It's a spy agency thriller set in New York City and Washington, D. C. in the early 1970s. It follows three days in the life of a low-level CIA researcher who has stumbled on an important secret within the CIA.
Joe Turner/Condor (Robert Redford) is a researcher at the New York Literary Historical Society, a small CIA front in New York. The group's task is to read spy novels and news accounts from around the world to look for links to actual operations or potential operations. He has recently filed a report based on a poor-selling novel that has unexpectedly been translated into a number of languages.
One day it's his job to go out and fetch lunch for the eight people who normally work in the building. When he returns he discovers they have all been shot dead. His emergency call to the CIA's helpline generates more chaos for Turner and includes higher-ups like S. W. Wicks (Michael Kane) and Higgins (Cliff Robertson) who claim to be bringing him to safety. Along the way he encounters a paid European assassin, Joubert (Max von Sydow), and a young photographer, Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway), whom he entices into helping his efforts to learn the truth. The plot is revealed, and the ending is almost a dress rehearsal for "All the President's Men."
"Three Days of the Condor" is a reasonably well-done spy movie, but pales in comparison to some of the John Le Carré-inspired plots that have been made into movies. Redford is excellent as a backroom researcher thrust into a dangerous plot. Faye Dunaway's character makes less sense, and her sudden change in responding to Turner's plight doesn't ring true.
It's fascinating to see the technology of the time (dot matrix printers fed by reams of paper), and to recall the movie was made when concern about oil supply was a major issue.
Joe Turner/Condor (Robert Redford) is a researcher at the New York Literary Historical Society, a small CIA front in New York. The group's task is to read spy novels and news accounts from around the world to look for links to actual operations or potential operations. He has recently filed a report based on a poor-selling novel that has unexpectedly been translated into a number of languages.
One day it's his job to go out and fetch lunch for the eight people who normally work in the building. When he returns he discovers they have all been shot dead. His emergency call to the CIA's helpline generates more chaos for Turner and includes higher-ups like S. W. Wicks (Michael Kane) and Higgins (Cliff Robertson) who claim to be bringing him to safety. Along the way he encounters a paid European assassin, Joubert (Max von Sydow), and a young photographer, Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway), whom he entices into helping his efforts to learn the truth. The plot is revealed, and the ending is almost a dress rehearsal for "All the President's Men."
"Three Days of the Condor" is a reasonably well-done spy movie, but pales in comparison to some of the John Le Carré-inspired plots that have been made into movies. Redford is excellent as a backroom researcher thrust into a dangerous plot. Faye Dunaway's character makes less sense, and her sudden change in responding to Turner's plight doesn't ring true.
It's fascinating to see the technology of the time (dot matrix printers fed by reams of paper), and to recall the movie was made when concern about oil supply was a major issue.