The Conversation (1974)

4.5/5

This is a beautiful, poignant, scary, and sick film. I loved it. It `s a textbook case of those 1970s anxiety-wrought/conspiracy-suspense-films and pretty-well set the standard if you ask me.

Others include:

The Paralax View (1974) - genius
Three Days of the Condor (1975)
Network (1976) - masterpiece
All the President's Men (1976)
The China Syndrome (1979) - still need to see
The Insider (1999) - paying tribute
Michael Clayton (2007) - carrying on the tradition awesomely, to Tilda`s approval

The Conversation is a Coppola film and also one of John Cazale`s only films. He was Meryl Streep`s fiance until he died of bone cancer right after filming the Deer Hunter. He was also Fredo in the Godfather. If you ask me the fact that he wasn`t in part III and it sucked so hard means he was its good luck charm in the first place. Actually, so was Robert Duvall (also in the Conversation, though uncredited (awesome)).

Coppola made this one between the first two Godfather films and he bloody rocked it out. The score and the editing are first-rate, as is the original screenplay which he wrote. Bloody amazing. Hackman obviously gives a tour de force too.