Three Days Of The Condor (1975/Paramount Blu-ray)
Picture:
B- Sound: B- Extras: C- Film: C+
Robert
Redford was one of the biggest movie stars around when he made Sydney Pollack’s
thriller Three Days Of The Condor
(1975) and it was the kind of hit that kept him there. Though it is as much a broad entertainment
with touches of comedy as a serious thriller, it works best in its darkest
moments of which I wished there were more.
34 years and going, it still holds up better than you might think,
despite my misgivings.
Redford
is Joe Turner, a reader for the CIA who is almost killed when the assassination
of an entire unit takes place. He is not
a real spy in the field, but has to think fast as the same killers intend to
tie up loose ends. In all the madness,
he more or less kidnaps Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway in a fine performance holding
her own against all) as he searches for answers to what just happened. When he is asked to come in from the cold,
there is another murder attempt, so he really does have to make sure he trusts
no one.
John
Houseman, Cliff Robertson and Max von Sydow also star in this film based on the
James Grady novel, adapted by the effective Lorenzo Semple, Jr., whose Parallax View worked much better, but
Semple always knew his way around genres and the film is outright ambitious as
compared to most of the films that try the same thing and fall on their face
after 10 minutes if that. It is also one
of Pollack’s better films and always a hot back catalog title for
Paramount. You can see why it is hitting
Blu-ray sooner than many other films of the time.
The 1080p
2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image is a mixed bag with more good shots than
bad, but should have looked better considering it is a real anamorphic
Panavision shoot by Director of Photography Owen Roizman (The French Connection, The
Exorcist, Network) that uses the
scope frame very effectively. Some shots or sides of shots are just too soft
for this format. The Dolby TrueHD 5.1
mix tires its best to upgrade the old theatrical optical monophonic sound, but
is often weak and even Dave Grusin’s score has some issues it should not. The
results are inconsistent, with some audio sounding much better than others. The only extra is the theatrical trailer,
which is a good one.
- Nicholas Sheffo
