Movies…with a little bit of obscure culture and sports mixed in
Three Days Of The Condor (1975) is a damn good spy thriller. It is not in the upper echelon of espionage movies, but neither is it just pure entertainment fodder. Director Sydney Pollack takes the star power of Robert Redford and portrays him as a common man in an uncommon situation. The plot provides twists and turns and Max von Sydow in a supporting role is a perfect amalgamation of an evil Jacques Clouseau.
“A bookish CIA researcher in Manhattan finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.”
Director: Sydney Pollack
Writers: James Grady, Lorenzo Semple Jr., David Rayfiel
Staring: Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow
Release Date: September 25, 1975
IMDB
Three Days Of The Condor (1975) is a damn good spy thriller. It is not in the upper echelon of espionage movies, but neither is it just pure entertainment fodder. Director Sydney Pollack takes the star power of Robert Redford and portrays him as a common man in an uncommon situation. The plot provides twists and turns and Max von Sydow in a supporting role is a perfect amalgamation of an evil Jacques Clouseau.
Turner, codename Condor (Robert Redford), is a CIA office agent whose job it is to read everything he can to see if there is anything of interest to national security. Condor doesn’t love the job, nor does he fit the typical CIA agent demeanor.
At the start of Three Days Of The Condor we get a sense of his eccentric bike-riding behavior. He talks with his supervisor at his small discreet NYC office about a report he filed to upper management, but his efforts at trying to make his job meaningful are constantly rebuffed.
Condor’s life gets more interesting in a traumatic way when he returns from lunch one day to find everyone in his field office murdered. He calls the CIA to report what has happened. The agency tells Condor they are going to bring him in, but after an attempt is made on Condor’s life during their scheduled rendezvous, it’s every man for himself.
Condor goes awol, kidnaps a young woman by the name of Kathy (Faye Dunaway), and begins to work through all the puzzles dancing in his head. The relationship between Condor and Kathy grows steamer as she begins to realize he is indeed a harmless man in a terrible situation. She agrees to help him as he begins to put the pieces of the mystery together.
Many a man is after Condor, but none more dangerous than professional hitman Joubert (Max Van Sydow). While on the run from the top tier assassin, Condor and Kathy evade death from a separate assailant dressed as an everyday mailman. They must flee her apartment and Condor thinks it’s time to go on the offensive.
Condor begins escalating contact with his section chief Higgins (Cliff Robertson) and together they begin filling in blank spots. The fog begins to clear when Higgins finds a link between Joubert and the mailman regarding past CIA hits. The theoretical strings become taut when Condor makes contact with Joubert and then immediately traces the hitman’s phone. Condor learns that Joubert is working off the books for a man called Atwood, a high-ranking CIA official with dirty money making intentions.
The end of the Three Days Of The Condor brings Condor face-to-face with Atwood, Joubert, and Higgins. The office agent gets a lesson on what it means to operate in the field. Who can you trust? Who works for who? What drives a man to do his job? Nothing is as it seems in the CIA, and Condor has to hack his way through all the distrust in order to free himself and Kathy from a global conspiracy.
The genius bit of Three Days Of The Condor is that it casts a beautiful man in the part of a common unextraordinary character. The fish out of water trick allows the audience to easily connect to a seemingly unattainable face. The screenplay of James Grady, Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel also paints with the brush of brain over brawns. Not everyone has the muscles of Superman, but everyone has a brain that can theoretically problem solve and think fast.
Condor has to be quick on his feet, and the film flies at the same frantic pace of its hero’s brain. The names of different agency members are tossed about like sprinkles on top of an ice cream sundae. Not every name delivers a crunch, but in the end it leaves a color pallet of deceit that is interesting to reflect upon.
Three Days Of The Condor sets its scene beautifully and erupts with violence to set the story in motion. The start of this movie makes it seem like this espionage story is going to be action filled, but in reality there are very few gun-riddled scenes. Again, brains over brawn. Condor has one fight with an assassin where he manages to use all of Kathy’s apartment belongings to save their hide. Otherwise Condor runs from violence and runs from guns. Robert Redord is able to make his phone-tapping acting skills as exciting as his flailing fist-a-cuffs.
There is one aspect of Three Days Of The Condor that doesn’t age particularly well, and that is the role of Kathy. Faye Dunaway is cast in a part where she is kidnapped by a man, falls for that man, and then helps him in his escape with little hesitation. This is just an encapsulation of the time the movie was made.
A curious conversation starter would be how to make the character of Kathy be different if Three Days Of The Condor were made today? What depth would they add to it? What power would they give her? What agency?
Robert Redford is the lead and Faye Dunaway is the romantic and criminal sidekick, yet neither actors’ performances stand the test of time like Max von Sydow’s.
The two-time Oscar nominated Swedish actor fits the 1970s spy theme like the last piece of the board game Perfection. The mustache. The tall yet quiet demeanor. His character Joubert is caught in the middle of political in-games much like Condor, but the difference is that he understands the game.
The ending of Three Days Of The Condor is perfectly 1970s. Condor has an illuminating conversation with Joubert that highlights the shadowy nature of the company he was employed for. The glasses wearing book hoarder then talks with Higgins and pulls off a Rorschach-esq ending. The ending of the graphic novel Watchmen shows a newspaper getting its hands on a notebook containing society-shattering secrets. Three Days Of The Condor has the same thematic ending. Higgins tries to throw water on the idea that Condor’s act of transparency will lead to anything. But Condor, and the story, leave a groundbreaking hammer in the hands of those with a voice to potentially break open the system.
Three Days Of The Condor was nominated for one Academy Award at the 1976 Oscars. Fredric Stienkamp and Don Guidice were nominated for Best Film Editing. Jaws (1975) won the Academy Award over Dog Day Afternoon (1995), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Three Days Of The Condor.
As of early August 2023, Three Days Of The Condor is streaming on Paramount+.
STANKO RATING: B
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