The Conversation, 1974... bluray.
Written, produced, and directed by
Francis Ford Coppola. On the DVD commentary, Coppola says he was shocked to learn that the film used the same surveillance and wire-tapping equipment that members of the
Nixon Administration used to spy on political opponents prior to the
Watergate scandal. Coppola has said this reason is why the film gained part of the recognition it has received, but it is entirely coincidental. Not only was the script for
The Conversation completed in the mid-1960s (before the Nixon Administration came to power), but the spying equipment used in the film was discovered through research and the use of technical advisers, and not, as many believed, by revelatory newspaper stories about the Watergate break-in. Coppola also noted that filming of
The Conversation had been completed several months before the most revelatory Watergate stories broke in the press. Because the film was released to theaters just a few months before Richard Nixon resigned as president, Coppola felt that audiences interpreted the film to be a reaction to both the Watergate scandal and its fall-out.