Three Days of the Condor

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

This is looking more and more like a period piece, dated and curious like one of those great Cold War films looks today (Failsafe or Seven Days in May). And yet it also feels like the beginnings of spy/counterspy films that are going on today, way beyond the pizazz of the early Bond films of the 1960s, and presaging the dozens since, including recent ones like the Bourne films or Syriana. It plays straight up as a suspense film, one where an almost innocent man is caught up in something huge and perplexing and awful, and we all identify with the individual against the powers of evil. Robert Redford plays the role of Joe Turner well, with the usual Redford stiffness, but believably--he reads books, after all--and sympathetically.

Putting yourself back to 1975 you have to remember that everyone was talking about, and reacting to, Watergate, and a U.S. president who had to resign from office because of it. Watergate, more than anything, started the current public roar (blossoming on the internet) about government conspiracy. Three Days of the Condor makes the government, and the CIA in particular, an almost unassailable and invisible force of spying and mistrust. Turner, by circumstance at first and then by admirable determination, fights back. He's clever as much as he is worried. He falls in love. He feels isolated but never gives up. He has close calls, and lucky escapes, and unlikely friends. He thinks of other people first.

In other words, he's a hero against the machine, and if the movie is sometimes slow, it creates a nice pace for the end, which is beautifully thought out. Director Sydney Pollack is hampered by a screenplay that alternates between awkward (Faye Dunaway's scenes) and brilliant (Redford's anti-spy character has a conversation with a hit man played by Max Von Sydow that shines), but he patches it together with an editing job that was nominated for an Oscar. And the cinematography by Owen Roizman is really nice (he shot a dozen great films from the French Connection to the Exorcist to Network). Condor is not just an entertainment, which is a saving grace, but it does also, slowly and beautifully, entertain.

Great film -Robert Redford has a way of drawing in the audience and Faye Dunaway is more vulnerable than ever, her best role since Thomas Crown. No vulgarity in the love scene just a great sensuality. Both stars have shown an outstanding performance ! Top-notch screenplay - 70's films are definitely the best ones in terms of storytelling and screenplays. Sidney Pollack does also a great job as a director and delivers an efficient thriller that you can watch over and over again.I agree with some reviewers who think that it is one of the Redford's best. The supporting cast is also excellent. Maybe the directors nowadays should watch more often 70's films to be more inspired.

I'm sure that Robert Redford thought he had the greatest job in the world in Three Days Of The Condor. He's a reader for the Central Intelligence Agency. His job along with several other associates is to read various books, fiction and non-fiction, in a comfortable old Upper East Side of New York brownstone and glean ideas for the agency.

Except that one fine day an innocuous report gets turned in from his brownstone that panics someone in a high place. A hit team is sent out and Redford by dint of going out for lunch orders through a back entrance misses a massacre. After he calls it in and then escapes another murder attempt in which a friend in the agency is killed, he doesn't know who to trust.

Three Days Of The Condor is a finely tuned spy thriller which will keep you guessing right up to the end. You will be inside Robert Redford's head totally, you won't know what to believe either. Eventually the only one he does trust is a woman whom he forces at gunpoint to help him escape. The woman is Faye Dunaway who goes Stockholm and enlists in helping Redford try and sort things out.

Redford proves to be quite resourceful even winning the admiration of Max Von Sydow, the contract killer hired to get him. After all he's not a field agent, but as Von Sydow points out, 'he does read'.

Sydney Pollack kept things going at a Hitchcock like level of tension with great performances from his cast. That would also include Cliff Robertson as the CIA station chief whose motives are mixed to say the least.

If your taste tends to espionage thrillers, don't miss Three Days Of The Condor.

Good intrigue yarn about a CIA agent whose code name is Condor who is forced to flee for his life when his cover operation (called American Literature History Society) is blown and becomes into man-on-the-run . In the next seventy-two hours almost everyone he trusts will attempt to murder him ( by an organization undercover called Five Continents Import Inc. ). The bookish CIA information reader (Robert Redford) aware more than he should and he finds all of his co-workers cruelly killed. He must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust and he suddenly himself as hunted man , being only helped by a stranger woman (Faye Dunaway) .

This exciting mystery contains thrills , action , shootouts , suspense and is quite entertaining . Good performance from Robert Redford as bookish researcher working for US Intelligence office and Faye Dunaway as the innocent who Condor uses to avoid capture and shelter him . Excellent support cast as Cliff Robertson with special mention to veteran John Houseman and of course Max Von Sydow who expertly handles a vignette as cold murderer . Very good cinematography , well filmed in New York City and Washington D.C. by Owen Roizman- The exorcist- and atmospheric musical score by Dave Grusin. The motion picture is stunningly directed by the recently deceased Sydney Pollack . Sydney was an excellent director , producer and secondary actor with several hits on all kind of genres as ¨The Interpreter¨ , ¨The firm¨ , ¨Out of Africa¨ , ¨Tootsie¨, ¨Yakuza¨ and many others . Rating : Good , better than average and worthwhile watching . The flick will appeal to Robert Redford fans and thriller buffs .

I really liked this film . From the storyline , to the acting , to the wonderful looking 1970's New York setting . It's a another Robert Redford/Sydney Pollack collaboration that stands the test of time .

Redford plays a a mild mannered CIA researcher, paid to read books, returns from lunch to find all of his co-workers assassinated. "Condor" must find out who did this and get in from the cold before the hitmen get him.

I'm really surprised that this film haven't been remade . In a time when Hollywood has very little imagination and remakes any old rubbish, this would be perfect for modern version.

Redford is really good . In fact the whole cast are professional and are on their games . Max Von Sydow does what he does best as the mysterious foreigner. Faye Dunaway is gorgeous and the on screen chemistry with Redford is obvious.

The setting is what I really love about this film . New York in the 1970's was a dirty , seedy place and films set then are like a historical memory of that . Three are lots of scenes with the twin towers , inside and out and that is always poignant to see but one amazing fact is that Cliff Robertson, who played Higgins, who is a keen aviator, and was flying a private Beechcraft Baron over New York City on the morning of September 11, 2001. He was directly above the World Trade Center, climbing through 7,500 feet when the first Boeing 767 struck. Air traffic control instructed him to land immediately at the nearest airport, after a nationwide order to ground all civilian and commercial aircraft following the attacks.

Amazing.