Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 118m
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow, Cliff Robertson
Synopsis:
A reader for the CIA survives a wipe-out of his section and sets about figuring out what they had discovered that was so potentially explosive, while trying to survive attempts to neutralise him.
Review:
Classic political thriller of the seventies, having something of the pessimism of The Parallax View while at the same time being more of a conventional mystery with a solution, with plenty of Hitchcockian situations for connoisseurs (the woman with the pram, the scene in the lift). The central conceit, that reading material might conceal information surrounding dirty tricks of one sort or another, is nicely deployed and the decade's abiding preoccupation of 'whom to trust' is uppermost, right down to the question mark finish. At the same time there are some breaks with customary plot mechanics (the female interest is a natural element, apart from a voguish and unconvincing love scene) and the script has a good line in rueful observation of the murky pool in which the hero finds himself. Finally, he survives on wits rather than violence, which is satisfyingly in tune with the character we are initially presented with. Pollack directs with elegance and discretion throughout.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 118m
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow, Cliff Robertson
Synopsis:
A reader for the CIA survives a wipe-out of his section and sets about figuring out what they had discovered that was so potentially explosive, while trying to survive attempts to neutralise him.
Review:
Classic political thriller of the seventies, having something of the pessimism of The Parallax View while at the same time being more of a conventional mystery with a solution, with plenty of Hitchcockian situations for connoisseurs (the woman with the pram, the scene in the lift). The central conceit, that reading material might conceal information surrounding dirty tricks of one sort or another, is nicely deployed and the decade's abiding preoccupation of 'whom to trust' is uppermost, right down to the question mark finish. At the same time there are some breaks with customary plot mechanics (the female interest is a natural element, apart from a voguish and unconvincing love scene) and the script has a good line in rueful observation of the murky pool in which the hero finds himself. Finally, he survives on wits rather than violence, which is satisfyingly in tune with the character we are initially presented with. Pollack directs with elegance and discretion throughout.
Country: US
Technical: col/scope 118m
Director: Sydney Pollack
Cast: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max Von Sydow, Cliff Robertson
Synopsis:
A reader for the CIA survives a wipe-out of his section and sets about figuring out what they had discovered that was so potentially explosive, while trying to survive attempts to neutralise him.
Review:
Classic political thriller of the seventies, having something of the pessimism of The Parallax View while at the same time being more of a conventional mystery with a solution, with plenty of Hitchcockian situations for connoisseurs (the woman with the pram, the scene in the lift). The central conceit, that reading material might conceal information surrounding dirty tricks of one sort or another, is nicely deployed and the decade's abiding preoccupation of 'whom to trust' is uppermost, right down to the question mark finish. At the same time there are some breaks with customary plot mechanics (the female interest is a natural element, apart from a voguish and unconvincing love scene) and the script has a good line in rueful observation of the murky pool in which the hero finds himself. Finally, he survives on wits rather than violence, which is satisfyingly in tune with the character we are initially presented with. Pollack directs with elegance and discretion throughout.