[Much of The Conversation] is very well-made…. There is, of course, no James Bond glamour, and yet Coppola also manages not to show off his sense of realism in any ostentatious manner. It is understated, subtle and at times probing.

But when he starts in with the whodunit nonsense, the whole film begins to fall apart. Replacing the cool intellectual detachment, there emerges a frenetic paranoia wildly hopping about….

In the most crucial spots, in fact, The Conversation is muddle-headed, phony and cheap. Muddle-headed because although Coppola appears, at times, to say that Harry Caul is responsible for his actions and their consequences, we see, at the conclusion, that his bugging did not lead to a murder but in fact might have prevented one—moral substance subordinated to pyrotechnical shenanigans. Phony because Harry, who is shown to be so paranoid that he won't tell his loved and loving...