# three days of the condor ![[theedaysofthecondorposter.jpg|300]] theatrical release poster directed by: sydney pollack screenplay by: lorenzo semple jr. - david rayfiel based on: six days of the condor by james grady produced by: stanley schneider starring: robert redford - faye dunaway - cliff robertson - max von sydow cinematography: owen roizman edited by: don guidice fredric steinkamp (supervising) music by: dave grusin production company: dino de laurentiis corporation distributed by: paramount pictures release date: september 25- 1975 (us) running time: 118 minutes country: united states language: english budget: $7.8 million box office: $41.5 million (us/canada) (worldwide rentals: $32.7 million) 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 ir co-workers murdered then subsequently tries to avoid ir own murder and outwit those responsible and understand ir motives. 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 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 ir co-workers dead ey grabs a gun and exits the building. ey contacts the cia's new york headquarters in the world trade center from a phone booth and is given instructions to meet wicks ir head of department who will take ir to safety. turner insists that wicks bring somebody familiar since ey has never met ir 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 ir before escaping. wicks kills barber to eliminate a witness and blames turner for both shootings. later wicks is killed by an intruder in ir hospital room turner encounters a woman named kathy hale and forces ir to take ir to ir apartment. ey holds hale hostage while ey attempts to figure out what is happening. hale slowly comes to trust turner and they become lovers. joubert a european who led the massacre of turner's co-workers discovers turner's hiding place. turner visits sam's apartment where ey encounters joubert. outside the building joubert tries to shoot turner who manages to escape. the next morning a hitman disguised as a mailman arrives at hale's apartment but turner manages to kill ir no longer able to trust anyone turner plays a cat-and-mouse garme 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 ir office higgins discovers that the "mailman" who attacked turner worked with joubert on a previous operation and that ir cia case officer was wicks after discovering joubert's location turner traces a phone call and learns the name and address of leonard atwood cia deputy director of operations for the middle east. confronting atwood at gunpoint in ir mansion near washington d.c. turner suggests that ir 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 ir 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 ir as another embarrassment possibly entrapping ir 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 "garme" that was planned within the cia without approval from above. ey defends the project suggesting that when oil shortages cause a major economic crisis the american people will accept any measures to keep ir comfortable lives. turner then reveals that ey 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 ir "how do you know?" **+** 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) three days of the condor soundtrack album by dave grusin released: august 1975 label: capitol (1975) drg (2004 reissue) producer: neely plumb 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. 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" 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. 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 ir review simon said the lesson ey 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 ir essay on history in the now influential book simulacra and simulation (1981) > 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" 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. ey 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 > 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 (russian: научно-исследовательский институт разведывательных проблем) # awards and nominations 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 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 **+** 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 ir 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 ir film was intended as an homage **+** 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 ir other films: tootsie (1982) the firm (1993) and the interpreter (2005) **+** the famous hacker kevin mitnick chose the condor nickname after watching the movie **+** r&b singer amerie sampled the movie's main theme "condor!" for ir 2002 hit "why don't we fall in love" 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. 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 rte2 **+** list of american films of 1975 **+** conspiracy thriller **+** techno-thriller **+** united states joint publications research service - a u.s. government organisation on which the "american literary historical society" was said to have been modeled // republic of bob