Pollack does Lumet: The CIA Vaginalyst

Sorry about the banner headline, but I have been watching a lot of The Daily Show lately and got inspired, and also because there is a rather blatant/obligatory love scene in this otherwise fine spy caper in the tradition of Charlie Varrick... I don't know! For some reason it made me think of Charlie Varrick. Well, it was the 70s, baby. Cheesy Dave Grusin disco music. Computers printing stuff out on paper! Hand-held rotary phones for tapping into the phone system. Redford plays a mild-mannered smart guy working for the CIA when suddenly... I hate to give too much away. That's how good this 1975 movie is, damn it! Let's just say his life is upended, and turned completely totally upside down. He doesn't have a specific time in which to clear his name, either! How do you like that? Most movies give you 48 hours or less to fix everything. On top of it all, he originally had six condor days! Realizing he can't do this by himself, he grabs an unlucky Faye Dunaway, ski enthusiast and amateur photographer. According to Robert Osborne, however, the idea of being tied up and ravaged by a kidnapper as handsome as Redford was actually quite seductive. Love scene explained. Hmm! The Daily Show covered similar turf tonight regarding men and women in the army together. Ah, Conservatives. We'll turn you into peaceniks yet.
For some reason, the train station made me think that it was the location used for Pollack's earlier film, They Shoot Horses, Don't They? According to the IMDb, not the case. Twas mostly a New York film, which made me think Sidney Lumet got screwed out of another Oscar nomination again. Fine film. I must've seen it when I was too young or something. The only thing I really remembered about it was that it was intense. Not quite as intense anymore, aside from the short bursts of machine gun fire. Those held up pretty well! Bullets can only be sprayed so quickly, I suppose.

***1/2
-so sayeth The Movie Hooligan