| Three Days of the Condor | |
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Theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Sydney Pollack |
| Produced by | Dino De Laurentiis |
| Written by | James Grady (novel) Lorenzo Semple Jr. David Rayfiel |
| Starring | Robert Redford Faye Dunaway Cliff Robertson Max von Sydow |
| Music by | Dave Grusin |
| Cinematography | Owen Roizman |
| Editing by | Don Guidice Fredric Steinkamp (supervising) |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | September 24, 1975 |
| Running time | 118 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English French |
Three Days of the Condor is a 1975 American action thriller film produced by Stanley Schneider and directed by Sydney Pollack. The screenplay, by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel, was adapted from the novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady.[1]
The film is a suspense drama set in contemporary New York City, and is considered an exposition of the moral ambiguity of the actions of the United States government following the Vietnam War and Watergate. It stars Robert Redford as an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency who inadvertently becomes involved in a deadly power struggle within the agency.
The film was nominated for the 1976 Academy Award for Film Editing. Semple and Rayfiel received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.
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Joe Turner (Robert Redford) is a CIA employee (Condor is his code name) who works in a clandestine office in New York City. He reads books, newspapers, and magazines from around the world, looking for hidden meanings and new ideas. As part of his duties, Turner files a report to CIA headquarters on a low-quality thriller novel his office has been reading, pointing out strange plot elements therein, and the unusual assortment of languages into which the book has been translated.
On the day in which Turner expects a response to his report, a group of armed men, led by an Alsatian assassin later identified as Joubert (Max von Sydow), executes the six people in the office. Turner escapes death because at the moment of the incursion, he was out of the office getting lunch. Realizing he is in danger, Turner calls the CIA New York headquarters, and is given instructions to meet some agents who will take care of him. The meeting, however, is a trap, and Turner escapes an attempt to kill him.
Needing a place to hide, Turner forces a woman he sees randomly in a ski shop, Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway), to take him to her apartment in Brooklyn Heights. He holds her prisoner while he attempts to figure out what's going on. However, his hiding place is discovered. A man, disguised as a postman, shows up at the apartment. Turner opens the door and a fight ensues. Turner kills the man.
Realizing that he cannot trust anyone within the CIA, Turner begins to play a cat-and-mouse game with Higgins, the CIA deputy director of the New York division. With the help of Hale, Turner abducts Higgins, who reveals through questioning that the killer was a Frenchman named Joubert.
Higgins discovers that the postman who attacked Turner in Hale's apartment was a former US Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant and CIA operative who collaborated with Joubert on a previous operation. The mastermind of the operation, however, is discovered as Atwood (Addison Powell), Higgins' superior.
Informed by Higgins, Turner tracks down the renegade CIA director to his home and questions him. Turner learns that the Condor's report had uncovered a secret plan to take over middle east oilfields, and a plan was devised to kill all the members in Turner's section.
Joubert surprises them and unexpectedly kills Atwood. The contract has now changed; even though Atwood had hired Joubert to terminate Turner before, Atwood's superiors hired Joubert to now terminate Atwood. Turner is dumbfounded, realizing that Joubert and he are on the same side, working once again for the CIA.
Turner goes back to New York and meets Higgins on a busy street. Higgins defends the oil-fields plan, claiming that there will be a day in which oil shortages will cause a major economic crisis for the country. And when that day comes, Americans will want the government to use any means necessary to obtain the oil. Turner says he has told the press "a story" (they are standing outside The New York Times office), but Higgins questions Turner's assurances that the story will be printed. After a brief dialogue, an anxious Turner glances at Higgins and the New York Times office, then hastily walks away. The final shot is a freeze frame of Turner passing behind a Salvation Army band singing Christmas carols while looking over his shoulder back at Higgins.
| Three Days of the Condor | |
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| Soundtrack album by Dave Grusin | |
| Released | 10 August, 2004 |
| Label | DRG Records |
All music by Dave Grusin, except where noted.
NOTE: Much of Grusin's music for this film was recycled, years later, for the martial arts yarn Enter the Game of Shaolin Bronzemen.
When first released, the film was reviewed positively by critic Vincent Canby, who wrote:
"Yet in Sydney Pollack's Three Days of the Condor, Turner, whose code name is Condor, comes close to wreaking more havoc on the C.I.A. in three days than any number of House and Senate investigating committees have done in years...As a serious exposé of misdeeds within the C.I.A. the film is no match for stories that have appeared in your local newspaper. Indeed, one has to pay careful attention to figure out just what it is that who is doing to whom in Three Days of the Condor and, if I understood it correctly, it's never as horrifying as the real thing...The suspense of the film depends less on this kind of plausibility than on Mr. Redford's reputation (in a movie we accept the fact that he can do anything) and on the verve with which Mr. Pollack, the director, sets everything up. It also benefits from the presence of good actors, including Faye Dunaway (as the woman who befriends the fleeing Turner), Cliff Robertson, Max Von Sydow, and John Houseman..."[2]
The late French philosopher, Jean Baudrillard, makes mention of the film as an example of a new genre of "retro cinema" in his essay on history in the now foundational text, Simulacra and Simulation (1981):
"In the 'real' as in cinema, there was history but there isn't any anymore. Today, the history that is 'given back' to us (precisely because it was taken from us) has no more of a relation to a 'historical real' than neofiguration in painting does to the classical figuration of the real...All, but not only, those historical films whose very perfection is disquieting: Chinatown, Three Days of the Condor, Barry Lyndon, 1900, All the President's Men (film), etc. One has the impression of it being a question of perfect remakes, of extraordinary montages that emerge more from a combinatory culture (or McLuhanesque mosaic), of large photo-, kino-, historicosynthesis machines, etc., rather than one of veritable films."[3]
Wins
Nominations
The Simpsons had an episode called "Three Gays of the Condo", although the plot of that episode was unrelated to Three Days of the Condor. Similarly, the sitcom Frasier had an episode titled "Three Days of the Condo", King of the Hill had an episode called "Three Days of the Kahndo", and Duck Tales had an episode called "Three Ducks of the Condor".
Seinfeld borrowed language from the movie in season 9, episode 5. In this episode, Kramer refused to accept mail and when Newman warned him that he is in danger for doing this, the warning is very similar to Max von Sydow's warning to Robert Redford not to trust the CIA: Newman: "Here's how it's going to happen: you may be..."
In Season 1, episode 3 ("The Catevari") of The Invisible Man, protagonist Darien Fawkes ironically references the film's title when his boss refuses to tell him secrets regarding the episode's villain by saying: "Why don't you cut the Three Days of the Condor crap?".
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