--- title: "Three Days of the Condor" year: 1975 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/three-days-of-the-condor" fi1m_score: 80 critics_score: 70 critics_reviews: 11 published: "2026-09-16T11:07:21.420851+00:00" updated: "2026-09-16T11:07:21.698280+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Three Days of the Condor (1975) Directed by Sydney Pollack · 1h 57m · MPA R · Thriller, Mystery **Fi1m score: 80** · Critics 70 from 11 reviews *In a sentence:* Robert Redford makes distrust look exhausting, even with that face > Sydney Pollack’s CIA thriller is tense, lucid and sustained by Robert Redford’s watchful intelligence. The romance is harder to believe than the conspiracy, but the pursuit gives us ample reason to stay with it. ## Synopsis Joseph Turner (Robert Redford) works for the CIA under the code name Condor. Over the next seventy-two hours, almost everyone he trusts tries to kill him. Staying alive means deciding which contacts he can still rely on and which might lead the danger back to him. Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway) and J. Higgins (Cliff Robertson) are among the people whose intentions he must judge. With trust itself becoming a risk, Joseph Turner has to work out how to survive without knowing who is safe to approach. ## Review *Three Days of the Condor* is an absorbing thriller with a romance it never quite makes convincing. Sydney Pollack understands the basic requirement of a conspiracy story: we need to feel uncertain without becoming indifferent to what happens next. The CIA’s business can be difficult to untangle, but the danger to Joseph Turner remains clear. The pleasure is in watching someone think his way through a threat, with no guarantee that thinking will be enough. Robert Redford gives Joseph Turner the alertness this sort of film needs: we can see him consider a possibility before he acts on it. We were more anxious watching him work things out than during the chases, because the pauses allow us to worry that he has misunderstood the danger. His attractiveness inevitably offers some reassurance, but the performance never makes intelligence seem sufficient protection. He makes being quick-minded look like a practical means of staying alive, and the film is most involving when it lets us watch that process. Owen Roizman’s cinematography makes the everyday surroundings worth examining, so looking for danger becomes part of watching the film. There is enough polish to remind us that this is a star vehicle, and occasionally that polish softens the unease. Stephen B. Grimes’s production design helps by keeping those surroundings ordinary, making the threat feel uncomfortably close to places where people conduct their daily business. Sydney Pollack can build suspense without having to make every setting look threatening before anyone enters it. Don Guidice’s editing keeps the pursuit moving without making Joseph Turner’s attempts to reason his way through it feel like interruptions. The rhythm allows a chance to think, then supplies a reason to move. Dave Grusin’s music provides momentum, though the quieter stretches are more unsettling than the overt encouragement to feel suspense. Sydney Pollack also makes effective use of sounds within otherwise ordinary surroundings, encouraging us to listen for trouble as well as look for it. Across 117 minutes, the suspense rarely needs forcing. Faye Dunaway gives Kathy Hale enough presence to resist becoming merely someone for the leading man to talk to. The romance nevertheless develops too conveniently for a film that otherwise puts such weight on suspicion. David Rayfiel and Lorenzo Semple Jr. hurry the changes of feeling, asking the attraction to do work the writing has not done. The actors have chemistry, but the suspense loses pressure while we wait for the relationship to feel earned. G. Joubert is played with little emphasis and a composure that makes the danger harder to dismiss, providing a useful check on the glamour elsewhere. Sydney Pollack is good at making the CIA feel capable of treating a person’s survival as an administrative complication. The political explanation is less satisfying: the film supplies sufficient cause for distrust without examining it as searchingly as its serious manner sometimes promises. Within the conspiracy thriller, its particular strength is making the business of staying alive involving even when the larger picture remains cloudy. Choose it for the suspense; leave time afterwards to argue about the romance. *Fi1m score 80, published 16 September 2026.* ### Reviews we read (11) - **The Times**, Kevin Maher (★★★★★): This peerless Sydney Pollack thriller has aged well and become positively prophetic in its depiction of US plots involving the Middle East and oil. Redford is slightly outclassed by Max von Sydow’s ruthless assassin in an unbearably tense lift sequence. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/world/us-world/article/classic-film-review-three-days-of-the-condor-1975-peerless-thriller-has-become-positively-prophetic-98xh7523c) - **The AV Club**, Jesse Hassenger (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as one of the best 1970s political thrillers, highlighting Pollack's use of unsettling sound design and everyday settings to build menace. Redford is singled out for embodying an everyman caught in paranoia and moral outrage over CIA activities. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/all-nerdy-government-paper-pushers-look-like-robert-red-1798267564) - **Time Out**, CPe (75/100, inferred): The film is an intriguing neo-Hitchcock thriller set amid CIA power games, with an intelligent script that keeps the action moving. A certain gloss irritates, but strong scenes and the Redford/Dunaway relationship compensate. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/three-days-of-the-condor) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (70/100, inferred): The film is a well-made, tense thriller that feels all too believable in the post-Watergate era. It singles out the bloodless CIA types and their contingency plans for particular notice. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/three-days-of-the-condor-1975) - **The Guardian**, Guy Lodge (70/100, inferred): The reissue of Sydney Pollack’s sleek CIA conspiracy thriller holds up well forty years on and should appeal to viewers familiar with the Bourne films. Robert Redford’s star power adds gloss but the film’s shaping and pacing feel markedly modern. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/apr/10/chronic-victor-frankenstein-xenia-trapped-three-days-condor-review) - **The New York Times**, Vincent Canby (70/100, inferred): A good-looking, entertaining suspense film that works best in its conventional pursuit and flight sequences. It creates a convincing sense of isolation around the supergovernment agencies but falls short as a serious exposé. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1975/09/25/archives/redford-a-cia-eccentric-in-three-days-of-condor.html) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (30/100, inferred): The film follows the standard studio formula but fails to elevate its substance despite big names and production values. It ultimately does not succeed in making the material work. [Read](https://variety.com/1974/film/reviews/three-days-of-the-condor-1200423315/) - **Collider**, Andre Dellamorte (70/100, inferred): The film is solid and inspired Hollywood filmmaking that influenced later thrillers like the Bourne series, though it doesn't reach the heights of some other 1970s classics. It excels through Pollack's direction, strong performances from Redford and Dunaway, great use of locations, and a well-built conclusion featuring tense character interactions. [Read](https://collider.com/saturday-night-fever-and-3-days-of-the-condor-blu-ray-reviews/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (70/100, inferred): The critic finds the thriller elements effective but undermined by an over-egged and dated romance subplot. Good performances, directorial style and the ambivalent conclusion lift the film. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/three-days-of-the-condor-1975-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **Polygon**, Jesse Hassenger (70/100, inferred): It stands as Robert Redford's signature paranoid 1970s spy thriller and a definitive entry in the genre, distinguished by its focus on the protagonist thinking and plotting on camera amid a convoluted conspiracy. The film is slickly made with strong chemistry and precision, though its paranoia is relatively anodyne compared to more existential or bleak contemporaries. [Read](https://www.polygon.com/three-days-of-the-condor-50-robert-redford/) - **The Skinny**, Philip Concannon (3/5): The critic views it as a key paranoid thriller of the mid-1970s, absorbing despite some dated flourishes, with strong narrative skill and standout performances from Redford and von Sydow. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/dvd-reviews/three-days-of-the-condor) ## Details - **Director:** Sydney Pollack - **Director:** Sydney Pollack - **Screenplay:** David Rayfiel, Lorenzo Semple Jr. - **Novel:** James Grady - **Cinematography:** Owen Roizman - **Editor:** Don Guidice - **Music:** Dave Grusin - **Production design:** Stephen B. Grimes - **Producer:** Stanley Schneider, Sydney Pollack - **Cast:** Robert Redford as Joseph Turner; Faye Dunaway as Kathy Hale; Cliff Robertson as J. Higgins; Max von Sydow as G. Joubert; John Houseman as Mr. Wabash; Addison Powell as Leonard Atwood; Walter McGinn as Sam Barber; Tina Chen as Janice Chon - **Runtime:** 1h 57m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 24 September 1975 - **Genres:** Thriller, Mystery - **Budget:** $8 million - **Box office:** $42 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mU8tQTNlPAM ## Where to watch in the US - Pluto TV: free - The Roku Channel: add-on, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $5.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-16.* Also available in: AT, AU, BE, CA, CZ, ES, GB, IT, NL, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Academy Awards 1976: Best Film Editing (nominated) ## If you liked this - *The Parallax View* (1974): For a colder conspiracy thriller that offers its endangered investigator even less reassurance. - *The Ipcress File* (1965): Another resourceful intelligence worker discovers how little protection his employer provides. - *The Lives of Others* (2006), Fi1m 84: For patient suspense built from surveillance, divided loyalties and the possibility of conscience. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-lives-of-others.md) - *Z* (1969): Political murder and official obstruction, pursued with anger and a brisk sense of humour. - *Decision to Leave* (2022): For another uneasy entanglement of attraction and suspicion, with the romance better earned. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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