Three Days of the Condor

It's an oft-stated truism that specificity can make drama feel more universal.  Hollywood studios like to sand the edges off characters and turn them into bland Everypeople.  Paradoxically, this makes them less realistic and therefore less relatable.  More idiosyncratic characters feel more true to life.

Having watched "Three Days of the Condor," though, I'm not sure that detail is as helpful for political allegories.  "Condor" frequently gets mentioned in the same breath as "The Parallax View," another '70s thriller released in the wake of Watergate.  But "Parallax" is a classic, while "Condor" feels faintly (though enjoyably) ridiculous.

On paper, though, "Parallax" should be the sillier movie.  Its plot sounds lifted from the rantings of the mentally ill: a mysterious corporation recruits and trains young men to assassinate troublesome politicians.  But the workings of the Parallax Corporation are left so opaque that it's hard to poke holes in the plot.  That forces viewers to dwell on the unsettling implications of the story.

"Condor," in contrast, is based in a world much closer to our own.  The conspiracy in question operates inside the CIA, and its strategies and objectives are more or less revealed over the course of the film.  But this opens "Condor" up for easy ridicule.

"What if there was a secret CIA...inside the CIA?" Robert Redford asks at one point.  It's an unintentionally hilarious line.  Partly because it's terribly written, but also because the idea of a "rogue operation" within the rigid hierarchy of that organization feels silly.  Redford also proves to Faye Dunaway that he works for the CIA by showing her his business card, which is for a fake company.  The number on the card is the same as the number for the CIA in the phone book.  Also, the card is for a different company than what's shown on the building where he works.  Nice cover story, CIA!

I could go on, but you get the idea.  "Parallax" has a more ridiculous premise, but it feels like a cousin of "1984."  "Condor" seems more like the serious older brother of James Bond.