Unfortunately, they also took one of the weakest elements from the book along for the ride. They took the best pieces of the book that worked and put a new spin on them and charged forward. Overall, Sydney Pollack did a hell of a job directing a tight tense thriller from an adaptation by Lorenzo Semple Jr. Based on the novel Six Days of the Condor by James Grady, the film is a little loose with location, some of the characters, and certain plot motivations, and arguably for the better. Three Days of the Condor may not be the very best of the pack, but it’s a strong contender in my view. The thrillers of this era exploited that heightened tension perfectly. It seemed people couldn’t trust the government or even their best friends anymore. Just writing that I realized I forgot The Conversation! People were amped up living in a post-Vietnam, waining cold war world that was steeped in the Watergate scandal. The Parallax View, All The President’s Men, Marathon Man, The Odessa File - this review could quickly devolve into just being a list of the best 1970s thrillers if I’m not careful. The 1970s was a damn good decade for paranoid thrillers. On the run with no one to trust, Turner must use his particular brand of spycraft to figure out who hired the assassins and why. On this particular day when he returns to discover everyone has been executed. On any typical normal day, Turner takes the basement back exit to save time grabbing lunch for the office. With a mind like an iron trap, he reads books from around the world looking for clues and hidden communications. He's not an international spy but instead leads a relatively boring life reading books. Joe Turner (Robert Redford) works for the CIA.

Three days of the condor