A classic part of the great movement of American political thrillers of the 70s, “The Three Days of the Condor” has been widely broadcast on TV channels. One of them was accused by Sydney Pollack of having mutilated her film…
Joseph Turner works for the CIA. He reads books, lots of books, in order to develop scenarios useful to investigators, to identify potential leaks. Returning from his lunch break, Turner finds all of his colleagues murdered. Under the pseudonym of Condor, he will therefore embark on a race against time in order to uncover a network of spies infiltrated at the very heart of the agency…
Part of the great movement of American political thrillers of the 70s, The Three Days of the Condor is an absolute classic of the disenchanted and paranoid works produced at that time in the United States, in the wake of the Watergate scandal. An America in full doubt of itself.
In the guise of Joseph Turner / Condor, Robert Redford gives the best of himself, also benefiting from the more than wise support of Richard Helms, who led the CIA from 1966 to 1973. The latter agreed to be his personal adviser , by communicating to him, under the seal of secrecy, classified information behind the scenes of the institution, the behavior of its employees, and even certain sensitive cases.
StudioCanal
The work directed by the late Sydney Pollack was dear to the heart of another illustrious actor, who plays in it G. Joubert, a CIA hitman: Max Von Sydow. “I play an enigmatic and threatening character in it. I don’t think I was the director’s first choice. He first thought of Lino Ventura. But at that time, he was ill and therefore had to decline the role.” he told us, when we had the great pleasure of sweeping his immense career with him, in 2013. “I’m very proud of this film, very strong. It’s an intelligent film, with fascinating characterization. The 1970s were truly the golden age of spy films”.
Since its release, The Three Days of the Condor was of course broadcast on all possible screens, including on planes. The projection of a film on board an airplane has always been more or less altered; This is already evidenced by the small warning message before the broadcast of the program, stating that it has been modified.
Until a few years ago, for example, it was not uncommon for films to be violently cropped with great zoom Pan&Scansometimes completely distorting the work, and therefore to the detriment of the author’s vision of the film.
What already annoy filmmakers like Michael Mann who, seeing the modified versions of his films Heat and Revelations, had demanded to be removed from the credits of his films, to be replaced by the legendary pseudonym Alan Smithee.
Sydney Pollack, for his part, sued a Danish TV channel, which he accused in 1991 of having mutilated the format of his film, by cropping his work in full-screen format, instead of the 2.35 cinemascope format of origin. A Pan&Scan which amputated 50% of the initial image…
Aided in his approach by the Association of Danish Directors, Pollack claimed the sum of $15,600 in compensation for the damage suffered to his professional reputation. But the scenario writer lost the lawsuit, for defect of procedure. He remains to this day the only director to have taken a broadcaster to court.