devising ways to control the flow of information, on us, on them and hey how about those guys over there.   Based on the novel Six Days of the Condor by author James Grady this political thriller film focuses on cryptography.  Hiding messages within prewritten text or a cipher that allows spies of different nations to not go strictly by courier or private broadcast.   Meet Joe Turner, (Robert Redford of Barefoot in the Park, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Downhill Racer, All The President’s Men, The Electric Horseman, Indecent Proposal, Sneakers and Spy Game) CIA analyst for a living decodes books from every portion of the world and with vast ability of micro processing…yeah well they still had to deal in 3 whole megabytes at a time. 

After a detailed report of a zero quality thriller novel his office was forced to read Turner expect the higher ups to let him know what they thought of his findings. This low interest novel is only translated in a few languages and not all of the regions are US friendly, coincidence?   As Turner does a lunch run for the office he finds all 6 members of his team assassinated where they sat or fell.  Panicked but still with his wits about him, Turner calls the CIA New York office and is told to arrange a meeting with fellow agents.  The meeting feels hinky and Turner hears the words of Admiral Ackbar in that, it is indeed a trap.

Y at-il une femme?

Barely escaping Turner picks Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway of Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, The Thomas Crown Affair, Network, Supergirl, Midnight Crossing and Double Edge) a woman at random for a place to hold up.  Frustrated, nervous and holding a person hostage in her own apartment, Turner realizes he may have to rely on Ms. Hale, a total stranger because he has no one really to turn to.  After yet another attempt on his life by a false postman Turner kidnaps the deputy director of the CIA New York office Higgins (Cliff Robertson of Gidget, Midway, PT 109, Sunday in New York, The Best Man, Escape from L.A. and Spiderman 1 and 2) who enlightens Turner that the assassin was a Frenchman by the name of Joubert

Most of this movie is based in Washington and New York from tight pan zooms to exterior crane shots, this film clearly had a flexible budget allowing Pollack and crew to give it their all.   Lot of close up of eyes, to capture the vast level of emotion and the music is subtle and not overpowering the story as it unravels.  With a nice Panavision anamorphic lens we get the feeling of being in the movie and while the Eastman 100T is a monster to lug for any cinematographer, its Technicolor response to the scope of this movie is captured so well.  Looooved the Aerial shots of the Brooklyn Bridge. 

Hold it, Mugsy!

From both book and movie you can all feel the influence they gave for films like Mission: Impossible and Enemy of the State.  Granted I do not hear a film in mono recording too often but bravo.     Next to The Manchurian Candidate (1962 original) I do not think I have seen a grittier spy film that is more stories based and dialogue driven rather than action.  You want action based spy flicks hey we got James Bond, Jason Bourne and Xander Cage.     You however might enjoy a combination of action, compelling dialogue of the cynical timeline and a pretty decent score for soundtrack then look no further and have a blast.