This I gleaned from his comments regarding how the film was adapted from a Robert Ludlum novel. The problem, the director continues, was to condense Ludlum s long and extremely convoluted book down to an intelligible two hour film. Admittedly, Frankenheimer doesn t come out and admit that the film utterly failed in this respect. Still, it seems possible that he s tacitly signaling listeners that this is the cause of at least some of the film s problems. The most telling mark of Frankenheimer s disenchantment with the film may be the desultory quality of his commentary.
Long gaps appear between remarks, a major bugaboo for commentary fans.
He also tends to toss out non sequitur statements. I was soon alerted to another potential problem. The director makes some observations regarding the film s score, composed by Stanislas. Said praise, however, raises a point as to how candid JF felt he could be in his remarks. Even if he is aware of the film s myriad flaws, he quite possibly would avoid pointing them out, so as not to impugn others who worked on it.