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
Dan Hampton: Why the World Owes America a Great Debt For Its Participation in the Second World War
Azeem Azhar: Why, In an Age of Exponential Technological Change, Does So Little Seem to Change in Politics?
Lisa Lewis: Why the Crisis of Teenage Anxiety Might Begin and End With Sleep Deprivation
Mark Lee Gardner: Rather Than Jefferson or Washington, Should Americans Be Celebrating Indigenous Leaders Like Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull As Their Greatest Historical Figures?
Chris Stokel-Walker on a Digital Brave New World: Are We Entertaining Ourselves to Death on TikTok?
Gian Volpicelli on the Crypto-Crash and Why the Party Might Finally Be Over
Stephen Wertheim: Why Joe Biden Should Be Supporting Sovereignty and Not Democracy in Ukraine
Bob Keefe: Can American Capitalism Really Be an Ally in the War Against Climate Change?
Introducing Intelligence Squared US
Britt Halvorson: How to Reimagine White Supremacy in the Heartland of the American Midwest
Garrett Graff: How Are Watergate and the January 6th Insurrection Similar? Nixon and Trump's Shared Paranoia and Isolation From the Outside World
Emma Jacobs: How Do We Define Adulthood in a Time When We've Created a Cult of Childhood?
Ewen Spencer on What Writers and Photographers Have in Common