Three Days of the Condor.

categories:

My list of favorite movies changes with the solar wind, but 2 of the titles longest on my top ten would be “A Man For All Seasons” (1966, Starring Paul Scofield) and “Three Days of the Condor” (1975, directed by Sydney Pollack, starring you-know-who.)

I watch 3DotC last night, not really intending to, and loved every moment of it. It is perfect for this season, not merely because of the carols sung in the background of the memorable last scene. Pollack creates a film of really tight shots. The saturation and fidelity of highlights is shocking for a movie this old. Owen Roizman filmed it, and I wonder if he’s as proud of it as I think he should be. For that matter, Pollack too.

The movie’s just a delight, I invite you to see it, but be prepared to slow down. Sure, at 1172 shots (avg 5.8s/shot) it’s cut really tight, but the pacing is still way too slow for the Java Generation. There’s a grace to the way it dances, alternately slow and leading, then curt and snappy. And there are the inevitable 1975-nesses. The pay phones, and the use of phone and computer technology. I have to say, the computer at the opening of the show was seriously hot shit in ’75. In fact, what it was doing and the printer alone went miles to convincing the then-viewer that we are NOT in Kansas anymore.

My father has seen the location for the opening scenes, it really is the American Literary Historical Society, it really is there, and it looked exactly like it does (exterior, neighborhood) in the film. Anyway, I’m not going through it scene-by-scene...yet. This is just a little waxing on about some of my delights in this film. The quality of the image and production still floor me to this day. Even the final shot, the push in must be 10:1, maybe even 20:1? I wonder what the hell Roizman had in that magazine to capture that shot, because my recollection of emulsions back in those days, the grain would’ve blown-out after 5:1. Watch it, tell me what you think.