Three Days of the Condor was released in 1975 during one of the most uniquely distrustful moments in American history. The Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway starrer was released in the post-Watergate era and tapped into filmgoers’ unease about covert government activities happening behind closed doors. A new ranking names Three Days of the Condor the greatest conspiracy thriller ever made. Such a convincing film, even the KGB took notice at the time and used the film as inspiration for its own initiatives.
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Three Days of the Condor (1975) #SydneyPollack #RobertRedford #MaxVonSydow #FilmsYouShouldSee A bookish CIA researcher in Manhattan finds all his co-workers dead, and must outwit those responsible until he figures out who he can really trust.
Three Days of the Condor was the rare mid-1970s conspiracy thriller that examined espionage activities happening on American soil. Directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Redford, Dunaway, Cliff Robertson and Max von Sydow, the film follows bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner, whose quiet job analyzing books and publications turns deadly when he returns from lunch to discover everyone in his office has been murdered.
A Different Kind of Spy Thriller
Turner quickly realizes he can’t assume the people who are supposed to protect him can be trusted. This was a marked departure for spy thrillers of the era, which typically focused on a threatening foreign enemy.
In Three Days of the Condor, the danger is coming from inside American intelligence rather than international secret agents and larger-than-life villains.
The film expertly captured the mood in America in the mid-1970s. After Watergate, audiences were living through an era when stories about government deception no longer seemed entirely fictional. Three Days of the Condor turned anxiety into entertainment, presenting an America where the institutions one counts on for protection might actually pose the biggest threat.
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Robert Redford Became an Icon of the Spy Thriller
Following the release of Three Days of the Condor, Robert Redford became synonymous with thrillers. Already a leading man known for his charm and cinematic good looks, starring in films like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting and The Way We Were, by the mid-1970s Redford took on more roles that played into, and questioned, American ideals about power, politics and institutions.
A year after Three Days of the Condor was released, Redford would star in All the President’s Men, playing Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward alongside Dustin Hoffman. The era was not only prolific for Redford, but one that closely associated him with movies that questioned the ethics of people in authority.
But it was Redford’s familiar movie-star charisma that made him one of the most trusted figures in this shining era of spy films.
Even more remarkable, the film was so convincing it inspired real KGB initiatives.
According to accounts from former Soviet intelligence officer Sergei Tretyakov and journalist Pete Earley’s book Comrade J, KGB officials believed the CIA had an operation similar to the one depicted in Three Days of the Condor. In response, the KGB was said to have established a real intelligence unit in Moscow dedicated to similar work.
Three Days of the Condor wasn’t based on a true story, but it inspired one.
Why Three Days of the Condor Still Matters
@tedpie21Three days of the Condor (1975)
♬ original sound - tedpieNearly 50 years after its release, the movie is one of the defining conspiracy thrillers of all time. More than a suspense film, Three Days of the Condor captured a specific moment in time and established a new kind of spy hero.
The Spy Hero Three Days of the Condor Created
Redford’s hero was intelligent rather than invincible, skeptical rather than trusting by default, and focused on finding out the truth, even if it meant exposing the wrongdoings of those in power.
That formula became the standard for spy thrillers and, for the most part, is still the norm. From Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne in The Bourne Identity films to the Mission: Impossible franchise, modern-day spy thrillers rely on a hero who doesn’t know whom to trust, an archetype established in the mid-1970s with Three Days of the Condor.
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