Les 3 jours du Condor

The movie is well executed and has a great cast apart from the dodgy kissing scene which was very funny. The plot has enough to keep you entertained throughout. Max von sydow excels as does Robert Redford. The twin towers being in this movie was unmissable and always makes me think of what a iconic symbol they were.

Good intrigue yarn about a CIA agent whose code name is Condor who is forced to flee for his life when his cover operation (called American Literature History Society) is blown and becomes into man-on-the-run . In the next seventy-two hours almost everyone he trusts will attempt to murder him ( by an organization undercover called Five Continents Import Inc. ). The bookish CIA information reader (Robert Redford) aware more than he should and he finds all of his co-workers cruelly killed. He must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust and he suddenly himself as hunted man , being only helped by a stranger woman (Faye Dunaway) .

This exciting mystery contains thrills , action , shootouts , suspense and is quite entertaining . Good performance from Robert Redford as bookish researcher working for US Intelligence office and Faye Dunaway as the innocent who Condor uses to avoid capture and shelter him . Excellent support cast as Cliff Robertson with special mention to veteran John Houseman and of course Max Von Sydow who expertly handles a vignette as cold murderer . Very good cinematography , well filmed in New York City and Washington D.C. by Owen Roizman- The exorcist- and atmospheric musical score by Dave Grusin. The motion picture is stunningly directed by the recently deceased Sydney Pollack . Sydney was an excellent director , producer and secondary actor with several hits on all kind of genres as ¨The Interpreter¨ , ¨The firm¨ , ¨Out of Africa¨ , ¨Tootsie¨, ¨Yakuza¨ and many others . Rating : Good , better than average and worthwhile watching . The flick will appeal to Robert Redford fans and thriller buffs .

Saw this movie in theaters way back when (yes I am old). It was so long ago that I had forgotten most of the movie. Thoroughly enjoyed watching it again during the virus lockdown. As much fun for first time viewers of today as it is for old timers like me.

Great film -Robert Redford has a way of drawing in the audience and Faye Dunaway is more vulnerable than ever, her best role since Thomas Crown. No vulgarity in the love scene just a great sensuality. Both stars have shown an outstanding performance ! Top-notch screenplay - 70's films are definitely the best ones in terms of storytelling and screenplays. Sidney Pollack does also a great job as a director and delivers an efficient thriller that you can watch over and over again.I agree with some reviewers who think that it is one of the Redford's best. The supporting cast is also excellent. Maybe the directors nowadays should watch more often 70's films to be more inspired.

Three Days of the Condor (1975)

This is looking more and more like a period piece, dated and curious like one of those great Cold War films looks today (Failsafe or Seven Days in May). And yet it also feels like the beginnings of spy/counterspy films that are going on today, way beyond the pizazz of the early Bond films of the 1960s, and presaging the dozens since, including recent ones like the Bourne films or Syriana. It plays straight up as a suspense film, one where an almost innocent man is caught up in something huge and perplexing and awful, and we all identify with the individual against the powers of evil. Robert Redford plays the role of Joe Turner well, with the usual Redford stiffness, but believably--he reads books, after all--and sympathetically.

Putting yourself back to 1975 you have to remember that everyone was talking about, and reacting to, Watergate, and a U.S. president who had to resign from office because of it. Watergate, more than anything, started the current public roar (blossoming on the internet) about government conspiracy. Three Days of the Condor makes the government, and the CIA in particular, an almost unassailable and invisible force of spying and mistrust. Turner, by circumstance at first and then by admirable determination, fights back. He's clever as much as he is worried. He falls in love. He feels isolated but never gives up. He has close calls, and lucky escapes, and unlikely friends. He thinks of other people first.

In other words, he's a hero against the machine, and if the movie is sometimes slow, it creates a nice pace for the end, which is beautifully thought out. Director Sydney Pollack is hampered by a screenplay that alternates between awkward (Faye Dunaway's scenes) and brilliant (Redford's anti-spy character has a conversation with a hit man played by Max Von Sydow that shines), but he patches it together with an editing job that was nominated for an Oscar. And the cinematography by Owen Roizman is really nice (he shot a dozen great films from the French Connection to the Exorcist to Network). Condor is not just an entertainment, which is a saving grace, but it does also, slowly and beautifully, entertain.