The movie, “The Conversation,” directed by Francis Ford Coppola is a film that I recommend everyone to see. This movie is focused on Harry Caul, a private “spy” of sorts who is hired to listens in and records peoples conversations to sell them to his employer for large sums of money. In the film, Caul is hired to listen to this young couples conversation in union square and turn in what he finds, but when he studies the conversation later, he becomes under the impression they are in danger and that his employer may be planning on murdering them. Upon realizing this, Caul has to choose to turn in the tapes, or attempt to keep them for himself and try to not let anyone get hurt. This whole film always had me guessing till the end with a large plot twist that actually had me surprised all in all. When this film was released, it was was around the time of the Watergate scandal with Nixon, so audiences questioned weather it was trying to connect with that, also raising the questions of the government and such people listening in on our conversations.

This questioned is usually answered by critics the same way all around, with one critic saying, in regard to the NSA listening in, “It’s how thoughtlessly they did it, how little regard they showed for the human beings whose information they were taking.”The writer then goes on to talk about how during this time, people were able to see how these developments in technology could be a problem regarding the governments invasion of peoples privacy. This question is still relevant even to this day, with many people talking about how we’re being viewed on our computers and everything we do is being recorded and sold. My view on this would be the same as most critics, saying that it is the job of the NSA to protect us, but maybe they should do it some other way or maybe let us know exactly what they could be monitoring.

Overall I’d say this movie would be somewhat mainstream, for its time but also non mainstream in some aspects. During its time, I could see why this movie could’ve been a hit in theaters, bringing in large audiences due to the news and announcements coming out about the Watergate scandal, but also a little unconventional in the fact that it was going against ideas of spying while focusing heavily on the protagonists moral strain on if what he was doing would be ethically correct, something a portion of viewers wouldn’t consider entertaining. I’d say one of the key components of this film could be the technology/advancement that is shown throughout the film. These things I would guess would also bring in curious viewers, wondering about these new technologies that could be used to spy in them. Even in the movie poster (my featured image), the protagonist is shown with earmuffs and tapes, drawing in the audience by maybe making them wonder how it works, or trying to see how the government  could be using that type of thing on them during that time.  Overall, I’d say this movie does a great job at showing the audience how this listening in thing works and also makes the viewer think about and question the degree in which we are being watched, while all giving a great and suspenseful story.