Three Days of the Condor
Three Days of the Condor is a 1975 American political thriller film directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, and Max von Sydow. The screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel was based on the 1974 novel "Six Days of the Condor" by James Grady. Set mainly in New York City and Washington, D.C., the film is about a bookish CIA researcher who comes back from lunch one day to discover his co-workers murdered, and tries to outwit those responsible. The film was nominated for the Academy Award  for Best Film Editing. Semple and Rayfiel received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay. Plot. Joseph "Joe" Turner is a bookish CIA analyst, code named "Condor". He works at the American Literary Historical Society in New York City, which is actually a clandestine CIA office. The seven staff members examine books, newspapers, and magazines from around the world. Turner files a report to CIA headquarters on a thriller novel with strange plot elements; despite poor sales it has been translated into many languages. Turner leaves through a back door to get staff  lunches. Armed men enter the office and murder the other six staffers. Turner returns to find his coworkers dead; frightened, 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 S.W. Wicks, his head of department, who will bring him to safety. However, the rendezvous is a trap. Turner insists that Wicks bring somebody familiar, since Turner has never met him as his departmental head. Wicks brings Sam Barber, a college friend of Turner, who is also a non -field employee of the CIA. Wicks attempts to kill Turner, who wounds his superior before escaping. Wicks kills Barber to eliminate a witness. Taken to a hospital, Wicks blames Turner for both shootings, before his own life support system is turned off by an intruder. On the run, Turner encounters a woman, 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. However, Joubert, a European who led the massacre of Turner's co-workers, discovers  Turner's hiding place. He visits Barber's building and spends some tense moments in the elevator with Turner once the other passengers have left. After Turner leaves the building Joubert tries to shoot him, but Turner manages to blend into a small crowd. Soon after, a hitman disguised as a mailman arrives at Hale's apartment, but Turner manages to kill him. No longer trusting anyone within the CIA ("the Company"), 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 an efficient freelance assassin who has undertaken assignments for the CIA. Back at his office, Higgins discovers that the "mailman" who attacked Turner worked with Joubert on a previous operation. Their CIA case officer was Wicks. From a hotel room key found on the mailman, Turner discovers Joubert's location. Using his U.S. Army Signal Corps training to trace a phone call, Turner also learns the name and address of Leonard Atwood, CIA Deputy Director of Operations for the Middle East. Turner confronts Atwood at the latter's mansion in Washington D.C., interrogates him at gunpoint, and learns  that Turner's original report filed to CIA headquarters had provided links to a rogue operation to seize Middle Eastern oil fields. Fearful of its disclosure, Atwood had privately ordered that Turner's section be eliminated. Joubert enters unexpectedly as Atwood confirms this, disarms Turner, and kills Atwood. Joubert explains that Atwood's superiors had hired him to stage Atwood's suicide, overriding orders from Atwood to kill Turner. Joubert theorizes that Atwood was about to become an embarrassment and 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 acknowledges that the operation would not have been authorized "with all the heat on the company" but asserts that it would have worked. He suggests that when shortages cause a major crisis and Americans face cold and hunger they will demand that fuel and food be  obtained by any means necessary. Turner points to "The New York Times" building and says he has "told them a story". A dismayed Higgins tells Turner that he is about to become a very lonely man, and questions whether the whistleblowing will be published. "They'll print it," Turner defiantly replies. However, as "Condor" turns away, Higgins calls out "How do you know?" Production. Filming locations. "Three Days of the Condor" was filmed in various locations in New York City (including the World Trade Center, 55 East 77th Street, Brooklyn Heights, The Ansonia, and Central Park), New Jersey, and Washington  D.C. (including the National Mall). Reception. Box office. The film earned $8,925,000 in theatrical showings in North America. Critical response. Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, reports that 88% of 48 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review, and the average rating was 7.3/10; 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." When first released, the film was reviewed positively by "New York Times" critic Vincent Canby, who wrote that the film "is no match  for stories in your local newspaper", but it benefits from good acting and directing. "Variety" called it a B movie that was given a big budget despite its lack of substance. 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." John Simon wrote how the book, "Six Days of the Condor", had been rewritten for the film: 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. 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): Some critics also 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. Panning and scanning. In 1997, The Association of Danish Film Directors, on behalf of Pollack, sued Danmarks Radio, claiming that their broadcasting the film in a panned and scanned version violated his copyright. The case was unsuccessful, as the rights were not owned by Pollack personally in the first place. The case is believed to have been the first legal  challenge to the practice of panning and scanning for broadcast on the grounds that it compromises the artistic integrity of an original film. Soundtrack. "All music by Dave Grusin, except where noted." 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. In February 2017, Max Irons was cast as Joe Turner in the series entitled "Condor" for Audience. 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. Although, 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.