The Conversation

Harry Caul (Hackman) is a master of surveillance who works alone and is secretive to the point of paranoia.

One day a routine wire-tapping job turns into a nightmare when Harry thinks he hears something disturbing in a conversation between a young couple.

As he begins to worry that his tape may be used as a pre-emptive to murder, he breaks his own rigid rules by getting involved.

Post Kent State, bang in the middle of the worst atrocities of Vietnam, Caul was a metaphor for the American middle-aged everyman, betrayed by his government, yet hated by a younger generation.

A dark, existential thriller which has often been copied but never equalled.