Quote from: lester1/2jr on June 23, 2026, 04:43:02 PMThe Conversation (1974) - I saw this 30 years ago in a pretty nondescript film class I took in college. I kind of wish I hadn't because the movie I remembered wasn't exactly what it actually was, if that makes any sense. Gene Hackman, Harrison Ford, and Shirley from Laverne and Shirley of all people are the stars in what is sort of a very late film noir meets an early conspiracy movie.
Hackman is an expert phone tapper/ eavesdropper who struggles with the good vs evil aspect of his work. He's proud of his technical abilities, but unscrupulous people can hire him to achieve nefarious ends. The other spy type people he associates with are sleazy and have no integrity, which clearly makes him uncomfortable. He's also paranoid, to ridiculous extent, about his own privacy.
Of course, that obsessive paranoia is part of what makes him so great at what he does. It all gets put to the test when he's tasked with recording the titular conversation, the opaqueness of which bugs him (no pun intended) to no end.
5/5
I'd like to see it again sometime, just to clarify some things. it looks and feels a bit like "Coma" ( ie depressing 70's hues) but is a little more cerebral.
(edit: You could see it as an indictment of capitalism...until you consider that socialist countries spied like crazy on their populations for nefarious ends, too. )
