No list of paranoid thrillers would be complete without THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR.
Starring Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway, written by Lorenzo Semple, Jr. and David Rayfiel, and directed by Sydney Pollack, the movie was released in 1975. Compared to the majority of films categorized as “70’s paranoid thrillers,” such as Parallax View or Marathon Man (don’t worry, they won’t be spared in further weeks), Three Days of the Condor is a very accessible and modern thriller.
Condor has the distinction of providing paranoia without confusion. The main “paranoia” of the film is very humanistic and character-based; all of Joe Turner’s coworkers have been killed and he’s on the chopping block as well. Every person and every situation is a possible trap. He’s one man against a giant machine dedicated to erasing him from the collective memory.
“His CIA Name is Condor”
Another aspect of paranoia is the belief in conspiracy. Conspiracies are connective tissue. They create connections and pathways that are easy to see in one’s mind, within a vast, complex world that may otherwise always remain confusing. Condor contains a multi-fingered conspiracy of exactly this sort, stretching all the way around the world.
Finally, the movie is told primarily from Condor’s perspective. The few other angles are sprinkled throughout just to remind us that Condor is a “small link” in a vast chain of conspiracy. What Redford does best in the movie is play a normal guy with skills, not a skillful guy who’s also normal. You really believe in the man first, but are always aware that below the surface lays the CIA agent.
“Codename: Condor”
What makes the movie special?
The movie starts with a very clean setup. Redford is “Joe Turner, a bookish CIA researcher (codename: Condor) who comes back from lunch (in a wonderful New York deli scene) to discover all of the CIA colleagues at his station have been murdered. He’s the only one alive, having survived by fluke chance. And now he has to figure out why they were all killed and what’s going on, without being taken out himself.
Verisimilitude.
One of the aspects that defines many (but not all) paranoid thrillers is the degree to which a situation feels “real.” Right off the bat, the safe house where Redford and his colleagues are operating out of is an impressive obfuscation. Their headquarters is an old stone mansion in Manhattan, with the placard of a research think-tank. All of the people inside work for the CIA, yes, but none of them look like central casting out of James Bond. From the very beginning of the film, verisimilitude is one of the aspects that keeps you glued in. And this high level of reality continues as the movie does, especially through the characters and what they say. The plotting is relatively easy to follow, and although the tangent with Faye Dunaway might be treated differently these days, the movie accomplishes the task of still feeling timely.
And no one can deny the great look… Minus the gun, right out of GQ.
Dialogue.
Condor and Kathy’s (played by Faye Dunaway) relationship, as I said above, is a bit unusual. It begins when Condor essentially kidnaps her while he’s on the run, looking for a safe place to rest his head. There is a slightly domineering aspect to Condor’s side of things, making the result not completely earned when their feelings for one another turn romantic.
But after that minor, of-another-era speed bump, they do seem to develop real feelings for one another. Faye Dunaway, as usual, is excellent. I’ll go into further examples of dialogue below, but one of my all-time favorite stanzas comes from this relationship. The moment arrives when Condor is saying goodbye to Kathy. She’s about to hop onto a train bound for Vermont and her “real” boyfriend, who she no longer has strong feelings for.
Turner: But you’re overdue in Vermont. [pauses] Is he a tough guy?
Kathy: He’s pretty tough.
Turner: What will he do?
Kathy: Understand, probably.
Turner: Boy. That is tough.
I love the way this scene folds over itself, both in intention and word use. It begins with Turner worried about Kathy. He thinks that Kathy’s man is “tough,” essentially articulating that she might become a victim. But Kathy subverts Condor’s perspective, telling Condor that her man will “understand.” And Condor’s response of “Boy. That is tough,” hits the mark dead-on. Not only is he right, given Condor and Kathy’s recent dalliance, but the writing reverses the meaning of what’s “tough.” A tough guy might push a girl around, but what’s tougher than using physicality? Understanding.
“That is tough.”
The modern zeitgeist.
Continuing on with the dialogue, we move towards the end of the movie. After the various plots and sub-plots slowly become resolved, Condor finds himself in a conversation with the deadly assassin who had originally been assigned to find and kill him. That man’s name is Joubert. The Joubert/Condor conversation is famous. First, the writing is spot on. Joubert’s words contain much heft (without being very overly specific), the manner in which the words are delivered and the reality that they depict feels uncannily truthful.
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Joubert – The Assassin
The world of espionage is dangerous and opaque. It is filled with perpetually shifting alliances and relationships built on quicksand. The way in which Joubert expertly dissects this world, especially as it relates to Condor’s future, is brilliant. I won’t be able to do the interaction justice simply by re-printing the dialogue, so instead check out the actual scene on Youtube:
“It will happen this way…”
What’s most fascinating about Condor is that the world today is not much different from that in the movie. When it comes to the sphere of clandestine action, given the shifting of priorities that occurs constantly within the political sphere, it is easy to believe that the public are simply pawns in a game being played far above their heads. Then who are the gamemasters? Who are the people running the conspiracy? And what do they think about all of this? Condor’s final conversation with his ultimate CIA boss, Higgins, depicts this reality. And it’s a great place to end.
Turner: Do we have plans to invade the Middle East?
Higgins: Are you crazy?
Turner: Am I?
Higgins: Look, Turner…
Turner: Do we have plans?
Higgins: No. Absolutely not. We have games. That’s all. We play games.
Condor and Higgins in Three Days of the Condor
“No. Absolutely not. We have games. That’s all. We play games.”