User:Stephenfisher2001/sandbox/The Conversation

The Conversation is a 1974 American mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr, and Robert Duvall.

Plot
The film revolves around a surveillance expert and the moral dilemma he faces when his recordings reveal a potential murder.

Reception
According to the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 57 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The site's critics consensus reads, "This tense, paranoid thriller presents Francis Ford Coppola at his finest—and makes some remarkably advanced arguments about technology's role in society that still resonate today." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 85 out of 100 based on 15 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Roger Ebert's contemporary review gave The Conversation four out of four stars, and described Hackman's portrayal of Caul as "one of the most affecting and tragic characters in the movies." In 2001, Ebert added The Conversation to his "Great Movies" list, describing Hackman's performance as a "career peak" and writing that the film "comes from another time and place than today's thrillers, which are so often simple-minded."