Why This Might Be Robert Redford's Most Prescient Movie
We all have our own favorite Robert Redford movie. But what's Redford’s most prescient film about today’s America? His Seventies trilogy about American politics — The Candidate, Three Days of the Condor and All the President's Men — are all, in their own profound ways, lasting meditations on the United States. But of the three, it might be Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor (1975) which has the eeriest relevance to contemporary America. For James Grady, whose equally classic 1974 thriller Six Days of the Condor inspired the movie, Three Days of the Condor speaks to both the all-encompassing paranoia and isolation of our age. It's the anti-James Bond film for our anti-James Bond age. "For a movie that was made fifty years ago to unearth the emotions we felt then, and the emotions we're feeling now — that's extraordinary," James Grady says. Yes. After a half century, the Condor has landed.
Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe
Toby Walsh: If Our Superpower Is Human Empathy, Then Why the Hell Are We Trying to Teach Computers To Be Empathetic?
Richard Hasen: Can American Democracy Be Fixed By Making Political Speech More Expensive?
Ken Auletta: What Does the Harvey Weinstein Story Tell Us About the Culture of Silence in Hollywood and America?
Charles Sabel: To Fix the Climate We Need to Rewire the Economy, Our Democracy, and Our Brains
Michael Fertik: On Washington Irving, John Muir, Philip Dick, Jonathan Haidt and what America Has Uniquely Got Going For It
Aviva Rahmani: Why Telling Effective Stories About the Environment Requires Not Just Words But Also Visual Images and Even Music
Daniel S. Moak: Why America's Current War on Schools Is the Result of Fifty Years of Failed Federal Educational "Reforms"
Ed Yong: Why Perceiving Animal Senses Makes Us Empathetic Not Only to Other Creatures But Also to Each Other
Daniel Silva on How to Write a Bestselling Literary Spy Novel Every Year
Elisabeth Leake on How the Soviet and American Invasions of Afghanistan Are Comparable
Daniel Drezner on the End of Donald Trump, Green Tech, Apocalyptic Zombies: Why Americans Should Be Cheerful About the Future
Marianne Lewis: How Life's Toughest Problems Are Most Effectively Confronted By "Both/And Thinking"
Jason Kander: A Disturbing Autobiography From One of America's Most Candid Ex-Politicians and Soldiers