Three Days of the Condor

Joe Turner is a bookish CIA analyst, codenamed "Condor", who works at the American Literary Historical Society in New York City, which is actually a clandestine CIA office. The staff members examine books, newspapers, and magazines from around the world to compare them to actual operations or to find ideas. Turner files a report to CIA headquarters on a thriller novel with strange plot elements that has been translated into several languages despite poor sales.

As Turner leaves through a back door to get staff lunches, armed men enter the office and murder the other staffers there.

Returning to find his co-workers dead, he grabs a gun and exits the building. He contacts the CIA's New York headquarters in the World Trade Center from a phone booth and is given instructions to meet Wicks, his head of department, who will take him to safety. Turner insists that Wicks bring somebody familiar, since he has never met his departmental head. Wicks brings Sam Barber, a college friend of Turner who is also a non-field CIA employee. The rendezvous is a trap and Wicks attempts to kill Turner, who wounds him before escaping. Wicks kills Barber to eliminate a witness and blames Turner for both shootings. Later, Wicks is killed by an intruder in his hospital room.

Turner encounters a woman named Kathy Hale and forces her to take him to her apartment. He holds Hale hostage while he attempts to figure out what is happening. Hale slowly comes to trust Turner, and they become lovers. Turner visits Sam's apartment where he encounters Joubert, a European who led the massacre of Turner's co-workers and had disconnected Wicks from life support at the hospital. Outside the building, Joubert tries to shoot Turner, who manages to escape. But Joubert discovers Turner's hiding place by tracking the license plate on Kathy's car and the next morning, a hitman disguised as a mailman arrives at Hale's apartment, but Turner manages to out fight and kill him.

No longer able to trust anyone, Turner plays a cat-and-mouse game with Higgins, the deputy director of the CIA's New York division. With Hale's help, Turner abducts Higgins, who identifies Joubert as a freelance assassin who has undertaken assignments for the CIA. Released and back at his office, Higgins discovers that the "mailman" who attacked Turner worked with Joubert on a previous operation and that their CIA case officer was Wicks.

After tracking a hotel key he found on the mailman, Turner discovers Joubert's location and utilizing a portable phone he stole off a phone company truck, Turner sneaks into the hotel's switchboard and is able to trace a phone call from Joubert and learn the name and address of Leonard Atwood, CIA Deputy Director of Operations for the Middle East. Confronting Atwood at gunpoint in his mansion near Washington, D.C., Turner suggests that his own original report filed to CIA headquarters had exposed a rogue CIA operation to seize Middle Eastern oil fields; fearful of its disclosure, Atwood had privately ordered Turner's section eliminated.

As Atwood confirms this, Joubert enters and unexpectedly kills him, faking a suicide. Atwood's superiors had hired Joubert to eliminate someone who was about to become an embarrassment, overriding Atwood's original contract for Joubert to kill Turner. Joubert suggests that the resourceful Turner leave the country and even become an assassin himself. Turner rejects the suggestion but heeds Joubert's warning that the CIA will try to eliminate him as another embarrassment, possibly entrapping him through a trusted acquaintance.

Back in New York, Turner has a rendezvous with Higgins near Times Square. Higgins describes the oilfield plan as a contingency "game" that was planned within the CIA without approval from above. He defends the project, suggesting that when oil shortages cause a major economic crisis, the American people will accept any measures to keep their comfortable lives. Turner then reveals that he has given full details to The New York Times. Higgins retorts that Turner is about to become a very lonely man and questions whether the whistleblowing will really be published. "They'll print it," Turner defiantly replies. As "Condor" walks away, Higgins shouts after him "How do you know?"

{{cast listing|

• Robert Redford as Joseph "Joe" Turner (Condor)
• Faye Dunaway as Kathy Hale
• Cliff Robertson as Higgins
• Max von Sydow as Joubert
• John Houseman as Wabash
• Addison Powell as Leonard Atwood
• Walter McGinn as Sam Barber
• Tina Chen as Janice Chong
• Michael Kane as S.W. Wicks
• Don McHenry as Dr. Lappe
• Michael Miller as Fowler
• Jess Osuna as The Major
• Dino Narizzano as Harold
• Helen Stenborg as Mrs. Russell
• Patrick Gorman as Martin
• Hansford Rowe as Jennings
• Carlin Glynn as Mae Barber
• Hank Garrett as The Mailman
• James Keane as Store Clerk
• Sal Schillizzi as himself
• Sydney Pollack as Ben (Kathy's Boyfriend on Phone) (uncredited) and as unnamed Taxi Driver who yells at Turner for jaywalking (uncredited)
• Dorothi Fox as Nurse

}}

The film was shot on location in New York City (including the World Trade Center, 55 East 77th Street, Brooklyn Heights, The Ansonia, and Central Park), New Jersey (including Hoboken Terminal), and Washington, D.C. (including the National Mall).{{cite web|url=https://movie-locations.com/movies/t/Three-Days-Of-The-Condor.php|title=Three Days Of The Condor {{!}} 1975|website=movie-locations.com|accessdate=November 5, 2024}}{{cite web |title=Three Days of the Condor |website=On the Set of New York |url=http://onthesetofnewyork.com/threedaysofthecondor.html |access-date=May 3, 2013 |archive-date=May 30, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130530152917/http://www.onthesetofnewyork.com/threedaysofthecondor.html |url-status=live }}{{cite video|people=Sydney Pollack (director) |title=Three Days of the Condor |medium=DVD |publisher=Paramount |location=Los Angeles |year=1999 }}

{{Infobox album

| name = Three Days of the Condor

| type = soundtrack

| artist = Dave Grusin

| cover =

| caption =

| alt =

| released = August 1975

| recorded =

| venue =

| studio =

| genre =

| length =

| label = Capitol (1975)
DRG (2004 reissue)

| producer = Neely Plumb

| prev_title =

| prev_year =

| next_title =

| next_year =

}}

All music by Dave Grusin, except where noted.

1. "Condor! (Theme from 3 Days of the Condor)" 3:35
2. "Yellow Panic" 2:15
3. "Flight of the Condor" 2:25
4. "We'll Bring You Home" 2:24
5. "Out to Lunch" 2:00
6. "Goodbye for Kathy (Love Theme from 3 Days of the Condor)" 2:16
7. "I've Got You Where I Want You" 3:12 (Grusin/Bahler; sung by Jim Gilstrap)
8. "Flashback to Terror" 2:24
9. "Sing Along with the C.I.A." 1:34
10. "Spies of a Feather, Flocking Together (Love Theme from 3 Days of the Condor)" 1:55
11. "Silver Bells" 2:37 (Livingstone / Evans; sung by Marti McCall)
12. "Medley: a) Condor! (Theme) / b) I've Got You Where I Want You" 1:57

The film was released in September 1975, earning $8,925,000 in theatrical rentals in the United States and Canada by the end of the year."All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 44 It went on to earn rentals of $20 million in the United States and Canada from a gross of $41.5 million. It earned rentals of $32.7 million worldwide.

Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 87% of 53 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review, and the average rating was 7.4/10; the site's consensus is: "This post-Watergate thriller captures the paranoid tenor of the times, thanks to Sydney Pollack's taut direction and excellent performances from Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway."{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/three_days_of_the_condor/|title=Three Days of the Condor (1975)|access-date=October 10, 2023|work=Rotten Tomatoes|archive-date=December 5, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131205221453/http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/three_days_of_the_condor/|url-status=live}}

When first released, the film was reviewed positively by Vincent Canby, critic for The New York Times, who wrote that the film "is no match for stories in your local newspaper", but it benefits from good acting and directing.{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173CE577BC4D51DFBF66838E669EDE|title=Three Days of the Condor (1975)|last=Canby|first=Vincent|work=The New York Times|date=September 25, 1975|access-date=February 29, 2008|archive-date=March 9, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140309045028/http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173CE577BC4D51DFBF66838E669EDE|url-status=live}} Variety called it a B movie that was given a big budget despite its lack of substance.{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/1974/film/reviews/three-days-of-the-condor-1200423315/|title=Review: 'Three Days of the Condor'|author=|work=Variety|year=1975|access-date=February 8, 2014|archive-date=September 15, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200915003558/https://variety.com/1974/film/reviews/three-days-of-the-condor-1200423315/|url-status=live}} Roger Ebert wrote, "Three Days of the Condor is a well-made thriller, tense and involving, and the scary thing, in these months after Watergate, is that it's all too believable."{{cite web|url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/three-days-of-the-condor-1975|title=Three Days of the Condor|last=Ebert|first=Roger|work=Chicago Sun-Times|year=1975|access-date=February 8, 2014|archive-date=December 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201231141654/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/three-days-of-the-condor-1975|url-status=live}}

John Simon wrote how the book, Six Days of the Condor, had been rewritten for the film:

{{blockquote|That the action has been relocated from sleepy Washington to furious New York City, almost all names have been changed, that the plot has been vastly over-complicated, is of lesser interest than a straight genre film, has been overloaded into an elegy of private, political, and finally, cosmic pessimism, a kind of national, if not metaphysical, guilt film to enchant the disenchanted.{{cite book |title=Reverse Angle: A Decade of American Film|url=https://archive.org/details/reverseangledeca0000simo|url-access=registration|last1=Simon|first1=John |publisher=Crown Publishers Inc. |year=1982 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/reverseangledeca0000simo/page/195 195-198]|isbn=9780517544716 }}}}

In closing his review, Simon said the lesson he derived from the film was, "we must be grateful to the CIA: it does what our schools no longer do — engage some people to read books."

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard lists the film as an example of a new genre of "retro cinema" in his essay on history in the now influential book, Simulacra and Simulation (1981):

{{blockquote|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, 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."Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Trans. Sheila Faria Glaser. University of Michigan Press, 1994, p. 45. French original, Simulacres et Simulation, published by Éditions Galilée in 1981.}}

Some critics described the film as a piece of political propaganda, as it was released soon after the "Family Jewels" scandal came to light in December 1974, which exposed a variety of CIA "dirty tricks". However, in an interview with Jump Cut, Pollack explained that the film was written solely to be a spy thriller and that production on the film was nearly over by the time the Family Jewels revelations were made, so even if they had wanted to take advantage of them, it was far too late in the filmmaking process to do so. He said that despite both Pollack and Redford being well-known political liberals, they were only interested in making the film because an espionage thriller was a genre neither of them had previously explored.{{cite journal | title=Hollywood uncovers the CIA | first=Patrick | last=McGilligan | journal=Jump Cut | url=http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC10-11folder/PollackMcGilligan.html | year=1976 | issue=10–11 | access-date=December 24, 2013 | archive-date=November 19, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119062758/http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC10-11folder/PollackMcGilligan.html | url-status=live }}

{{blockquote|I didn't want this picture to be judged; it’s a movie. I intended it always as a movie. I never had any pretensions about the picture and it’s making me very angry that I'm getting pretensions stuck on me like tails on a donkey. If I wanted to be pretentious, I'd take the CIA seal and advertise this movie and really take advantage of the headlines. Central Intelligence Agency, United States of America, Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway. And don't think it wasn't suggested — obviously, that’s what advertising people do. We really put our foot down — Redford and I — to absolutely stop that.}}

According to former Soviet intelligence officer Sergei Tretyakov, the fictional clandestine office shown in Three Days of Condor convinced KGB generals to establish an equivalent office in Moscow, the Scientific Research Institute of Intelligence Problems ({{langx|ru|Научно-исследовательский институт разведывательных проблем}}).{{cite book |last1=Earley |first1=Pete |title=Comrade J: The Untold Secrets of Russia's Master Spy in America After the End of the Cold War |date=2007 |publisher=Penguin Books |pages=37–39}}

; Wins

• Cartagena Film Festival: Golden India Catalina, Best Actor, Max von Sydow; 1976.
• David di Donatello Awards: Special David, Sydney Pollack, for the direction; 1976.
• Edgar Allan Poe Awards: Edgar; Best Motion Picture, Lorenzo Semple Jr. David Rayfiel; 1976.
• Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards: KCFCC Award; Best Supporting Actor, Max von Sydow; 1976.
• Motion Picture Sound Editors: Golden Reel Award; Best Sound Editing - Sound Effects; 1976.

; Nominations

• Academy Awards: Oscar; Film Editing, Fredric Steinkamp and Don Guidice; 1976.
• Cartagena Film Festival: Golden India Catalina; Best Film, Sydney Pollack; 1976.
• Golden Globe Awards: Golden Globe; Best Motion Picture Actress - Drama, Faye Dunaway; 1976.
• Grammy Awards: Grammy; Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special, Dave Grusin; 1977.
• AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills; 2001{{Cite web |url=http://www.afi.com/Docs/100years/thrills400.pdf |title=AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills Nominees |access-date=September 16, 2014 |archive-date=July 6, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706070532/http://www.afi.com/Docs/100Years/thrills400.pdf |url-status=live }}

In 1997, The Association of Danish Film Directors (Danske Filminstruktører), on behalf of the director Sydney Pollack, sued Danmarks Radio on the grounds that cropping the film for television compromised the artistic integrity of the original film and that broadcasting the film in a reduced screen version violated Pollack's copyright. However, the case was unsuccessful because the film rights to Three Days of the Condor were not actually owned by Pollack. The case is believed to have been the first legal challenge to the practice of panning and scanning widescreen films on screens with a 4:3 aspect ratio.{{cite magazine|first=Morton|last= Jacobsen| title=Copyright on Trial in Denmark|magazine=Image Technology|volume= 79|number=5|date=May 1997|pages= 16–20}}{{cite magazine|first=Morton|last= Jacobsen| title=Copyright on Trial in Denmark|magazine=Image Technology|volume= 79|number=6|date=June 1997|pages= 22–24}}

• Joubert's musings in the penultimate scene (see under Plot above) on how Turner might be killed by the CIA are reprised almost word-for-word in the Seinfeld episode "The Junk Mail." The speech is used as a warning from Newman to Kramer about how the U.S. Postal Service will retaliate for Kramer's refusal to receive his mail.
• In Out of Sight, Jack Foley (George Clooney) and Karen Sisco (Jennifer Lopez) discuss the film's romantic subplot, which Sisco describes as dubious.
• The Marvel Comics superhero film Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) was inspired by this film and other sources as well as by the original comic book source material. The directors, the Russo brothers, admit this and say that Robert Redford's casting in their film was intended as an homage.{{cite web |last1=Faraci |first1=Devin |url=https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2014/03/07/the-russo-brothers-on-why-the-winter-soldier-is-three-days-of-captain-ameri |title=The Russo Brothers On Why THE WINTER SOLDIER Is THREE DAYS OF CAPTAIN AMERICA |website=Birth. Movies. Death. |date=March 7, 2014 |access-date=1 September 2020 |archive-date=September 14, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200914235500/https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2014/03/07/the-russo-brothers-on-why-the-winter-soldier-is-three-days-of-captain-ameri |url-status=live }}
• Perhaps the most famous line in the film is Turner's challenge to Higgins, “You think not getting caught in a lie is the same thing as telling the truth?” Director Sydney Pollack has admitted to using variations of that line in three of his other films: Tootsie (1982), The Firm (1993), and The Interpreter (2005).
• The famous hacker Kevin Mitnick chose the Condor nickname after watching the movie.{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/62211803 |title=The Internet : a historical encyclopedia |date=2005 |others=Hilary W. Poole, Laura Lambert, Chris Woodford, Christos J. P. Moschovitis |isbn=1-85109-664-7|publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. |oclc=62211803 |access-date=June 21, 2022 |archive-date=July 20, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230720041358/https://www.worldcat.org/title/62211803 |url-status=live }}
• R&B Singer Amerie sampled the movie's main theme "Condor!" for her 2002 hit "Why Don't We Fall in Love".

{{main|Condor (TV series)}}

In March 2015, Skydance Media in partnership with MGM Television and Paramount Television announced that they would produce a TV series remake of the film.{{cite news|title=Skydance Productions Developing 'Three Days of the Condor' Remake for TV (Exclusive)|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/skydance-productions-developing-three-days-780722|access-date=15 March 2015|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=11 March 2015|archive-date=January 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200109111212/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/skydance-productions-developing-three-days-780722|url-status=live}} In February 2017, Max Irons was cast as Joe Turner in the series entitled Condor for Audience.{{cite news|title=Max Irons To Star In Audience TV Series Inspired By 'Three Days Of The Condor'|url=https://deadline.com/2017/02/max-irons-condor-series-three-days-of-the-condor-audience-network-1201903597/|access-date=7 February 2017|website=Deadline|date=6 February 2017|archive-date=July 31, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200731235958/https://deadline.com/2017/02/max-irons-condor-series-three-days-of-the-condor-audience-network-1201903597/|url-status=live}}

This eventually became a series developed by Todd Katzberg, Jason Smilovic, and Ken Robinson. The series premiered on June 6, 2018 on Audience. In July 2018, the series had been renewed for a second season.

However, in January 2020, Audience announced it would be ending operations in its current format, effectively cancelling the show. The second season, already filmed at the time of the announcement, premiered on June 9, 2020, on C More and RTÉ2.

• List of American films of 1975
• Conspiracy thriller
• Techno-thriller
• United States Joint Publications Research Service—a U.S. government organization on which the "American Literary Historical Society" was said{{by whom|date=January 2022|reason=if supported, ought to be in the body of the article, citing support}} to have been modeled.

{{reflist|30em}}

{{wikiquote}}

• {{IMDb title|id=0073802|title=Three Days of the Condor}}
• {{TCMDb title|id=4274}}
• {{AFI film|id=53853|title=Three Days of the Condor}}
• {{Rotten Tomatoes | id= three_days_of_the_condor}}
• {{YouTube|4lEKQvHM1Ss|Three Days of the Condor film trailer}}

{{Sydney Pollack}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Three Days Of The Condor}}

Category:1975 films

Category:1970s spy films

Category:1970s political thriller films

Category:American spy thriller films

Category:Edgar Award–winning works

Category:Films about conspiracy theories

Category:Films scored by Dave Grusin

Category:Films directed by Sydney Pollack

Category:Films set in New York City

Category:Films set in Washington, D.C.

Category:Films based on American thriller novels

Category:Films adapted into television shows

Category:Films shot in Virginia

Category:Paramount Pictures films

Category:American political thriller films

Category:American spy films

Category:Cold War spy films

Category:Films about the Central Intelligence Agency

Category:Films with screenplays by Lorenzo Semple Jr.

Category:Films produced by Dino De Laurentiis

Category:Techno-thriller films

Category:Films shot in New York City

Category:Films shot in Washington, D.C.

Category:Films shot in New Jersey

Category:1970s English-language films

Category:1970s American films

Category:English-language political thriller films