The same year Francis Coppola made The Godfather Part II, he also wrote and directed another great, landmark American film of the '70s. A tense, paranoia thriller,The Conversation is also a disturbing exploration of privacy and personal responsibility in the age of technological intrusion. Gene Hackman finds bittersweet poignancy in solitary surveillance expert Harry Caul, indifferent to the subjects of his eavesdropping until the furtive confidences of illicit lovers arouse guilt and longings that draw him into a murder plot and corporate conspiracy.
Groundbreaking sound design by Walter Murch and the know-how of advisor Hal Lipset (who examined the notorious gap in Nixon's White House tapes) enhance the realism; compelling dialogue and Hackman's finely portrayed internal struggle give it the fascination of a recurring dream.
