Three Days of the Condor (1975)
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87% of critics liked it
(38 reviews) -
82% of users liked it
(10,546 ratings)
"His code name is Condor. In the next 24 hours, everyone he trusts will try to kill him." As the ads ominously announced, a low-level spook confronts the unfathomable in Sydney Pollack's 1975 political thriller, adapted from the James Grady novel Six Days of the Condor. CIA researcher… More "His code name is Condor. In the next 24 hours, everyone he trusts will try to kill him." As the ads ominously announced, a low-level spook confronts the unfathomable in Sydney Pollack's 1975 political thriller, adapted from the James Grady novel Six Days of the Condor. CIA researcher Joe Turner (Robert Redford) returns from lunch to find the entire staff of his small New York office assassinated. When he meets his boss (Cliff Robertson) at another location to tell him what happened, someone tries to shoot Turner as well. On the run from the cops and his agency, a desperate Turner resorts to holing up with innocent civilian Kathy (Faye Dunaway), who becomes his only ally. Joe decides to save himself the only way possible -- by going to The New York Times. But will it work? One of a cycle of conspiracy films from the 1970s that also included The Parallax View (1974) and Redford's All the President's Men (1976), Three Days of the Condor pits a working everyman (albeit a CIA everyman) against a far-reaching conspiracy, as it also criticizes the CIA during a period of increasing publicity about federal wrongdoing, from the Pentagon Papers through Watergate and other congressional investigations. The challenge of negotiating New York City, shot on location, becomes one more sign of the forces that Joe must face. With its timely subject matter, taut suspense, and sympathetic Redford hero, Three Days of the Condor became a substantial hit. Balancing the conspiracy cycle's pessimism with a margin of attenuated hope, Three Days of the Condor suggests that one man can still discover the truth, but whether it helps him remains to be seen. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Directed By
- Sydney Pollack
- Written By
- James Grady, Lorenzo Semple Jr.
- Genres
- Drama, Romance, Mystery & Suspense, Classics
- In Theaters
- Jan 1, 1975 Wide
- Studio
- Paramount Home Video
Critic Reviews
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, Variety
Basically a B, it has been elevated in form -- but not in substance -- via four bigger names, location shooting and more production values. Sometimes the trick works, but not here.
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Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Basically, the film is a throwback to the 60s anti-Bond spy thriller (a la The Ipcress File), except here the genre's annihilating irony has been replaced by Pollack's liberal piousness.
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Geoff Andrew, Time Out
The action rarely falters, and at its best the film offers an intriguing slice of neo-Hitchcock.
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Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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.
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Vincent Canby, New York Times
At its best moments, Three Days of the Condor creates without effort or editorializing that sense of isolation -- that far remove from reality -- within which super-government agencies can operate with such heedless immunity.
See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes
Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)
Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)
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Cast
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Robert Redford
as Joe Turner
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Faye Dunaway
as Kathy Hale
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Cliff Robertson
as Higgins
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Max von Sydow
as Joubert
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John Houseman
as Wabash
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Carlin Glynn
as Mae Barber
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Addison Powell
as Atwood
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Mike Kane
as Wicks
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Walter McGinn
as Sam Barber
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Tina Chen
as Janice
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John P. Connell
as TV Reporter
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Ed Crowley
as Ordinance Man
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Jay Devlin
as Tall Thin Man
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Dorothi Fox
as Nurse
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Arthur French
as Messenger
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Hank Garrett
as Mailman
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Carol Gustafson
as Landlady
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Ernest Harden Jr.
as Teenager
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John Randolph Jones
as Beefy Man
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James Keane
as Store Clerk
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Don McHenry
as Dr.Lappe
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Dino Narizzano
as Harold
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Myron Natwick
as Civilian
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Jess Osuna
as The Major
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Robert Phalen
as Newberry
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Michael Prince
as Civilian
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Hansford Rowe
as Jennings
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Ed Setrakian
as Customer
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Helen Stenborg
as Mrs. Russell
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Marian Swan
as Nurse
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Patrick Gorman
as Martin
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Lee Steele
as Heidegger
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Norman Bush
as Police Lieutenant
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Robert Dahdah
as Santa Claus
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Michael B. Miller
as Fowler
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David Allen
as Kid
- Michael Kane

