“Three Days of the Condor”的意思、由来-开放百科全书

Set mainly in New York City and Washington, D.C., the film is about a bookish CIA researcher who comes back from lunch, discovers all his co-workers murdered, and tries to outwit those responsible until he figures out whom he can really trust. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. Semple and Rayfiel received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for Best Motion Picture Screenplay.^[3]

Plot

Joe Turner (Robert Redford) is a bookish CIA analyst, code named "Condor". He works at the American Literary Historical Society in New York City, which is actually a clandestine CIA office. The seven staff members read books, newspapers, and magazines from around the world, looking for hidden meanings and other useful information. Turner files a report to CIA headquarters on a thriller novel with some strange plot elements, noting the unusual assortment of languages it has been translated into.

On the day Turner is expecting a response to his report, he steps out, through a back basement door, to pick up staff lunches at a nearby deli. Meanwhile, armed men enter the office and murder the other six staffers. Turner returns to find his coworkers dead; frightened, he grabs a gun and exits the building. He contacts the CIA's New York headquarters in the World Trade Center from a phone booth and is given instructions to meet Wicks, his head of department, who will bring him to safety. But the rendezvous is a trap. Wicks shoots an accompanying CIA staffer and attempts to kill Turner, who wounds Wicks before escaping.

Turner encounters a woman, Kathy Hale (Faye Dunaway), and forces her to take him to her apartment. He holds Hale hostage while he attempts to figure out what is happening. Hale slowly comes to trust Turner, and they become lovers. However, Joubert (Max von Sydow), a foreigner who led the massacre of Turner's co-workers, discovers Turner's hiding place. A hitman (Hank Garrett), disguised as a mailman, arrives at Hale's apartment, but Turner kills him.

No longer trusting anyone within "the Company", Turner plays a cat-and-mouse game with Higgins (Cliff Robertson), deputy director of the CIA's New York division. With Hale's help, Turner abducts Higgins, who identifies Joubert as a freelance assassin who has undertaken assignments for the CIA. Back at his office, Higgins discovers that the "mailman" who attacked Turner worked with Joubert on a previous operation. Their CIA case officer was Wicks.

Meanwhile, Turner discovers Joubert's location by utilizing his US Army Signals Corps training to trace a phone call. Turner also learns the name and address of Leonard Atwood (Addison Powell), CIA Deputy Director of Operations for the Middle East. Turner confronts Atwood in Atwood's Washington area mansion, interrogates him at gunpoint, and learns that the report he had filed provided links to a rogue operation to seize Middle Eastern oil fields. Fearful of its disclosure, Atwood privately ordered Turner's section be eliminated.

As Atwood confirms this, Joubert enters and unexpectedly kills the CIA deputy director. Atwood's superiors have hired Joubert to stage the suicide of someone who was about to become an embarrassment, overriding Atwood's original contract for Joubert to kill Turner. Joubert suggests that the resourceful Turner leave the country and even become an assassin himself. Turner rejects the suggestion but heeds Joubert's warning that the CIA will try to eliminate him as another embarrassment, possibly entrapping him through a trusted acquaintance.

Back in New York, Turner has a rendezvous with Higgins near Times Square. Higgins describes the oilfield plan as a contingency "game" that was planned within the CIA without approval from above. He defends the project, suggesting that when oil shortages cause a major economic crisis, Americans will demand that their comfortable lives be restored by any means necessary. Turner points to The New York Times building and says he has "told them a story". Higgins is dismayed but questions whether Turner's whistleblowing will be published. "They'll print it", Turner defiantly replies. However, as "Condor" turns away, Higgins calls out that he is about to become a very lonely man.

Cast

Production

Filming locations

Reception

Box office

Critical response

When first released, the film was reviewed positively by critic Vincent Canby, who wrote that the film "is no match for stories in your local newspaper", but it benefits from good acting and directing.^[8] Variety called it a B movie that was given a big budget despite its lack of substance.^[9] Roger Ebert wrote, "Three Days of the Condor is a well-made thriller, tense and involving, and the scary thing, in these months after Watergate, is that it's all too believable."^[10]

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard makes mention of the film as an example of a new genre of "retro cinema" in his essay on history in the now influential book, Simulacra and Simulation (1981):

Some critics also described the film as a piece of political propaganda, as it was released soon after the "Family Jewels" scandal came to light in December 1974 which exposed a variety of CIA misconduct. However, in an interview with Jump Cut, Pollack explained that the film was written solely to be a spy thriller and that production on the film was nearly over by the time the Family Jewels revelations were made, so even if they had wanted to take advantage of them, it was far too late in the filmmaking process to do so. He said that despite both Pollack and Redford being well-known political liberals, they were only interested in making the film because an espionage thriller was a genre neither of them had previously explored.^[12]

Awards and nominations

Panning and scanning

In 1997, The Association of Danish Film Directors, on behalf of Pollack, sued Danmarks Radio, claiming that their broadcasting the film in a panned and scanned version violated his copyright. The case was unsuccessful, as the rights were not owned by Pollack personally in the first place. The case is believed to have been the first legal challenge to the practice of panning and scanning for broadcast on the grounds that it compromises the artistic integrity of an original film.^[14]

Soundtrack

Cultural impact

TV series

In March 2015, Skydance Media in partnership with MGM Television and Paramount Television announced that they would produce a TV series remake of the film.^[15] In February 2017, Max Irons was cast as Joe Turner in the series entitled Condor for Audience.^[16]

See also

References

1. ^¹De Laurentiis PRODUCER'S PICTURE DARKENS: KNOEDELSEDER, WILLIAM K, Jr. Los Angeles Times 30 Aug 1987: 1.
2. ^{{Cite web|url=http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1975/03DOC.php|work=The Numbers|title=Three Days of the Condor|accessdate=January 22, 2012}}
3. ^¹²{{cite web|title=Three Days of the Condor (1975) |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/movies/movie/49657/Three-Days-of-the-Condor/overview |accessdate=February 8, 2014}}
4. ^{{cite web|title=Three Days of the Condor |website=On the Set of New York |date= |url=http://onthesetofnewyork.com/threedaysofthecondor.html |accessdate=May 3, 2013}}
5. ^{{cite video|people=Sydney Pollack (director) |title=Three Days of the Condor |medium=DVD |publisher=Paramount |location=Los Angeles |year=1999 |url= }}
6. ^"All-time Film Rental Champs", Variety, 7 January 1976 p 44
7. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/three_days_of_the_condor/ |title=Three Days of the Condor (1975)|accessdate=February 1, 2014|work=Rotten Tomatoes}}
8. ^{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=EE05E7DF173CE577BC4D51DFBF66838E669EDE|title=Three Days of the Condor (1975)|last=Canby|first=Vincent|work=The New York Times|date=September 25, 1975|accessdate=February 29, 2008}}
9. ^{{cite web|url=https://variety.com/1974/film/reviews/three-days-of-the-condor-1200423315/|title=Review: 'Three Days of the Condor'|author=|work=Variety|year=1975|accessdate=February 8, 2014}}
10. ^{{cite web|url=http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/three-days-of-the-condor-1975|title=Three Days of the Condor|last=Ebert|first=Roger|work=Chicago Sun-Times|year=1975|accessdate=February 8, 2014}}
11. ^Baudrillard, Jean. Simulacra and Simulation. Trans. Sheila Faria Glaser. University of Michigan Press, 1994, p. 45. French original, Simulacres et Simulation, published by Éditions Galilée in 1981.
12. ^¹{{cite journal | title=Hollywood uncovers the CIA | first= Patrick | last=McGilligan | journal=Jump Cut | url=http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlinessays/JC10-11folder/PollackMcGilligan.html | year=1976 | issue=10–11 | accessdate=December 24, 2013}}
13. ^AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills Nominees
14. ^Morton Jacobsen, 'Copyright on Trial in Denmark', Image Technology, vol. 79, no. 5 (May 1997), pp. 16-20, and no. 6 (June 1997), pp. 22-24.
15. ^{{cite news|title=Skydance Productions Developing 'Three Days of the Condor' Remake for TV (Exclusive)|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/skydance-productions-developing-three-days-780722|accessdate=15 March 2015|work=The Hollywood Reporter|date=11 March 2015}}
16. ^{{cite news|title=Max Irons To Star In Audience TV Series Inspired By ‘Three Days Of The Condor’|url=http://deadline.com/2017/02/max-irons-condor-series-three-days-of-the-condor-audience-network-1201903597/|accessdate=7 February 2017|website=Deadline|date=6 February 2017}}