Is not getting caught in a lie, the same as telling the truth?

I hadn't seen the movie in a few years, but always liked it a lot. Robert Redford plays Joe Turner, a CIA researcher who returns from lunch to find all his co-workers killed. In the next 72 hours, everyone will try to kill him. He kidnaps a young beautiful and fragile photographer, Faye Dunaway and holds her hostage until he can unravel the mystery. His job is to read books, newspapers, and magazines from around the world looking for hidden meanings and codes. He files a report to CIA headquarters on a low-quality thriller novel his office has been reading, pointing out strange plot elements, and the unusual assortment of languages in which the book has been translated even though the book had very little sales. Why would there be so many versions of a poor selling thriller? Turkish but not French, Arabic but not Russian or German, Dutch, and Spanish, he stumbles onto something.

"Listen. I work for the CIA. I am not a spy. I just read books! We read everything that's published in the world. And we... we feed the plots - dirty tricks, codes - into a computer, and the computer checks against actual CIA plans and operations. I look for leaks, I look for new ideas... We read adventures and novels and journals. I... I... Who'd invent a job like that." “I just read books!”

The film was adapted from the novel. "Six Days of the Condor" by James Grady. Directed by the late great Sydney Pollack who died May 26, 2008. Max Von Sydow is fantastic. He plays a character you'll never forget. He's so good the character has been ripped off in so many movies. His character Joubert, gets an awesome moment in the film to let Redford know what the future holds for him if he stays in America: "It will happen this way. You may be walking. Maybe the first sunny day of the spring. And a car will slow beside you, and a door will open, and someone you know, maybe even trust, will get out of the car. And he will smile, a becoming smile. But he will leave open the door of the car and offer to give you a lift."

It’s been 35 years since this movie came out and people do not trust the government anymore today than in the 70’s, probably less. Yes, I'm very sure it's less, much less!

This film was way ahead of it's time, with a line like this, "Do we have plans to invade the Middle East over oil?"

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