Francis Ford Coppola - The Conversation (1974), 7/10

Coppola’s creation The Conversation provides a more interesting and captivating story than most of his other films that rely on source material, also showing that he works best with his own material. Hackman lives and encapsulates Harry Caul, portraying a properly complex yet understated main character victim to practical paranoia and anxiety. John Cazale and Harrison Ford are outstanding as additional cast, yet Hackman embodies the themes of the film, particularly in his changes from the beginning to sequences like the dream scene or his interactions with Bernie later on in the film. There are plenty of artful, interesting shots that continue the thematic trends set in The Godfather but they have more interesting, nuanced topics to discuss. It is not as grandiose a picture as Coppola’s other heavily praised works, but this is essential to make this story work and supports its effect. The writing is certainly less than perfect, reflecting some of the weaknesses to be repeated by Coppola many times in the future such as a far too long-winded approach to contextualization and tangents, yet the most important pieces of the story are beautifully written and presented such as the opening sequence. Hackman’s performance is simply outstanding and never breaks its marriage with the picture itself or the audience’s perception, creating an outstanding natural feel to his character and the way he interacts with the world around him, including his thematic explorations of relationship, privacy, loneliness, and death. While unfocused at times, The Conversation is one of Coppola’s strongest projects and one of the most pleasantly grounded cinematic examinations of the big questions surrounding modernity.