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
Is Web3 technology - Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, DAOs, NFTs et al - just the latest Silicon Valley hype? Alex Tapscott separates the signal from the noise on the internet's next economic and cultural frontier
Tyranny of an Ethnocratic Minority: Steven Levitsky on what an increasingly broken American political system has to learn from the democracies of Brazil and Argentina
When the stink became overwhelming: Corban Addison tells the true story of when large-scale farming went on trial in North Carolina
Your Face Belongs to Us: Kashmir Hill on a secretive startup's quest to end privacy as we know it
Eight novels to take to a desert island this Fall: Bethanne Patrick on new fiction about Haiti, Jamestown, 1984, Malaysia and women on the margins of the Vietnam war
On the Awesomeness of Globalization: Keith Teare explains why the next chapter of globalized technology will undermine the economic and political power of the nation-state
The Economic and Moral Case for Good Jobs: Zeynep Ton on why companies need to bring dignity, pay and meaning to everyone's work
How to stand up to a dictator: Maria Ressa on courage, honesty, perseverance and why must all fight for our future
The shocking saga of big media malfeasance rivaling Succession for its sex, lies and betrayals: Rachel Abrams on the Redstone dynastic struggle, former CBS executive Les Moonves and their significance to the Me Too movement
Why AI threatens not just writing, creativity and thinking, but also democracy: Naomi S. Baron on how new tools like Chat GPT are stopping us knowing who we really are as individuals
The Long Life of a Radical Gerontologist: Ken Dychtwald on how to age with purpose
The $100 Trillion Wealth Transfer: Ken Costa explains why the handover of wealth from Boomers to Gen Z must revolutionize capitalism
Why digital transformation isn't about technology: David Rogers on how to rebuild organizations in our age of continuous change