Take the oil

 

“Three Days of the Condor” is a classical 1975 US spy thriller, featuring Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway and Max von Sydow (the Swedish actor). I think von Sydow´s part in the film – he stars a cold-blooded paid assassin – created quite a splash in Sweden back in the days. Not sure why, considering that Max von Sydow´s main claims to fame are two really noire Bergman films!

“Three Days of the Condor” was made shortly after Watergate, and it does show. At the center of the plot are a number of conspiracies involving high level CIA personnel. The main character, Condor, works for the Agency, only to find his entire team assassinated, apparently by other CIA operatives. Or perhaps by rogue elements and free-lancers? The hunt is on, and Condor soon realizes that he (probably) can´t trust anyone – not even the good guys in the official CIA hierarchy.

The most intriguing character is the paid assassin Joubert a.k.a. “the Alsatian”, who pursues the fleeing Condor only to turn coat in one of the more breath-taking plot twists I´ve seen. As already mentioned, actor von Sydow is Swedish, but for some reason, the director thought he would be excellent for starring a man from a Franco-German border region. I agree that his accent in the film doesn´t sound entirely Swedish. Condor himself comes across as extremely unrealistic. He is supposed to be a bookish nerd, but he turns into some kind of pro in the blink of an eye. Handling guns, manipulating phone lines, tracking down secretive CIA bosses, and getting fair women in bed are all part of his repertoire. Dude! He must be good at handling the AI-like computers in the film, too. Machine learning (and problems with prompts) were presumably a thing already 40 years ago...

The multi-layered conspiracy turns out to be about US plans to “invade the Middle East” (all of it?) and occupy the oil fields. The 1973 oil crisis is the obvious backdrop to this part of the story. At the end, a CIA official explains to Condor that it´s not just about oil. “Tomorrow, it´s the food”. Here, the background may be something like Paul Ehrlich´s warnings about overpopulation leading to famine even in the Western nations. So yes, “Three Days of the Condor” feels very 1975, but it´s not entirely removed from our own predicament in 2024. The Middle East conflict, including US attempts to occupy the same, is forever with us. It´s still about the oil. And while *de*population is apparently the big problem today, the skyrocketing food prices (and oil prices!) does make me wonder about that famine bit.

Watch it before it´s banned!