Three Days of the Condor

One of the most memorable paranoia thrillers of the 1970s, Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor never loses its focus as a tense, compelling exercise in suspense. The plot rests on the premise that everyone with power is corrupt; Pollack and writers Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel keep the proceedings from devolving into the preposterous or unconvincing. True to form, Robert Redford represents the powerless, non-corrupt, masses as the film's bookish CIA researcher Turner. Unlike some of the bleaker examples of the genre (1974's The Parallax View), Redford's character ultimately outwits the system and finds a way to fight the corruption, much as he would the following year in All the President's Men. Redford's charisma smoothes over some of Condor's less-believable moments, and Sydney Pollack directs in the distinctively gloomy-but-lively style common to 1970s films. This was the fourth film on which the director and star teamed; they would continue to work together on movies such as 1986's Out of Africa and 1990's Havana. ~ Brendon Hanley, All Movie Guide