It was on 7 April, 1974 that the film, ‘The Conversation’ opened in theaters. The film starred Gene Hackman as an electronic surveillance expert, proud of his technical accomplishments in the field, but internally conflicted about the results of some of his assignments.
The film was a box office success and many audiences took it as a reaction to the Watergate scandal as the Nixon Administration entered it’s final year, but in reality the script for the film was completed before Nixon even took office and filming was completed before news of the Watergate bugging and White House tapes were known.
‘The Conversation’ won the Palme d’Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. It was also nominated for three Academy Awards in 1974, losing the Best Picture prize to ‘The Godfather Part II’. In 1995, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.