The Conversation

1974
US
113 min
12

Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Written by: Francis Ford Coppola
Cast: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall

Harry Caul (Hackman) is a master of surveillance who works alone and is secretive to the point of paranoia. One day a routine wire-tapping job turns into a nightmare when Harry thinks he hears something disturbing in a conversation between a young couple. As he begins to worry that his tape may be used as a pre-emptive to murder, he breaks his own rigid rules by getting involved. Post Kent State, bang in the middle of the worst atrocities of Vietnam, Caul was a metaphor for the American middle-aged everyman, betrayed by his government, yet hated by a younger generation. A dark, existential thriller which has often been copied but never equalled.