Paramount (USA)
2.35:1 1080p
117 minutes
Audio: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English, DD 2.0 mono French
Subtitles: Optional English, English SDH, French, Spanish
Extras: theatrical trailer
Released: 19 May 2009
As much as I like the Bourne movies, I sometimes wish that today’s mainstream American filmmakers would resort to master shots with locked-down cameras and average-shot-lengths of at least 10 seconds. When you’re allowed to absorb the full texture of a skilled actor’s performance and a skilled director’s mise-en-scene, you have the opportunity to appreciate meticulous planning and real acting. This is in opposition to the results yielded by constantly moving cameras and jack-hammered editing, which ultimately have no respect for reality; actors don’t actually have to learn their lines or know how to fight since the gun-and-edit style hides all of their flubs.
Watching the first third of Sydney Pollack’s 3 Days of the Condor was a pleasure. The movie begins with a swift, brutal assassination of various CIA analysts in an office, and the sequence is plenty shocking without resorting to ADD tactics. When Robert Redford’s character finds out that his colleagues have been murdered, the long takes heighten the sense of unbearable tension that a person would feel in such a situation. The tension arises from the viewer expectation that something startling could happen at any moment to break the eerie silence. The same goes for a one-on-one brawl in a cramped apartment. (This sequence clearly inspired similar scenarios in the Bourne movies.) We understand what’s happening and how the combatants use their environment for resources, and we share in the combatants’ loss of breath and desperation as the fight continues.
The movie also provides a documentary-style glimpse into the use of 1970s technology. We live in an age of portable, powerful computers, so it’s easy to wonder how spies could get anything done back when mobile phones were not widespread. Condor demonstrates how much confusion one man with a telephone repairman’s tools can generate. Sometimes, one just needs a bit of ingenuity and wit. After all, you can place the most-powerful tools in the hands of a buffoon, and the buffoon would get nothing accomplished any way.
Unfortunately, I don’t think that the movie recovers from the introduction of a female “accomplice” played by Faye Dunaway. Dunaway is beautiful and performs the role well, but the writing is atrocious. When they first meet, the protagonist coerces her into helping him. Eventually, they have consensual sex (she initiates as much as he does), and she plays Miss Junior Spy. This strains credulity and is rather sexist, though I suppose Condor is no more sexist than the “typical” American at the time of its making.
The big revelations at the end filled me with anger about the status quo. We’ve known about the same national security problems for more than forty years now, but we let lobbyists and special interests--American lobbyists and special interests at that--dictate our foreign and domestic agendas. Why do American companies and politicians continue to sell their own country short? What good will self-interest do when your country is weakened beyond repair?
Note: This movie clearly inspired the first Mission: Impossible movie with Tom Cruise, from the opening massacre of just-introduced characters to the use of flashbacks as the hero sits down and re-constructs events in his mind.
Video:
While the movie probably looks better than it ever has on home video, the 2.35:1 1080p image clearly falls short of what the Blu-ray format can offer, even with pre-1980s movies. The first 15-20 minutes are very rough, beginning with a faded, jittery Paramount logo and continuing with obvious print damage, such as scratches and nicks. Dust is noticeable in some scenes. The cinematography is typical of its era, with a damp, muted feel that was emulated by movies such as Steven Spielberg’s Munich and Ron Howard’s Frost/Nixon.
Audio:
I’m not sure why the audio is presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English. As with most pre-1980s movies, Condor was released with a mono track. The basic elements (basically mid-range dialogue and music) are fine, but due to technological limitations at the time, low ends are muffled, distorted, and messy. High frequencies are thin. Some music cues and sound effects are spread to the front left and right channels, but the front center channel does almost all of the lifting.
Extras:
The only extra is a theatrical trailer, which appears to be presented in 1080p but was sourced from a film copy in terrible condition.
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