Robert Redford and director Sydney Pollack had a long and successful collaboration producing several hits in the 1970s such as Jeremiah Johnson (1972) and The Way We Were (1973).

In Three Days of the Condor (1975), they capture the political anxiety of the time with the Watergate break-ins making constant national headlines (Redford would go onto address Watergate directly in All the President’s Men (1976)). Here he plays Joe Turner, a junior analyst in the C.I.A. scrutinising published texts from around the world for coded messages, who comes back from his lunch break to find his world turned upside down. No longer sure who he can trust, he goes in search of answers.

Using a well-established format of the innocent-on-the-run, Three Days of the Condor develops into a tense political thriller marinaded in 1970s suspicion and corruption. Of the season Redford’s persona is most like the traditional Hollywood male lead with all his solution-focussed virtue. Yet here his character is left uncertain about the impact of his actions and the true scale of the conspiracy and corruption he faces.

With thanks to Paramount and Park Circus.

---