Three Days of the Condor

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

Three Days of the Condor

Three Days of the Condor

This 1975 Robert Redford film is based on the CIA thriller “Six Days of the Condor” by James Grady. I guess their budget didn’t stretch to the other three days.

Directed by Sidney Pollack and also starring Faye Dunnaway as the love interest this is a nicely paced, complex, spy thriller.

In fact perhaps a bit top complex as I had trouble keeping up in a couple of places (that could have been the wine though), everybody seemed to be working both sides and it was tricky to remember who you could trust or who was a bad guy. This was obviously intentional on the director and screenwriters part.

The “basic” plot is Joe Turner (Robert Redford) is a low level CIA operative, a reader, who basically trawls through magazines and books from around the world to see if there are any hidden messages or plots similar to actual spy missions (this is before the Internet, these days he could probably have just set up a google alert and put his feet up).

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Chinatown

Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.

Chinatown Movie PosterThis is the classic Roman Polanski directed Jack Nicholson movie from 1974.
Set in Los Angeles in 1937 the (fairly complicated) plot involves infidelity, murder, possibly corrupt police and city officials all revolving around the citys water supply.

Jack Nicholson plays JJ ‘Jake’ Gittes a seemingly succesful private detective (he has two people on his payroll aswell as a secretary) who is hired by Evelyn Mulwray to follow her husband Hollis who she believes is having an affair.

After photographing Hollis Mulwray (who, importantly, is chief engineer of the LA water supply) in the arms of a young woman, Jake thinks his job is done.
However the photos appear the next day in the newspapers, a big scandal ensues, shortly after which Mr Mulwray is found dead and the “real” Mrs Mulwray (the ever gorgeous Faye Dunaway) appears in Jake’s office demanding some sort of explanation.

Gittes soon finds himself in a complex web of political, social and moral corruption.
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