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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	1974
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Francis Ford Coppola
Genre:	The mother of all paranoia movies
Starring:	Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071360/
Tagline:	Harry Caul is an invader of privacy. The best in the business. He can record any conversation between two people anywhere. So far, three people are dead because of him.
Favourite line:	"We'll be listening to you."

Cited by many as the best film of the 70's.
I wouldn’t go that far, personally (The Exorcist, The Godfather and The Wicker Man are all superior), though it is damn fine movie all the same.

Gene Hackman, a mercurial presence even when he is off form is at his searing best here, playing Harry Caul, a secret service surveillance guy. He gets his orders, does his job and asks no question.
Think The Transporter without the muscles and Cockney accent.
When Saul begins to suspect that two subjects he has been ordered to eavesdrop on may be in line for assassination, he has a crisis of conscience and the paranoid world in which he operates begins to come crashing down around his ears.

Introspective, taut as a duck's proverbial, this is stripped down to the bone movie-making that puts the viewer on a knife-edge.
As mentioned, Hackman positively crackles throughout, all nervous energy and seemingly on the verge of mania, whilst the direction swoops in ever narrower, relinquishing any sense of style for nought but substance.
Deeply claustrophobic, this is the movie Enemy of the State, starring Hackman again in an opposing role, was based on, though this is far the better of the two.
Ford Coppola don't make many, but when he does make the effort the results are usually dazzling.
This is no exception.