Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are some of the most beloved and recognizable films in American history. Hailed as the greatest gangster epics ever created, Coppola’s Godfather films have become the definitive works of the iconic director, but they aren’t his best films.
In 1974, the sequel to The Godfather took audiences by storm. Fans of the original film were shocked to discover that Coppola had once again crafted a pitch-perfect film, and many believed that The Godfather Part II even surpassed the first film. But The Godfather Part II was not the only film directed by Coppola to be released in 1974, and it wasn’t even the best.
The Godfather Part II Stood Out In A Stacked Year For Films
1974 Saw An Incredible Lineup Of Cinematic Releases
The 1970s were one of the most important decades for American filmmaking. In the wake of the 1950s and 1960s, having to bow down to studio mandates and regulated censorship, the ’70s gave way to an explosion of new talent and independent filmmakers. Known as the “New Hollywood” movement, these smaller, more emotionally resonant projects by filmmakers like John Cassavetes, Robert Altman, and, of course, Francis Ford Coppola allowed for a whole new approach to American movie-making. Films became darker, more emotionally complex, and less suffocated by studio interference. Before the 1970s, many of the best, most interesting pieces of cinema being produced were coming from outside of the United States — filmmakers like Ingmar Bergman, Akira Kurosawa, and Federico Fellini led the charge of creating adult-oriented, smartly-produced pieces of cinema. At a time when much of the output of Hollywood was sanitized, monitored intently by studios, and lacking any real connection to human emotion, foreign filmmakers kept cinema alive. Thankfully, that began to be rectified in the 1970s, and American filmmakers were allowed to be as bold and experimental as their contemporaries overseas.
In 1974, some of the most iconic films of the era were released. Groundbreaking horror films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Black Christmas, both released in ’74, and early projects from Martin Scorsese, John Carpenter, and Steven Spielberg laid the seeds for the icons that they would become in the years to follow. Francis Ford Coppola’s run of films in the 1970s might just be the most impressive streak of masterpieces in filmmaking history. 1972’s The Godfather shot Coppola’s career into the stratosphere, and it allowed him the freedom to create more personal works. He followed up the first Godfather film with The Conversation two years later, then The Godfather Part II in the same year, and finally, Apocalypse Now in the final year of the decade.
Released in April 1974, The Conversation was much less impactful on general audiences than Coppola’s previous film, The Godfather, had been. With a sequel to one of the decade’s most acclaimed films on the way in December, The Conversation somewhat fell by the wayside in the wake of the hype for The Godfather Part II. Despite receiving critical praise and three major Academy Award nominations, The Conversation is rarely discussed today when people talk about Francis Ford Coppola and his work in the 1970s. The film even featured one of Harrison Ford’s earliest performances as a mysterious and threatening corporate assistant that Gene Hackman’s character is forced to deal with. It’s one of Harrison Ford’s most compelling performances, and he steals every scene that he’s in. While The Godfather Part II has remained an absolutely iconic piece of film history, Coppola’s smaller, more emotional film from the same year has remained sidelined for decades.
The Conversation Deserves Greater Recognition
The Film Should Be As Fondly Remembered As The Godfather Series
Grounded by a career-best performance by the incredible Gene Hackman, The Conversation deserves as much praise as any of Coppola’s other films from the era. Even though The Godfather and The Godfather Part II were more crowd-pleasing, The Conversation is just as effective, just as wonderfully performed, and just as emotionally resonant as any moment from either Godfather film. Centered around a paranoid freelance surveillance technician who becomes obsessed with a potential conspiracy, The Conversation is much more interested in the people inside the film than it is with the actual machinations of the plot. Character is prioritized over plot, and that is what makes the film so exceptional.
Stunning sound design and cinematography lend themselves to the eerie, paranoia-filled tone of the film, and Hackman’s performance as Harry Caul is one of the most heart-wrenching portraits of loneliness that has ever been put to film. The film is about a man wrestling with his own conscience, his own faith, and his own regrets in life. Harry Caul feels responsible for what his work has done to people in the past, and he is utterly destroyed by guilt throughout the film. Religious allegory, surrealist dream sequences, and incredible location and set design further set the mood of the film, revealing it to be so much more than meets the eye.
While The Godfather and The Godfather Part II are both utter masterpieces, it is disappointing to fans of The Conversation that the film isn’t regarded with the same love and adoration as those films. It is on par with Coppola’s more popular films in every way, and it even surpasses them in many areas. The Godfather films deserve their place in film history, but The Conversation should stand right beside them. Even Coppola’s later 70s work, 1979’s Apocalypse Now, heralded as one of the greatest war films of all time, is more talked about in contemporary society than The Conversation — proving that the 1974 film firmly stands as Coppola’s most underrated work of the era.
The Conversation Is Coppola’s Best Film
The Film Is Arguably The Iconic Director’s Finest Achievement
With as incredible a filmography as Francis Ford Coppola has, it is difficult for audiences and film fans to firmly determine his best film. There is constant debate between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, but films like Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Rumble Fish, and Apocalypse Now are also discussed in the debate. While all of these films are incredible in their own ways, The Conversation arguably surpasses them as the director’s finest work. There isn’t a single wasted moment in The Conversation. Every frame, every tiny expression on Gene Hackman’s face, and every sound effect are perfectly tuned to build an emotional response in the audience. Harry Caul’s desperate yearning for connection despite his own fear of being watched is something that viewers can empathize with and understand, even if they’ve never experienced the same level of paranoia and fear.
The Conversation is one of the finest examples of the “conspiracy thriller” sub-genre that was prevalent at the time in American cinema, and how it subverts the genre in the name of psychological horror and emotional turmoil is what makes it so impactful even today. Films like The Parallax View, Three Days of The Condor, or Klute also fit into the conspiracy thriller sub-genre, but none of them quite land in the ways that The Conversation does. Nothing is sensationalized in Coppola’s film. It is so incredibly impactful to follow along with this tired, lonely man as he searches for meaning and forgiveness from a world that he fears. Harry Caul is Coppola’s greatest lead character, beating out iconic protagonists like The Godfather series’ Michael Corleone and Apocalypse Now’s Captain Willard.
Though it hasn’t received nearly as much recognition as some of Coppola’s other films, The Conversation has absolutely influenced several works in the decades since its release. Most notably, director Tony Scott’s throwback conspiracy thriller Enemy of the State, starring Will Smith and, ironically, Gene Hackman, is a clear riff on Coppola’s The Conversation — even going so far as to directly homage the original film’s iconic opening scene. It is wonderful to see The Conversation being honored in more contemporary films, and its influence on an entire genre is still felt today, but it remains a bizarre disappointment that it is talked about so much less than other films of the time. Francis Ford Coppola has since gone on to direct many films with similar themes and ideas to those present in The Conversation, but even he hasn’t been able to replicate the emotional magic that he first produced in 1974.
