Three Days of the Condor (1975) Paramount/Action-Thriller RT: 118 minutes Rated R (violence, language, a scene of sexuality) Director: Sydney Pollack Screenplay: Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel Music: Dave Grusin Cinematography: Owen Roizman Release date: September 25, 1975 (US) Cast: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow, John Houseman, Addison Powell, Walter McGinn, Tina Chen, Michael Kane, Don McHenry, Michael Miller, Jess Osuna, Dino Narizzano, Helen Stenborg, Patrick Gorman, Hansford Rowe, Carlin Glynn, Hank Garrett, James Keane. Box Office: $41.5M (US)
Rating: ***
In the wake of Watergate, Hollywood started churning out paranoid thrillers in which a lone person stumbles across a conspiracy typically involving powerful people able to cover up their misdeeds. Upon discovery, said person spends the rest of the film looking over his shoulder and dodging attempts on his life. Examples of the genre include Executive Action, The Conversation, The Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor.
I didn’t see Three Days of the Condor until summer 1986. An acquaintance from high school turned me on to this fascinating spy thriller about a CIA analyst fighting to stay alive after he uncovers a sinister plot involving higher-ups in the agency. Joe Turner, code name “Condor” (Redford, The Sting) isn’t a field agent. He just reads books. He and his colleagues read everything (books, magazines and newspapers) to see if any details match actual CIA operations. They’re also looking for new ideas on how to operate. They work out of a clandestine office in New York City, the American Literary Historical Society. Nobody is supposed to know about it.
One day while Joe is out picking up lunch for everybody, a couple of armed men show up and kill everybody. Everybody except Joe, that is. He comes back to find all of his co-workers dead. He grabs a gun and leaves. He then contacts CIA headquarters from a pay phone. They arrange to pick Joe up and bring him to safety. It’s a trap, of course. When Joe shows up at the designated meeting place, they try to kill him. He gets away, but now he doesn’t know who to trust. That’s in addition to not knowing why they want him dead. He spends the rest of the movie trying to figure it out while also keeping one eye out for potential threats to his life.
In need of a place to hide while he assesses his situation, Joe forces a woman at gunpoint to take him to her place. Kathy (Dunaway, Bonnie and Clyde) doesn’t trust Joe at first, but she eventually comes to believe his story. She even helps him. Oh yeah, she has sex with him too. That’s the one thing I don’t like about Three Days of the Condor. That whole bit where they have a heart-to-heart before falling into bed together stops the movie dead in its tracks. Other than that, the film is solid.
Directed by Sydney Pollack (The Way We Were) and based on the novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady, Three Days of the Condor is bolstered by a chilling performance from Max von Sydow (The Seventh Seal) as the hired assassin who orchestrated the office massacre. He handles his business in a cold, precise manner. He doesn’t care about sides either. He’ll work for whoever pays him. The rest of the supporting cast does solid work. Cliff Robertson (Charly) shows up as Higgins, the deputy director of the CIA. He might be involved in what’s going on or he might not be. John Houseman, the go-to actor in the 70s when you needed a stuffy type, puts in an appearance as a senior intelligence officer who misses the clarity of the post-WWI era.
Redford does a surprisingly good job as a bookish type forced into the field by circumstance. He’s not the two-fisted, gun-wielding action hero we usually see in movies like this. He’s about as far from James Bond as you can get. He has certain skills that come in handy though. He knows his way around the inner workings of the telephone system so tapping a phone to get intel is a snap. Dunaway is pretty good as the hostage-turned-romantic interest. I realize moviegoers want to see the two stars form a romantic relationship, but it doesn’t add anything to the story. It’s unnecessary.
Believe it or not, Three Days of the Condor is a Christmas movie. That is to say, it’s set at Christmas. I love New York at Christmastime. Pollack makes great use of the gritty NYC locations with the crowded sidewalks, busy streets and people rushing around. The cinematography by Owen Roizman is a true asset. Then again, I love the look of 70s movies.
It may not be a thrill-a-minute actioner, but Three Days of the Condor is anything but boring. It held my interest throughout. I enjoyed watching Redford play the spy game. The final scene is particularly cool. The way his character finally resolves things is really something. Bottom line, Three Days of the Condor is a good suspenseful spy thriller brimming with paranoia. It’s still effective 50 years later.
