Synopsis
Surveillance expert Harry Caul is hired by a mysterious client's brusque aide to tail a young couple. Tracking the pair through San Francisco's Union Square, Caul and his associate Stan manage to record a cryptic conversation between them. Tormented by memories of a previous case that ended badly, Caul becomes obsessed with the resulting tape, trying to determine if the couple is in danger.
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Cast
- Gene HackmanHarry Caul
- John CazaleStan
- Allen GarfieldWilliam P. 'Bernie' Moran
- Frederic ForrestMark
- Cindy WilliamsAnn
- Michael HigginsPaul
- Elizabeth MacRaeMeredith
- Teri GarrAmy Fredericks
- Harrison FordMartin Stett
- Mark WheelerReceptionist
Recommendations
- 100
Chicago Sun-Times
As he is played by Gene Hackman in The Conversation, an expert wiretapper named Harry Caul is one of the most affecting and tragic characters in the movies. - 100
Empire
Another great, landmark American film of the '70s. - 100
TV Guide Magazine
One of Coppola's very best. - 90
Variety
A major artistic asset to the film - besides script, direction and the top performances - is supervising editor Walter Murch's sound collage and re-recording. - 90
The Guardian
The Conversation is an immaculate thriller, a study in paranoia and loneliness, long in gestation, partly inspired by Antonioni's Blow-Up, and released as the Watergate scandal was unfolding. - 90
Time Out
A bleak and devastatingly brilliant film. - 80
Chicago Reader
Gene Hackman excels in Francis Ford Coppola's tasteful, incisive 1974 study of the awakening of conscience in an electronic surveillance technician. - 80
CineVue
The Conversation, however, feels rather more like watching a an acting masterclass than a true movie masterpiece.
