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.