3 Days of the Condor
I know what’s wrong with the CIA. It’s been infiltrated by Europeans.
I can kind of understand why we’ve got a Swedish triggerman in Max von Sydow, but why is Romanian John Houseman Cliff Robertson’s boss? And why has no one noticed? They don’t even bother to disguise their accents. Why doesn’t Cliff Robertson stand up in the middle of his briefing and say “Hey! This guy’s Romanian!”
In addition to them, one of Redford’s co-workers is a Canadian and his sexy Chinese-American friend is played by Chungking-born Tina Chen. No wonder he’s a sitting duck, he doesn’t even know that he’s surrounded by foreigners!
Similarly, why is German Josef Sommer the President of the United States in X-Men: The Last Stand? No wonder we’re losing the war on terror.
Anyway, SPOILER ALERT, Redford discovers that a high-up CIA guy is planning his own secret invasion of “the Mideast.” “It’s all about oil!” he splutters as he holds the old codger at gunpoint. Redford, fit to be tied that the will of the American electorate has been suborned by a rogue CIA guy, takes the story to the New York Times and then, for some inexplicable reason, decides to tell his boss Cliff Robertson before the Times has printed the story.
Back then, see, we used to have an actual free press, before Judy Miller was employed to sell the US the invasion of Iraq and Bob Woodward (Bob Woodward!) was hired to be a lackey cheerleader for the stupidest fucking moron to ever occupy the Oval Office.
Dude, this is the USA. Land of Albirght, Kissinger, and Schwarzenegger. Maybe you should get out of your provincial little hamlet more. [/dude]
Important trivia! Former Sercretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger has three sons, all of whom are named Lawrence Eagleburger, though they have different middle names. (I’m picturing the Family Circus Not Me guy running around their house, labelled “The Other Lawrence”.)
I don’t know, John Houseman in this movie seemed rather appropriate, with all that gravitas hanging around. I was rather startled to see him in the beginning of The Fog when I finally saw that.
Touche. And more importantly, the land of opportunity. Why, I’ll bet we have more African-American governmental heads than Zimbabwe. At least in the movies, where any Morgan Freeman can grow up to be President and Yaphet Kotto can be an FBI director and James Earl Jones can run the CIA. Of course, in real life the intelligence organizations are more racist than the Ku Klux Klan.
I’m guessing that Houseman seems more Ivy League, more Harvard than Oxford, to an American audience (Condor coming on the heels of Paper Chase as it did).
That’s nothing. George Foreman has five sons, all named George Foreman. I guess he wanted his name to live on. As if a heavyweight championship and a self-draining counter-top griller weren’t enough.
Bob Woodward!?… aww, guy…