All the President's Men (1976)

Director: Alan J. Pakula

Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Jason Robards

Have I Seen It Before: Oh, sure.

Did I Like It: There’s a genre of storytelling that is really starting to piss me off. Siskel often lamented that it was being depicted with less and less frequency in American cinema, as it was quickly—post Star Wars – Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)—committing all of its A-level resources to material which in the past would have been relegated to b-pictures*. Sorkin almost exclusively trucks in it. This movie is an absolute master’s survey of it (to the point where I’m thinking it almost has to be one of the pillars of influence for Mr. Sorkin) .

It is a type of story that involves very real heroism, but of a cerebral sort. Here, it’s framed as a detective story. Although we already know whodunit, and rather notably so, the tension is maintained. How? It lies almost exclusively in the fact that this is a story about people—adults, even when some of their flaws come into full bloom—who are passionate about their work, and their work is objectively important.

It makes one want to feel passionately about their own work. In truth, it makes one long for work that might actually matter. I’m so sick to death of it, and I can’t get enough of it.

*One can only wonder what—had he lived—the tall, skinny one might have thought about the current condition of the movies. You, dear reader, might be heartened by some recent failures in the superhero genre and think that things are going to go back to normal. I would imagine it won’t. The superhero is going nowhere, it’s just that studios will stop green-lighting movies which will balloon in costs to 300 million. Not every release can be The Avengers (2012).

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Title: Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)

Director: George Roy Hill

Cast: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin

Have I Seen It Before?: I have a vague memory of catching it on cable at some point in the last twenty years, but it certainly isn’t in my pantheon of re-watched films.

Did I like it: There’s no deny the film’s place among the great Westerns. Every dusty gunfight and wide view of picturesque landscapes make it clear that while there is plenty of the spaghetti westerns in Red Dead Redemption, there is plenty of this film as well.

Redford and Newman were never better or more charming here. Redford especially disposes of his often too-earnest screen persona to be just as funny as Newman. It is slow to start, which his far from any sort of sin, but for someone who hasn’t spent the last 50 years in love with the film, it can be a little hard to get into. How many films can we the same about from the era? Probably a lot.

But here’s the thing. I don’t think it is the fault of any of the filmmakers here, but after Spider-Man 3 (2007) I can’t help but the only reason to include “Raindrops keep Fallin’ on My Head” in a film is because the film has completely run out of ideas. I’m sure when this film was released, the song was a nice little interlude, but it feels so out of place in a western this many years later. Now that I think about it, all of Bacharach’s score feels more out of place than not during the run time. I don’t want to blame that on films like Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999), mainly because such an assessment makes me look like a cinematic rube. But I also can’t help but think I’m not alone in thinking that the iconic qualities in this film have only hurt it over time, as other, lesser films have imitated it to diminished effect.

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

Director: Sydney Pollack

Cast: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow

Have I Seen it Before: Inexplicably, no.

Did I Like It: This first thought is going to sound like a complaint, but it isn’t. Maybe, it’s a foolish sense of optimism, but I think that the Times did publish whatever Joe Turner/Condor gave to them, shedding light on the shadow CIA propped up by Higgins (Robertson) and others at the company.

Although that probably makes the movie more similar to a television pilot than a traditional movie with a contained story. Again, that’s not a problem. I want to follow Condor as he tries to take down the people that double-crossed him. I want it to take six years, and I want the last shot of such a series fade away from Turner finally re-uniting with Kathy (Dunaway) in favor of Wabash (John Houseman), back at headquarters contemplating either spending the rest of his days in prison while his enemies claim victory, or hiring Joubert (von Sydow) to offer him the only clemency he can hope for.

I want more of it, is what I’m saying.

This movie fits snugly within the wrinkles of my brain. Between the now ancient computers accomplishing tasks we now take for granted, typewriters in every home and on every office desk in all of creation, and the only good guy in town is the one who’s read the most books, I don’t only want to watch this movie again, I want to live in it. Which, as I’m typing, I realize is an odd reaction to the movie.

It’s so unusual to watch one of your new favorite movies for the first time, much less have that movie be waiting for you to find it for over forty years. I honestly don’t understand how this movie—which wasn’t exactly hiding in Faye Dunaway’s apartment—slipped by me for so long. It may just supplant Die Hard (1988) as my favorite Christmas movie. Fight me.

EDIT: Turns out a Condor series was released last year on AT&T’s fledgling streaming service, Audience. All things I wasn’t previously aware existed, but somehow have already been paying for all this time. What a time to be alive, I think.