Man, I just enjoy Robert Redford’s work, so I figured it was time for a rewatch of this conspiracy thriller classic.

Redford plays Turner, a CIA analyst, whose assignment is to scan books and find plans, dirty tricks, and other ideas that may have been used in ops, or that they can use. He’s written reports, and one of them may be why he and his entire office have been targeted for elimination by the assassin Joubert (Max von Sydow).

Turner, through mere luck, avoids the assassination and is on the run, unsure of who to trust. When he calls in and confers with Higgins (Cliff Robertson), he tries to put things together, but after another attempt, he needs to go off the grid. He barges into Kathy’s (Faye Dunaway) life, and uses her to help get to the truth.

Pollack delivers a tightly paced film with a score by Dave Grusin. It’s tightly wound, and Redford carries the film with ease.

Sydow is appropriately menacing, simply because he doesn’t try to be. He’s polite, charming and solely focused on his mission. He’s fantastic in this.

Robertson is one of those actors whom I always delight in seeing. He’s perfectly cast here; he’s got this ability to be sketchy and untrustworthy, and that works great for the film.

That being said, I’ve never been a fan of Dunaway. There’s just something about her that rubs me the wrong way, and I’ve never cared for her as an actor. I wish they had paired Redford with someone else in this one.

There are some solid sequences in the film, the initial killing of Turner’s fellow co-workers is fast and brutal, Turner’s fight with the Mailman Assassin (Hank Garrett) is well-executed, and feels quite modern.

I think an update of the film would be more tightly paced and have a couple of set pieces. I could see Glen Powell pulling this one off. But I would definitely want it to lean into the conspiracy angle as well, and not just make it a chase thriller.

The conspiracy isn’t quite as big as it could have been, but I do like how it plays out, and how Turner got pulled into it. He was just doing his job, analyzing and writing reports, and he wrote something he shouldn’t.

It’s a smart film, an enjoyable film, and also gives us a look at 70s era New York. And, while it shows that we can’t trust the government, it ends with a bit of a hope in the form of the free press getting Turner’s story.

A great flick!