The Conversation

“Harry Caul is an invader of privacy. The best in the business.”

In 1970s San Francisco, Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is the best surveillance man in the business, and he guards his own privacy like a locked room. Francis Ford Coppola follows him through a job recording a young couple's talk in a crowded public square. Harry plays the tape over and over, and what he thinks he hears changes how he sees the work: he can capture a person's words, but he cannot know what they mean.