Movie · 1975 · Thriller, Mystery · 1h 57m · R · English
Curator score: 6.4/10 (145.4K ratings)
His CIA code name is Condor. In the next seventy-two hours almost everyone he trusts will try to kill him.
Overview
When bookish CIA researcher Joe Turner finds all his co-workers dead, he, together with a woman he has kidnapped, must work together to outwit those responsible until he determines who he can really trust.
Ratings
Curator score: 6.4/10
IMDb: 7.4/10
Letterboxd: 3.73/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%
Metacritic: 63
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Sydney Pollack
Production
The De Laurentiis Company, Tom Ward Enterprises, Wildwood Enterprises
Cast
Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow, John Houseman, Addison Powell, Walter McGinn, Tina Chen, John Randolph Jones, Michael Kane, Don McHenry, Jess Osuna, Dino Narizzano, Helen Stenborg, Patrick Gorman, Hansford Rowe, Carlin Glynn, Hank Garrett, Michael Miller, Arthur French
Curator Review
Verdict
A sharp, stylish 1970s paranoia thriller with strong star power, crisp New York location work, and a genuinely tense conspiracy setup. It’s especially rewarding if you like procedural suspense, Cold War-era distrust, and movies where ordinary competence becomes the hero’s only defense.
Best for
paranoia-thriller fans
1970s political suspense
Robert Redford admirers
viewers who like conspiracy plots and tradecraft
fans of urban location shooting and adult studio thrillers
Skip if
you want nonstop action over investigation
you dislike uneven or dated romantic material
you prefer airtight plotting with no loose ends
you’re not in the mood for bleak, suspicious, low-trust storytelling
Overview
Three Days of the Condor is one of the defining American paranoia thrillers of the 1970s: sleek, anxious, and always a little ahead of the audience. Sydney Pollack turns a simple premise into a constant state of unease, using offices, streets, and public spaces as places where danger can hide in plain sight. The result is a movie that feels both polished and deeply unstable.
Worth noting
Robert Redford is ideal as the bookish analyst forced into survival mode, bringing intelligence and physical vulnerability without ever losing star charisma. The supporting cast gives the conspiracy real weight, and the film’s best stretches are the ones where it turns process into suspense: phone calls, surveillance, improvisation, and the slow realization that no institution can be trusted.
Bottom line
It’s not perfect, and some viewers will find the romance awkward or the plotting a bit blunt. But the atmosphere is so strong, and the final movement so satisfying, that the movie’s pleasures easily outweigh its flaws. If you like your thrillers smart, grim, and impeccably of their era, this is essential viewing.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Merkin Muffley (3★) · 2077 likes
crying that the book was called six days of the condor—sydney pollack snorted a line and was like don’t worry girls i can do it in three
Matt Singer (4.5★) · 1048 likes
A movie about sinister forces at work in the CIA with big scenes set at the World Trade Center and in a Ford Bronco? It's like the nexus of all conspiracy theories!
Sean Fennessey (4★) · 984 likes
Not the best conspiracy thriller, but maybe the one with the best final 5 minutes.
Mike D'Angelo (3.5★) · 792 likes
67/100
Terrific paranoid thriller saddled with a useless and disturbingly rapey romance. It's not a dealbreaker—everything involving Robertson and Von Sydow is too choice—but every time the movie returns to Dunaway it deflates, and Pollack's proto-Soderberghian flourishes just make the love scene seem that much ickier, which is clearly not the intention. Hollywood sure knew how to end a movie in the '70s, though. I think I'd be down for a long national malaise if it meant getting big-budget star vehicles this arrestingly grim again.
Laura (3.5★) · 757 likes
hard to argue with a movie that’s all about robert redford reading his little books and running around nyc, all while wearing beautiful coats!
1993 · Drama, Mystery, Thriller · 2h 34m · R · Curator 4.3/10 (284.1K ratings) · Where to watch: fuboTV, Paramount Plus Premium, Paramount Plus Essential, MGM Plus
A polished corporate-conspiracy thriller that channels the same feeling of being trapped inside a system.
1998 · Action, Drama, Thriller · 2h 12m · R · Curator 4.8/10 (392.3K ratings) · Where to watch: Amazon Prime Video, fuboTV, Amazon Prime Video with Ads
A modern escalation of surveillance paranoia, with the same basic fear of omnipresent institutions.
Topics
paranoia thriller, political suspense, 1970s cinema, conspiracy, CIA, New York City, surveillance, neo-noir mood, Cold War anxiety, adult studio thriller