IMDb > Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Three Days of the Condor
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Three Days of the Condor (1975) More at IMDbPro »

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Three Days of the Condor (1975) -- MyMovieScripts.com - Trailer (Flash)

Overview

User Rating:
7.5/10   12,606 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 7% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
Sydney Pollack
Writers:
James Grady (novel)
Lorenzo Semple Jr. (screenplay) ...
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Contact:
View company contact information for Three Days of the Condor on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
14 November 1975 (Finland) more
Genre:
Drama | Romance | Thriller more
Tagline:
His CIA code name is Condor. In the next seventy-two hours almost everyone he trusts will try to kill him. more
Plot:
A bookish CIA researcher finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust. full summary | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 5 wins & 3 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(12 articles)
Pierre Morel to direct 'Signals' thriller
 (From screeninglog. 5 November 2009, 5:59 PM, PST)

'Taken' Director Attached to Paranoid Thriller 'Signals'
 (From Get The Big Picture. 5 November 2009, 4:10 PM, PST)

User Comments:
A lesson in what to do with filmmaking. more (109 total)

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Robert Redford ... Joseph Turner / The Condor

Faye Dunaway ... Kathy Hale

Cliff Robertson ... J. Higgins

Max von Sydow ... G. Joubert (as Max Von Sydow)
John Houseman ... Mr. Wabash
Addison Powell ... Leonard Atwood
Walter McGinn ... Sam Barber

Tina Chen ... Janice Chon
Michael Kane ... S.W. Wicks
Don McHenry ... Dr. Ferdinand Lappe
Michael B. Miller ... Fowler (as Michael Miller)
Jess Osuna ... The Major
Dino Narizzano ... Harold
Helen Stenborg ... Mrs. Edwina Russell (as Helen Stenbure)

Patrick Gorman ... Martin
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Additional Details

Also Known As:
3 Days of the Condor (Australia)
more
Runtime:
117 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English | French
Color:
Color (Technicolor)
Aspect Ratio:
2.35 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
When they are reminiscing, Higgins asks Wabash whether he served with "Col. Donovan" during World War II - a reference to William Donovan, founder of the Office of Strategic Services and precursor of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency. Wabash replies, "I sailed the Adriatic with a movie star at the helm" - referring to actor Sterling Hayden, who served with the OSS, running the German blockade of the Adriatic during WWII to get supplies to Yugoslav partisans. more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Turner is given the report from Langley saying they found nothing to be concerned about in the book he read and reported on. Turner folds it and puts it in his right rear pocket. When he tries to remember the section chiefs name the morning after at Kathy's apartment, the morning the mailman comes, he retrieves it out of his left rear jeans pocket. more
Quotes:
Kathy: Sometimes I take a picture that isn't like me. But I took it so it is like me. It has to be. I put those pictures away.
Joe Turner: I'd like to see those pictures.
Kathy: We don't know each other that well.
Joe Turner: Do you know anybody that well?
Kathy: I don't think I want to know you very well. I don't think you're going to live much longer.
Joe Turner: I may surprise you.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in The Making of 'Enemy of the State' (2006) (V) more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
39 out of 49 people found the following comment useful.
A lesson in what to do with filmmaking., 10 May 2004
Author: whatservesmymind (ancientgodrace@hotmail.com) from Winston-Salem NC

Being someone who wants to tell his stories for a living this movie was a revelation. I saw it when I was not quite 18. Over ten years ago.

I came across it on one of the movie channels. It opens so quietly. Just everyday life going on. A guy late for work. Coming in by bike and in the rain no less. His workplace is comprised of superiors he wont conform to please and those he works alongside that apprciate that quality in him. He has the air of a man that knows who he is. Gently he sets the tone for his corner of the world and those around him are much the better for it.

He goes out for lunch and returns to find everyone in his office cut down like they were nothing. Even though we saw it happening. We still feel his horror at returning to find his sanctuary torn asunder.

When he finds his feet again he calls in and in a panic tells his superiors. Everyone's dead! When they try to run him through the usual protocols he reponds. I'm not a field agent I just read books! He doesn't go charging off for revenge like so many action heroes. This guy just wants out. He's seen his world demolished and he just wants to survive the day. He's panicked and alone. But when his saviours turn out to be, if not in league with the devil at least working the same side of the street. He has to fend for himself. Having run out of options and with nowhere to turn this CIA reader realizes if there's any saving to be done he'll have to do it himself. And as John Houseman's Big Guy at the CIA asks Cliff Robertson's Director Higgins "how is he doing this" Higgins replies "He reads. He reads... everything" Houseman nods knowingly. The message here? Knowledge is power. And while these men have their offices and expense accounts Joseph Turner is a man who knows things. He borrows some equipment from the back of a Telephone repairman's truck and taps a telephone line in a NY city Hotel. Another character we might think this an unlikely skill to just happen to come in handy but it's been established. The guy is brilliant and has a job reading and analyzing books all day every day five days a week. He isn't everyman. He's just the hero any one of us COULD be. He is believable which makes all that he achieves all the more impressive.

The moments of tension between Turner and Joubert the Assassin are beautifully done. From the initial scene where the hit on his office goes down we know that this hitman knows he is standing next to the only one of his targets that is still running free. Joseph it seems

has a sense of it. As you watch the scene play out as they move between floors. You feel trapped there with them. Joubert is like a force of nature. He harbours no personal motives and so it's difficult to harbour any against him.

As to whether Joseph knows it was he that personally killed the people at his office. Its unsure. But I feel like at the final interaction between them one thing is clear. Turner is at least at that moment unable to switch gears from the natural gratitude he must feel at being saved by this man and however coincidentally aided by his actions. He feels safe enough to talk comfortable with him.

I could write pages more but time escapes me.

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Message Boards

Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Three Days of the Condor (1975)
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washington - new york mi-dalessio
Kathy and the mailman realrealtor
Politic Paranoia Thrillers... VanTammen
Song Condor plays on stereo in Atwood's home onbrightonrd
Walk away from the phone ... do not hang it up ... LesterFester
Turner is a coward and A-hole.... RCsuperhornet
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