Review of Three Days of the Condor (1975) by Kris W — 28 Aug 2010

'His CIA code name is Condor. In the next seventy-two hours almost everyone he trusts will try to kill him. '.

Great suspence thriller from the best decade for movies with some of its best talents, especially Redford, Robertson, Dunaway, and Syndow.

(into test-set).

Joe Turner: I'm doing a survey: do you believe the Condor is really an endangered species?

Joe Turner: Boy, what is it with you people? You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?

Joe Turner: I don't remember yesterday. Today it rained.

[after Joubert unexpectedly kills someone].

Joe Turner: Why?

Joubert: I don't interest myself in "why". I think more often in terms of "when", sometimes "where"; always "how much".

Joubert: Condor is an amateur. He's lost, unpredictable, perhaps even sentimental. He could fool a professional. Not deliberately, but precisely because he is lost, doesn't know what to do. Unlike Wicks, who has always been entirely predictable.

Joubert: Well, the fact is, what I do is not a bad occupation. Someone is always willing to pay.

Joe Turner: I would find it... tiring.

Joubert: Oh, no - it's quite restful. It's almost peaceful. No need to believe in either side, or any side. There is no cause. There's only yourself. The belief is in your own precision.

Joe Turner: I'd like to go back to New York.

Joubert: You have not much future there. It will happen this way. You may be walking. Maybe the first sunny day of the spring. And a car will slow beside you, and a door will open, and someone you know, maybe even trust, will get out of the car. And he will smile, a becoming smile. But he will leave open the door of the car and offer to give you a lift.

Higgins: It's simple economics. Today it's oil, right? In ten or fifteen years, food. Plutonium. Maybe even sooner. Now, what do you think the people are gonna want us to do then?

Joe Turner: Ask them?

Higgins: Not now - then! Ask 'em when they're running out. Ask 'em when there's no heat in their homes and they're cold. Ask 'em when their engines stop. Ask 'em when people who have never known hunger start going hungry. You wanna know something? They won't want us to ask 'em. They'll just want us to get it for 'em!

[last lines].

Higgins: Hey, Turner! How do you know they'll print it? You can take a walk. But how far if they don't print it?

Joe Turner: They'll print it.

Higgins: How do you know?