The Conversation (1974)'s comments

Do you want to let us know what you think? Just login, after which you will be redirected back here and you can leave your comments.

Foxinsand

Shades of both Hitchcock and Antonioni, and one of the best film scores I've heard, a brilliantly subdued thriller.

14 years 3 months ago

I'm glad I went into this with no knowledge of the plot or the actors involved. Great to see Harrison Ford pop up! I loved all the twists and turns. My only major thought throughout was that a few scenes could have been cut down. A faster pace may have better suited the narrative.

8 years 10 months ago

Forrester

Good (but not great) movie with an original story, good acting, good suspense and great use of sound effects. It was a bit slow at times, but overall I quite enjoyed it.

12 years 11 months ago

tweet_tweet

The eeriness & paranoia in the movie is palpable, thanks to Gene Hackman's stellar performance. spoiler

10 years 2 months ago

Siskoid

Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation owes a huge (but acknowledged - it even starts with a mime) debt to Antonioni's Blow-Up, which I reviewed recently. Like Blow-Up, it's about context and perception, but instead of exploring it through a photographer and a mysterious sequence of pictures, he does so with a professional wiretapper, and an innocuous conversation. The conversation repeats throughout the film, revealing itself or its meaning a little more each time, but also taking on new meaning based on context. Gene Hackman gives an excellent and understated performance as the obsessively private protagonist, and Coppola doesn't go Blow-Up's philosophical route, steering the film towards the thriller genre, albeit a quiet kind of thriller. He certainly shows us a lot of the nitty-gritty of the surveillance business circa 1974, but a remake wouldn't feel incredibly different (though perhaps the character of Harry Caul would have even more anxiety regarding hypersurveillance). And there's a poetry to the images here that I really enjoy, Coppola importing the idea of things hidden and revealed into the cinematography and script elements.

8 years 8 months ago

creole

Excellent underrated film. The ending is spectacular.

11 years 1 month ago

Darkness_prevails

I didn't enjoy this movie as much. I found it to be just okay.

13 years ago

frankqb

From the opening shot, we're drawn into this film. The tense portrayals of paranoia and a remarkable performance by Gene Hackman make this film one to not miss.

13 years 11 months ago

vishnu

not a tense thriller... engaging though... but you won't really see what's coming....

12 years 10 months ago

catherinefrances

I hate having expectations for films because it ruins the viewing experience. I can't tell if I loved or hated it.

4 years ago

ClassicLady

Wow! What a powerful movie. I kept thinking I knew the plot and then it would twist and turn and I'd be lost again. The suspense was tight. There were some slow spots but overall, a great picture.

10 years 5 months ago

arunraj

remarkable!

13 years 3 months ago

OneAngryMan

A great thriller, one of the best conspiracy thrillers ever.

14 years 1 month ago

shitmovies

Seminal paranoia movie. Unsurpassed by anything in the past 30 years that's for sure.

1 year 6 months ago

HyliaFischer

It's a good movie. I loved Hackman's acting, the feel of paranoia and the camera. The score is also just marvellous. I liked the theme of the conversation repeating etc, but what killed the movie for me a little was the fact that it was a movie. Don't misunderstand me, it was great, but it was just too long imho. I really would've loved this as a 45-minute-episode of an anthology series, but the 2 hours felt really dragged out a lot of times.

4 years ago