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| Tookey's Review |
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| Pro Reviews |
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| Mixed Reviews |
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| Anti Reviews |
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| Cast |
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| Released: |
1974 |
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| Genre: |
DRAMA
THRILLER
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| Origin: |
US |
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| Colour: |
C |
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| Length: |
113 |
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Inquisitive bugger (Gene Hackman) believes he may stumbled across an incriminating conversation.
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Reviewed by Chris Tookey
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Fine acting by Gene Hackman and flashy direction by Francis Ford Coppola enliven this paranoid thriller about an eavesdropping bugging expert. Very much a film of its Watergate period (though it was made before that famous burglary - it was obviously inspired by Antonioni's Blow-Up), it is gripping and technically brilliant. Somewhere along the line, though, the plot loses its way in a forest of repetition, and the hero’s character becomes implausible (for a genius, he’s awfully gullible). This may be why the film has always been more of a hit with critics than audiences.
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“I had been terrified by the whole Orwellian dimension of electronic spying and the invasion of privacy when I started writing The Conversation five years ago. I realized a bugging expert was a special breed of man, not just a private eye playing with far-out gadgets.”
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| (Francis Ford Coppola , 1973) |
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, John Cazale, Allen Garfield