Much-liked ‘Pop’ political thriller*, and a prime example in showing how to trim a bestselling novel (originally SIX DAYS OF THE CONDOR) down to feature-length proportions. But in other ways, it hasn’t aged so well. Under Sydney Pollack’s hand, it’s carefully crafted & over-planned, missing spontaneity & the sense of style needed to let this sort of empty-calorie exercise breathe. Even when Pollack doesn’t put a foot wrong, he never ‘swings.’ But with Robert Redford, still the shining strawberry-blonde boy of yore, and Faye Dunaway, at peak goddessy gorgeousness, the film acquires the momentum of sheer glamour while murderous thugs & Max von Sydow’s suave hitman (impeccable) try eliminating Redford’s CIA research egghead. Dunaway’s really just along for the ride and for some close-up, skin-toned love-making, juxtaposed against artsy b&w photos of empty public spaces. Sheesh! Some of the cat-and-mouse moves, with Redford showing a natural talent for espionage survival tactics, are fun to watch, and there’s satisfaction in just imagining the writers working out the next narrow escape. But Pollack largely misunderstands the conventions of the form, inadvertently (?) surrendering any chance to broaden the film’s implications. Concrete when he needs to be abstract.
DOUBLE-BILL: Director Alan Pakula, a similarly dogged craftsman in search of natural style, tackled the genre (in more pretentious fashion) the year before in THE PARALLAX VIEW/’74. OR: For an early template, Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS/’35. (CONDOR even steals the ‘giveaway’ inappropriate shoes gimmick in STEPS, transferred from nun to postman.)
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *A genre to itself in the ‘70s, usually labeled ‘Paranoid Political Thrillers,’ yet not paranoid at all except in a few comic variations.
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