Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Well-known as one of Gene Hackman's best roles. I don't know if I completely agree with that, but it IS pretty good acting work. The film is partly psychological character study, part suspense. Elizabeth MacRae, Harrison Ford, and Teri Garr do nice work in small roles. Films like this, which focus on technology, often do not age well, and that's the case with this one. While it is interesting to see how surveillance was done in the early Seventies, it only brings home how much easier and quicker these things can be done with computers. It seemed to me that one of the themes was the shocking (for the times) lack of privacy that everyone had, but of course that is nothing compared to now.

Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece "The Conversation" is a mood and plot driven story centered on Gene Hackman's character who believes there's more at steak than how it seems while recording a couple's conversation. Not only is it impressive considering the care and consideration directed towards "The Conversation," but it's miraculous how Coppola crafted such an air shut tight script while still working on the famous Godfather films. One of the biggest strengths for "The Conversation" is its brilliant dialogue and story structure. The film treats its audience like intelligent viewers by spreading the mystery and intrigue throughout the picture. Each scene providing new information and additional character depth that help create this compelling feeling to watch and see how it turns out. The movie is wonderfully paced and edited together and while the rhythm of the cuts help the story with speed, the film wouldn't be as effective without the remarkable sound design and mixing. Gene Hackman gives an incredible performance as an introverted and paranoid surveillance technician with his own internal demons. Little does the audience know his internal struggles are a core, underlying theme of the film during the first viewing. His character has so much depth and mystery it's easy to forgive the film for the lack of depth on other characters. While it may seem like a negative, it does help the focus on Hackman's character so we're always trying to guess what he's thinking.This film deserves more than one viewing. The audience will pick up on additional plot points that build the story's cohesiveness and realize visual symbolism and motifs regarding major themes of the film like order and chaos, loneliness, love, paranoia, and privacy. All common themes associated with the human experience. This is a Coppola film that shouldn't be lost through the cracks between "The Godfather." It's very well made and riveting from start to finish.

If you like movies with a story hidden under layers of stifling boredom where actor's face close-ups are displayed with regular monotony, this is the film for you. Apparently the director intended for viewers to use their mental telepathy to understand what is going on in the lead character's head and then figure out how the other characters fit into the story. I could not do it. It was boring beyond belief - something I would not expected given the name actors. One of the worst wastes of time ever.

The most overrated movie I have ever watched,complete garbage. Gene Hackman may be a great actor,but this movie sucked.Stay away,save your money.I have no idea,why this dreadful movie is so highly rated and considered a classic.The boredom of watching for almost 2 hours and seeing nothing interesting happen,is a reason to give this a miss.I will not bother going into the story too much,as there is not much to say.