Three Days of the Condor: Difference between revisions

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'''Three Days of the Condor''' is a 1975 political thriller starring [[Robert Redford]], Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson and Max Von Sydow.

After a botched pick-up gets Turner's last friend in the CIA killed, Turner is forced to kidnap Kathy Hale (Dunaway) and use her apartment as a hideout. At first afraid for her life, Hale rather quickly falls for Turner and they sleep together. With her help, Turner is able to capture CIA honcho Higgins (Robertson) who reveals he himself is in the dark and wants Turner to stay "on the outside" to draw out the assassins so the CIA can figure out who's rotten within their own ranks. Now all Turner has to do is survive Joubert's attempts on his life, keep Kathy safe, and figure out why someone in the CIA wants him dead...

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* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: The original novel had {{spoiler|drug trafficking}} as the purpose of the internal conspiracy. {{spoiler|After the 1973 energy crisis, the filmmakers decided to use oil instead.}} The original author agreed that this was a better and more plausible purpose.

* [[Affably Evil]]: Joubert. He comes to respect Turner after his various escape attempts. {{spoiler|And after killing Atwood instead of Turner, Joubert even offers Turner friendly advice, a ride to the train station... and even a gun.}}

* [[Aren't You Going to Ravish Me?]]: When Turner is talking to Kathy..

'''Kathy''': The night is young. }}

* [[Artistic License Gun Safety]]: Averted when Joubert comes across Turner holding someone at gunpoint -- he tells Turner to put his thumb under the hammer of his pistol before lowering it. As the Colt M1911 he's holding is a single-action weapon (it can't fire unless cocked first) this not only prevents accidental discharge but also has the same effect as putting the safety catch on.

* [[Disposable Woman]]: Janice, Turner's almost-girlfriend.

* [[Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|With eight innocent people dead all because of what Higgins calls "a war game," Turner reveals to Higgins that Turner had told everything to the ''New York Times.'' But as Turner walks away...}}

** {{spoiler|Also it's suggested that Turner will eventually be killed too, as he is unwilling to flee the country as Joubert advises.}}

* [[Everybody's Dead, Dave]]: The protagonist goes out of the office to get lunch and returns minutes later to find that all of his colleagues, friends and even her love interest have been murdered, himself the actual target and chance survivor.

* [[Face Death with Dignity]]: Janice looks up from her work to see three men pointing silenced Ingrams at her.

'''Joubert:''' I know. }}

* [[Film of the Book]]: Came out 1974 written by James Grady called Six Days of the Condor. The names of the characters were different, it had another reason for killing the readers (some higher ups in the CIA used the book shipments to smuggle drugs), had another faction (Oversight, which polices all intelligence agencies and reports only to the Senate) and killed {{spoiler|Kathy on the last pages}}.

* [[Make It Look Like an Accident]]: Joubert {{spoiler|makes it look like Atwood's death is suicide.}}

* [[Lawful Neutral]]: How Joubert sees himself. He's not evil: he just happens to be very good at killing people.

'''Joubert''': Oh, no. It's quite restful. It's almost peaceful. No need to believe in either side, or any side. There is no cause. There's only yourself. ''The belief is in your own precision''. }}

* [[Ominous Multiple Screens]]: Used by [[Mission Control|the Major]].

* [[Phone Trace Race]]: The CIA thinks they've traced Turner's whereabouts, but Turner has stolen a phone linesman's kit and wired fifty phones together.

* [[Properly Paranoid]]: For the movie itself, ''Condor'' came out right after Watergate and Vietnam exposed a lot of criminal goings-on in government. [[Lampshade Hanging|And for Turner,]] this is how one day of being hunted by trained CIA assassins makes him this.

'''Turner''': You didn't start killing ''my friends'' until yesterday! }}

* [[Shipper on Deck]]: Joubert asks Turner why he chose "the girl" (Hale) as a hostage. Turner claims it was random, but Joubert doesn't seem to buy it...

[[Category:Films of the 1970s]]

[[Category:Three Days of the Condor]]