Laemmle Theatres and the Anniversary Classics Series present a tribute to the late Robert Redford with a screening of one of his most popular movies, Three Days of the Condor, directed by Redford’s most frequent collaborator, Sydney Pollack. This spy thriller was adapted by Lorenzo Semple Jr. and David Rayfiel from the novel, Six Days of the Condor, written by James Grady. Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow, and John Houseman co-star.
TRIBUTE TO ROBERT REDFORD 50TH ANNIVERSARY SCREENING OF THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, AT 7 PM
ZOOM INTRODUCTION WITH AUTHOR JAMES GRADY
Redford portrays an undercover CIA agent based in New York, who goes out to pick up lunch for his office staff, only to return to find them all murdered. He must discover the reason for the attack and try to keep himself alive as a band of assassins targets him as the last remaining member of his CIA team. He enlists Dunaway, a photographer, to help him stay in hiding, when he finds that almost no one he knows can be trusted.
This movie was the fifth collaboration between Pollack and Redford, who met when they co-starred in the 1962 Korean War drama, War Hunt, which marked Redford’s feature film debut. When Pollack moved behind the camera, he directed Redford in This Property Is Condemned, Jeremiah Johnson, and The Way We Were before they worked together on Condor. They reunited on The Electric Horseman, Havana, and the Oscar-winning 1985 film, Out of Africa.
Condor was a box office success in 1975 and earned an Oscar nomination for the taut editing by Frederic Steinkamp and Don Guidice. Owen Roizman was the cinematographer, and Oscar winner Dave Grusin composed the score. Writing in The New York Times, Vincent Canby called the movie “a good-looking, entertaining suspense film… It also benefits from the presence of good actors, including Faye Dunaway, Cliff Robertson, Max von Sydow, and John Houseman.” Roger Ebert agreed that it was “a well-made thriller, tense and involving, and the scary thing, in these months after Watergate, is that it’s all too believable.”
A more recent review, by Kevin Maher of the UK Times, confirmed the movie’s enduring relevance: “This peerless Sydney Pollack thriller hasn’t just aged well, it’s become positively prophetic.” When the Russo brothers made their Marvel thriller, Winter Soldier, in 2014, they took Condor as their inspiration and cast Redford in a supporting role in the film.
Redford was not only the charismatic star of such hit movies as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, and The Natural. He was also the Oscar-winning director of Ordinary People, The Milagro Beanfield War, A River Runs Through It, and Quiz Show. He also transformed the film business when he founded the Sundance Film Festival, which became a haven for innovative artists from all over the world.
James Grady, who was only 25 when Condor was published, continued to write suspense novels and also has worked as a journalist for such publications as Slate, The Washington Post, and The New Republic.