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| The Conversation is about an obsessive surveillance expert
(Hackman) who makes the professional mistake of becoming involved in a case,
and finds himself entangled in murder and high-level power plays. His policy
of never getting involved personally in the jobs he is given leads him into
dangerous territory after listening in on a couple's conversation. He then
grapples with his code of non-intervention to try and prevent a murder from
taking place. This same sort of situation occurred in the past, and three
individuals were killed. Convinced that he can no longer separate his job
from his conscience, he attempts to alter the devastating outcome.
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| Gene Hackman (Harry Caul): the geeky, paranoid,
surveillance expert whose work begins to interfere with his conscience.
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| Harrison Ford (Martin Stett): one of Ford's bad guy
roles, he plays a corporate professional who warns Caul about getting involved.
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| John Cazale (Stan): fellow surveillance man to Caul.
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| Allen Garfield (William P. Moran): slimy, manipulative competitor to Caul.
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| Frederick Forrest (Mark): Plays the male in the couple who Caul believes the murder is being planned for.
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| Cindy Williams (Ann): Female in couple.
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This movie is somewhat similar to Enemy of the State,
which also stars Gene Hackman playing a very similar role to the one in The
Conversation. In both movies, privacy is an issue that can never be resolved.
How can we be sure that our privacy is being respected in our day-to-day
lives? Computers and electronics have developed to the point that they are
small enough to used for such type of surveillance. The paranoia and solitude
which Hackman's character emits is due to this insecurity and lack of a
sense of privacy.
In today's world, our lives can be monitored with our phone calls, mail,
e-mail, and that widely connected network of computers called the Internet.
The digital age has ushered in a new age of Big Brother. One of the main
worries of people today is their security and how it can be fulfilled.
In the Internet, it requires firewalls; phones have become digitized; e-mail
can be encrypted; and one can even by secure envelopes to handle "snail" mail
situations. As the computer begins to take on an ever increasing role in our
lives, security is something that will need to advance as more ways of
eavesdropping into the private lives of people become accessible.
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