SYDNEY POLLACK
Bil’s rating (out of 5): BB.5.
USA, 1975. Wildwood Enterprises. Screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Jr., David Rayfiel, based on the novel Six Days Of The Condor by James Grady. Cinematography by Owen Roizman. Produced by Stanley Schneider. Music by Dave Grusin. Production Design by Stephen B. Grimes. Costume Design by Joseph G. Aulisi. Film Editing by Don Guidice. Academy Awards 1975. Golden Globe Awards 1975.
Robert Redford plays a CIA operative whose entire team is wiped out while he’s out for coffee, forcing him into hiding while also trying to figure out who is responsible. Realizing that he can’t trust even his own bosses, this researcher who was paid mainly to read books and work out scenarios (yeah right, because Robert Redford would spend his life behind a desk in a dusty old library) has to survive by his own wits until he can find the trail that leads to the murderers. Along the way he kidnaps an innocent woman (Faye Dunaway) while she is doing her grocery shopping, forcing her to shelter him while he conducts his investigation; naturally she falls for him because he’s a hot blonde and points a gun at her head. No matter how unbelievable the story is, director Sydney Pollack still manages to make it more credible than most thrillers of its kind made years later, but the characters are pretty dull and the story never manages to generate much interest. The Parallax View is a lot more fun.
