Director: Francis Ford Coppola.
Writers: Francis Ford Coppola.
Stars: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield.    
Runtime: 113 minutes    

Plot: A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that a couple he is spying on will be murdered.

Review: In an amazing creative outburst between 1970 and 1979, Francis Ford Coppola scripted Patton and The Great Gatsby, produced George Lucas's THX-1138 and American Graffiti, and directed the first two Godfather pictures and this masterly chamber film, which brought him his first Palme d'Or (then called the Grand Prix du Festival) at Cannes in 1974 along with three Academy Award Nominations. The Conversation is an immaculate thriller featuring a study in paranoia and loneliness, long in gestation. 

The plot revolves around a surveillance expert and the moral dilemma he faces when his recordings reveal a potential murder. Coppola cited the 1966 film Blowup as a key influence. However, since the film was released to theaters just a few months before Richard Nixon resigned as President, he felt that audiences interpreted the film to be a reaction to the Watergate scandal. It features one of Gene Hackman's greatest performances as Harry Caul, a San Francisco surveillance expert, a guilt-ridden, intensely private man devoted to anonymity and ethical neutrality. Harry's drawn into the devious lives of those he eavesdrops on and faces moral decisions about his work, delivering a thrilling and acute view into the world of ethical dilemmas of personal and professional scales.

Reviewed by Mohaiminul Islam