125-429: The Conversation is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Gene Hackman , John Cazale , Allen Garfield , Cindy Williams , Frederic Forrest , Harrison Ford , Teri Garr , and Robert Duvall . Hackman portrays a surveillance expert who faces a moral dilemma when his recordings reveal a potential murder. The Conversation premiered at
250-555: A "career peak" and writing that the film "comes from another time and place than today's thrillers, which are so often simple-minded". In 1995, The Conversation was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Gene Hackman has named the film his favorite of all those he has made. His performance in
375-547: A choice which Nixon believed would unite the party by appealing to both Northern moderates and Southerners disaffected with the Democrats. The choice of Agnew was poorly received by many; a Washington Post editorial described Agnew as "the most eccentric political appointment since the Roman Emperor Caligula named his horse a consul . In his acceptance speech, Nixon articulated a message of hope, stating, "We extend
500-441: A compromise based on Nixon's plan, but gave up when unable to get more than a 13–12 majority of his committee to support his compromise. Environmentalism had emerged as a major movement during the 1960s, especially after the 1962 publication of Silent Spring . Between 1960 and 1969, membership in the twelve largest environmental groups had grown from 124,000 to 819,000, and polling showed that millions of voters shared many of
625-597: A difficult situation and making choices out of desperation or nihilistic moral systems . Visual elements included low-key lighting , striking use of light and shadow , and unusual camera placement. Sound effects helped create the noir mood of paranoia and nostalgia. Few major films in the classic film noir genre have been made since the early 1960s. These films usually incorporated both thematic and visual elements reminiscent of film noir . Both classic and neo-noir films are often produced as independent features . After 1970, film critics took note of "neo-noir" films as
750-529: A free hand during the editing process because Coppola was working on The Godfather Part II at the time. Coppola noted in the DVD commentary that Hackman had a very difficult time adapting to the Harry Caul character because he was so much unlike himself. Coppola says that Hackman was at the time an outgoing and approachable person who preferred casual clothes, whereas Caul was meant to be a socially awkward loner who wore
875-502: A loss—only fueled more inflation. Despite their failure to rein in inflation, controls were slowly ended, and on April 30, 1974, their statutory authorization lapsed. Between Nixon's accession to office and his resignation in August 1974, unemployment rates had risen from 3.5% to 5.6%, and the rate of inflation had grown from 4.7% to 8.7%. Observers coined a new term for the undesirable combination of unemployment and inflation: " stagflation ",
1000-779: A mistake. By the end of 1971, 156,000 U.S. soldiers remained in Vietnam; 276 American soldiers serving in Vietnam were killed in the last six months of that year. North Vietnam launched the Easter Offensive in March 1972, overwhelming the South Vietnamese army. In reaction to the Easter Offensive, Nixon ordered a massive bombing campaign in North Vietnam known as Operation Linebacker . As U.S. troop withdrawals continued, conscription
1125-459: A murder, Caul breaks into the room; he initially finds no evidence, until he flushes the toilet and finds it clogged and overflowing with blood. Attempting to confront the Director, Caul discovers the wife is alive and unharmed, as is her lover. A newspaper headline reveals an executive's supposed death in a car accident, leading Caul to realize that the couple actually murdered the Director. He missed
1250-682: A phenomenon that would worsen after Nixon left office. One of Nixon's major promises in the 1968 campaign was to address what he described as the " welfare mess". The number of individuals enrolled in the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program had risen from 3 million in 1960 to 8.4 million in 1970, contributing to a drop in poverty . However, many Americans, particularly conservatives, believed that welfare programs discouraged individuals from finding employment ; conservatives also derided " welfare queens " who they alleged collected excessive amounts of welfare benefits. On taking office, Nixon established
1375-467: A potentially dangerous phrase in the recording, "He'd kill us if he got the chance," Caul becomes increasingly paranoid. His attempt to deliver the recording is thwarted, and he believes he is being followed and tricked. After a party at his workshop, Caul spends the night with a woman, Meredith, and the tapes are stolen. He receives a call from Martin Stett, the Director's assistant, informing him that they have
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#17328513756731500-616: A prominent Democrat like Humphrey or Sargent Shriver into his administration, but was unsuccessful until early 1971, when former governor John Connally of Texas became Secretary of the Treasury. Connally would become one of the most powerful members of the cabinet and coordinated the administration's economic policies. In 1973, as the Watergate scandal came to light, Nixon accepted the resignations of Haldeman, Erlichman, and Mitchell's successor as attorney general, Richard Kleindienst . Haldeman
1625-414: A rain coat and out-of-style glasses. Coppola said that Hackman's efforts to tap into the character made the actor moody and irritable on set, but otherwise Coppola got along well with his leading man. Coppola also notes on the commentary that Hackman considers this one of his favorite performances. The Conversation features a piano score composed and performed by David Shire . The score was created before
1750-606: A separate genre. Noir and post-noir terminology (such as " hard-boiled ", "neo-classic" and the like) are often rejected by both critics and practitioners. Robert Arnett stated, "Neo-noir has become so amorphous as a genre/movement, any film featuring a detective or crime qualifies." Screenwriter and director Larry Gross identifies Jean-Luc Godard 's Alphaville , alongside John Boorman 's Point Blank (1967) and Robert Altman 's The Long Goodbye (1973), based on Raymond Chandler 's 1953 novel, as neo-noir films. Gross believes that they deviate from classic noir in having more of
1875-523: A series of city riots in various cities, made 1968 the most tumultuous year of the decade. Throughout the year, Nixon portrayed himself as a figure of stability during a period of national unrest and upheaval. He appealed to what he later called the " silent majority " of socially conservative Americans who disliked the 1960s counterculture and the anti-war demonstrators. Nixon waged a prominent television advertising campaign, meeting with supporters in front of cameras. He promised " peace with honor " in
2000-471: A shadowy cinematographic style. Neo-noir has a similar style but with updated themes, content, style, and visual elements. The neologism neo-noir, using the Greek prefix for the word new , is defined by Mark Conard as "any film coming after the classic noir period that contains noir themes and noir sensibility". Another definition describes it as later noir that often synthesizes diverse genres while foregrounding
2125-461: A sociological than a psychological focus. Neo noir features characters who commit violent crimes, but without the motivations and narrative patterns found in film noir . Neo noir assumed global character and impact when filmmakers began drawing elements from films in the global market. For instance, Quentin Tarantino 's works have been influenced by Ringo Lam 's 1987 classic City on Fire . This
2250-455: Is my last press conference ." In the years after his defeat, Nixon established himself as an important party leader who appealed to both moderates and conservatives. Nixon entered the race for the 1968 Republican presidential nomination confident that, with the Democrats torn apart over the war in Vietnam, a Republican had a good chance of winning the presidency in November, although he expected
2375-409: Is considered to be one of the defining authors of hard-boiled fiction. Both novels were adapted as crime films, the former more than once. Cain is quoted as saying, "I belong to no school, hard-boiled or otherwise, and I believe these so-called schools exist mainly in the imagination of critics, and have little correspondence in reality anywhere else." Neo-noir film directors refer to 'classic noir' in
2500-472: The 1960 presidential election by John F. Kennedy . In 1962 , Nixon ran for governor of California against incumbent Pat Brown , and was defeated handily, leading the media to label him as a "loser". This defeat was widely believed to be the end of his career; in an impromptu concession speech the morning after the election, Nixon famously blamed the media for favoring his opponent, saying, "you won't have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this
2625-410: The 1968 presidential election . Four years later, in the 1972 presidential election , he defeated Democrat nominee George McGovern , to win re-election in a landslide. Although he had built his reputation as a very active Republican campaigner , Nixon downplayed partisanship in his 1972 landslide re-election. Nixon's primary focus while in office was on foreign affairs . He focused on détente with
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#17328513756732750-552: The 1974 Cannes Film Festival , where it won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film , the festival's highest prize, and was released theatrically on April 7, 1974, by Paramount Pictures to critical acclaim. It made $ 4.4 million during its original release, and after several re-releases, its total rose to $ 4.8 million on a $ 1.6 million budget. The film received three nominations at the 47th Academy Awards : Best Picture , Best Original Screenplay , and Best Sound . In 1995, it
2875-543: The AFL–CIO and UAW . The following month Nixon proposed the Comprehensive Health Insurance Act, consisting of an employer mandate to offer private health insurance if employees volunteered to pay 25 percent of premiums, replacement of Medicaid by state-run health insurance plans available to all with income-based premiums and cost sharing, and replacement of Medicare with a new federal program that eliminated
3000-619: The Clean Water Act . He signed the Endangered Species Act of 1973 , the primary law for protecting imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation". Nixon also pursued environmental diplomacy, and Nixon administration official Russell E. Train opened a dialog on global environmental issues with Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin . Political scientists Byron Daines and Glenn Sussman rate Nixon as
3125-508: The House of Representatives initiated impeachment proceedings. Facing removal by Congress, Nixon resigned from office. Though some scholars believe that Nixon "has been excessively maligned for his faults and inadequately recognised for his virtues", Nixon is generally ranked as a below average president in surveys of historians and political scientists . Richard Nixon had served as vice president from 1953 to 1961, and had been defeated in
3250-565: The National Board of Review Award for Best Film . According to film critic Kim Newman , the 1998 film Enemy of the State , which also stars Gene Hackman as co-protagonist, could be construed as a "continuation of The Conversation ". Hackman's character Edward Lyle in Enemy of the State closely resembles Caul: he dons the same translucent raincoat, and his workshop is nearly identical to Caul's. Also,
3375-864: The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Other significant regulatory legislation enacted during Nixon's presidency included the Noise Control Act and the Consumer Product Safety Act . When Congress extended the Voting Rights Act of 1965 in 1970 it included a provision lowering the age qualification to vote in all elections—federal, state, and local—to 18. Later that year, in Oregon v. Mitchell (1970),
3500-641: The Office of Economic Opportunity , the Job Corps , and the Model Cities Program . Nixon advocated a " New Federalism ", which would devolve power to state and local elected officials, but Congress was hostile to these ideas and enacted only a few of them. During Nixon's tenure, spending on Social Security , Medicare , and Medicaid all increased dramatically. Total spending on social insurance programs grew from $ 27.3 billion in 1969 to $ 67.4 billion in 1975, while
3625-526: The Palme d'Or to date, concluding: "Made in a flash between the first two Godfather movies, Coppola’s existential spy thriller has since become a pinnacle of the genre." The Conversation won the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film, the highest honor at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. The film was also nominated for three Academy Awards for 1974, but lost to Coppola's own The Godfather Part II . It won
3750-827: The People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union , easing Cold War tensions with both countries. As part of this policy, Nixon signed the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty and SALT I, two landmark arms control treaties with the Soviet Union. Nixon promulgated the Nixon Doctrine , which called for indirect assistance by the United States rather than direct U.S. commitments as seen in the ongoing Vietnam War . After extensive negotiations with North Vietnam , Nixon withdrew
3875-706: The United States Courts of Appeals , and 181 judges to the United States district courts . When Nixon took office in January 1969, the inflation rate had reached 4.7%, the highest rate since the Korean War . Johnson's Great Society programs and the Vietnam War effort had resulted in large budget deficits. There was little unemployment, but interest rates were at their highest in a century. Nixon's major economic goal
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4000-669: The War on Cancer , resulted in passage that December of the National Cancer Act, which injected nearly $ 1.6 billion (equivalent to $ 9 billion in 2016) in federal funding to cancer research over a three-year period. It also provided for establishment of medical centers dedicated to clinical research and cancer treatment, 15 of them initially, whose work is coordinated by the National Cancer Institute . The second initiative, focused on Sickle-cell disease (SCD), resulted in passage of
4125-420: The " noise-polluting " Supersonic transport (SST), which Congress dropped funding for in 1971. Additionally, he vetoed the Clean Water Act of 1972, and after Congress overrode the veto, Nixon impounded the funds Congress had authorized to implement it. While not opposed to the goals of the legislation, Nixon objected to the amount of money to be spent on reaching them, which he deemed excessive. Faced as he
4250-519: The 20th century in 1971. Bowles points out, "by identifying himself with a policy whose purpose was inflation's defeat, Nixon made it difficult for Democratic opponents ... to criticize him. His opponents could offer no alternative policy that was either plausible or believable since the one they favored was one they had designed but which the president had appropriated for himself." Nixon's policies dampened inflation in 1972, but their aftereffects contributed to inflation during his second term and into
4375-525: The Cambodian government of Lon Nol , which was then battling a Khmer Rouge insurgency in the Cambodian Civil War , as part of Operation Freedom Deal . In 1971, Nixon ordered incursions into Laos to attack North Vietnamese bases, provoking further domestic unrest. That same year, excerpts from the " Pentagon Papers " were published by The New York Times and The Washington Post . When news of
4500-468: The Council of Urban Affairs, under the leadership of Daniel Patrick Moynihan, to develop a welfare reform proposal. Moynihan's proposed plan centered on replacing welfare programs with a negative income tax , which would provide a guaranteed minimum income to all Americans. Nixon became closely involved in the proposal and, despite opposition from Arthur Burns and other conservatives, adopted Moynihan's plan as
4625-551: The District of Columbia Crime Control Bill, which included no-knock warrants and other provisions that concerned many civil libertarians. In response to growing drug-related crime, Nixon became the first president to emphasize drug control, and he presided over the establishment of the Drug Enforcement Administration . After a nearly decade-long national effort , the United States won the race to land astronauts on
4750-523: The ERA or their cause after his election. Nevertheless, he appointed more women to administration positions than Lyndon Johnson had. Upon taking office, Nixon pronounced the " Nixon Doctrine ", a general statement of foreign policy under which the United States would not "undertake all the defense of the free nations." While existing commitments would be upheld, potential new commitments would be sharply scrutinized. Rather than becoming directly involved in conflicts,
4875-647: The Ford administration. As Nixon began his second term, the economy was plagued by a stock market crash , a surge in inflation, and the 1973 oil crisis . With the legislation authorizing price controls set to expire on April 30, the Senate Democratic Caucus recommended a 90-day freeze on all profits, interest rates, and prices. Nixon re-imposed price controls in June 1973, echoing his 1971 plan, as food prices rose; this time, he focused on agricultural exports and limited
5000-867: The House or the Senate in the concurrent congressional elections . For the major decisions of his presidency, Nixon relied on the Executive Office of the President rather than his Cabinet. Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and adviser John Ehrlichman emerged as his two most influential staffers regarding domestic affairs, and much of Nixon's interaction with other staff members was conducted through Haldeman. Early in Nixon's tenure, conservative economist Arthur F. Burns and liberal former Johnson administration official Daniel Patrick Moynihan served as important advisers, but both had left
5125-678: The Medicare Part A payroll tax. In December 1973, he signed the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973 , establishing a trial federal program to promote and encourage the development of HMOs. There was a renewed push for health insurance reform in 1974. In January, representatives Martha Griffiths and James C. Corman introduced the Health Security Act, a universal national health insurance program providing comprehensive benefits without any cost sharing backed by
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5250-608: The Moon on July 20, 1969, with the flight of Apollo 11 . Nixon spoke with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during their moonwalk, calling the conversation "the most historic phone call ever made from the White House". Nixon, however, was unwilling to keep funding for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) at the high level seen through the 1960s, and rejected NASA Administrator Thomas O. Paine 's ambitious plans for
5375-769: The National Sickle Cell Anemia Control Act in May 1972. Long ignored, the lifting of SCD from obscurity to high visibility reflected the changing dynamics of electoral politics and race relations in America during the early 1970s. Under this legislation, the National Institutes of Health established several sickle cell research and treatment centers and the Health Services Administration established sickle cell screening and education clinics around
5500-556: The Nixon campaign interfered with any ongoing negotiations between the Johnson administration and the South Vietnamese by engaging Anna Chennault , a prominent Chinese-American fundraiser for the Republican party. Whether or not Nixon had any involvement, the peace talks collapsed shortly before the election, blunting Humphrey's momentum. On election day, Nixon defeated Humphrey by about 500,000 votes, 43.4% to 42.7%; Wallace received 13.5% of
5625-472: The North Vietnamese, but negotiators were unable to reach an agreement. With the failure of the peace talks, Nixon implemented a strategy of " Vietnamization ," which consisted of increased U.S. aid and Vietnamese troops taking on a greater combat role in the war. To great public approval, he began phased troop withdrawals by the end of 1969, sapping the strength of the domestic anti-war movement. Despite
5750-772: The Senate had rejected President Johnson's nomination of Associate Justice Abe Fortas to succeed retiring Chief Justice Earl Warren . Months after taking office, Nixon nominated federal appellate judge Warren E. Burger to succeed Warren, and the U.S. Senate quickly confirmed him. Another vacancy arose in 1969 after Fortas resigned from the Court, partially due to pressure from Attorney General Mitchell and other Republicans who criticized him for accepting compensation from financier Louis Wolfson . To replace Fortas, Nixon successively nominated two Southern federal appellate judges, Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell , but both were rejected by
5875-468: The Senate. Nixon then nominated federal appellate judge Harry Blackmun , who was confirmed by the Senate in 1970. The retirements of Hugo Black and John Marshall Harlan II created two Supreme Court vacancies in late 1971. One of Nixon's nominees, corporate attorney Lewis F. Powell Jr. , was easily confirmed. Nixon's other 1971 Supreme Court nominee, Assistant Attorney General William Rehnquist , faced significant resistance from liberal senators, but he
6000-568: The Supreme Court handed down its decision in the 1971 case of Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education , cross-district school busing it emerged as a major issue in both the North and the South. Swann permitted lower federal courts to mandate busing in order to remedy racial imbalance in schools. Though he enforced the court orders, Nixon believed that "forced integration of housing or education"
6125-440: The Supreme Court held that Congress had the authority to lower the voting age qualification in federal elections, but not the authority to do so in state and local elections. Nixon sent a letter to Congress supporting a constitutional amendment to lower the voting age, and Congress quickly moved forward with a proposed constitutional amendment guaranteeing the 18 year-old vote. Sent to the states for ratification on March 23, 1971,
6250-425: The U.S. Various rereleases over the years have brought the film's gross to $ 4.8 million. The film has a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 134 reviews, with an average rating of 9/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "This tense, paranoid thriller presents Francis Ford Coppola at his finest—and makes some remarkably advanced arguments about technology's role in society that still resonate today." On Metacritic,
6375-609: The United States would provide military and economic aid to nations that were subject to insurgency or aggression, or that were otherwise vital to U.S. strategic interests. As part of the Nixon Doctrine, the U.S. greatly increased arms sales to the Middle East , especially Israel , Iran , and Saudi Arabia . Another major beneficiary of aid was Pakistan , which the U.S. backed during the Bangladesh Liberation War . At
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#17328513756736500-644: The Vietnam War clashed violently with police. The mayhem, which had been broadcast to the world in television, crippled the Humphrey campaign. Post-convention Labor Day surveys had Humphrey trailing Nixon by more than 20 percentage points. In addition to Nixon and Humphrey, the race was joined by former Democratic governor George Wallace of Alabama, a vocal segregationist who ran on the American Independent Party ticket. Wallace held little hope of winning
6625-414: The Vietnam War but did not release specifics of how he would accomplish this goal, resulting in media intimations that he must have a "secret plan". Humphrey's polling position improved in the final weeks of the campaign as he distanced himself from Johnson's Vietnam policies. Johnson sought to conclude a peace agreement with North Vietnam in the week before the election; controversy remains over whether
6750-711: The Vietnam War could not be won and he was determined to end the war quickly. Conversely, Black argues that Nixon sincerely believed he could intimidate North Vietnam through the Madman theory . Regardless of his opinion of the war, Nixon wanted to end the American role in it without the appearance of an American defeat, which he feared would badly damage his presidency and precipitate a return to isolationism . He sought some arrangement which would permit American forces to withdraw, while leaving South Vietnam secure against attack. In mid-1969, Nixon began efforts to negotiate peace with
6875-491: The White House by the end of 1970. Conservative attorney Charles Colson also emerged as an important adviser after he joined the administration in late 1969. Unlike many of his fellow Cabinet members, Attorney General John N. Mitchell held sway within the White House, and Mitchell led the search for Supreme Court nominees. In foreign affairs, Nixon enhanced the importance of the National Security Council , which
7000-507: The White House. He also created the Domestic Council , an organization charged with coordinating and formulating domestic policy. Nixon attempted to centralize control over the intelligence agencies, but he was generally unsuccessful, in part due to pushback from FBI director J. Edgar Hoover . Despite his centralization of power in the White House, Nixon allowed his cabinet officials great leeway in setting domestic policy in subjects he
7125-496: The army to keep the postal system going. In the end, the government met the postal workers' wage demands, undoing some of the desired budget-balancing. In December 1969, Nixon somewhat reluctantly signed the Tax Reform Act of 1969 despite its inflationary provisions; the act established the alternative minimum tax , which applied to wealthy individuals who used deductions to limit their tax liabilities. In 1970, Congress granted
7250-407: The background noise, Caul filters and merges the tapes to create a clear recording with ambiguous meaning. Caul is intensely private, obsessively guarding his own personal life, haunted by guilt from a past job that resulted in three deaths. Despite Caul's insistence that he is not responsible for how his clients use the surveillance, he is troubled by guilt and his Catholic faith. When he discovers
7375-472: The budgets of their respective departments. Nixon did not appoint any female or African American cabinet officials, although Nixon did offer a cabinet position to civil rights leader Whitney Young . Nixon's initial cabinet also contained an unusually small number of Ivy League graduates, with the notable exceptions of George P. Shultz and Elliot Richardson , who each held three different cabinet positions during Nixon's presidency. Nixon attempted to recruit
7500-563: The central legislative proposal of his first year in office. In an August 1969 televised address, Nixon proposed the Family Assistance Plan (FAP), which would establish a national income floor of $ 1600 per year for a family of four. Public response to the FAP was highly favorable, but it faced strong opposition in Congress, partly due to the lack of congressional involvement in the drafting of
7625-418: The country. Nixon proposed reducing the number of government departments to eight. Under his plan, the existing departments of State , Justice , Treasury , and Defense would be retained, while the remaining departments would be folded into the new departments of Economic Affairs, Natural Resources, Human Resources, and Community Development. Although Nixon did not succeed in this major reorganization, he
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#17328513756737750-435: The dollar to float against other currencies, and ended the convertibility of the dollar into gold. Nixon's monetary policies effectively took the United States off the gold standard and brought an end to the Bretton Woods system , a post-war international fixed exchange-rate system . Nixon believed that this system negatively affected the U.S. balance of trade ; the U.S. had experienced its first negative balance of trade of
7875-440: The draft between 1970 and 1973. A wave of protests swept the country in reaction to the invasion of Cambodia. In what is known as the Kent State shootings , a protest at Kent State University ended in the deaths of four students after the Ohio Army National Guard opened fire on an unarmed crowd. The shootings increased tensions on other college campuses, and more than 75 colleges and universities were forced to shut down until
8000-420: The election outright, but he hoped to deny either major party candidate a majority of the electoral vote , thus sending the election to the House of Representatives , where segregationist congressmen could extract concessions for their support. The assassinations of Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. , combined with disaffection towards the Vietnam War, the disturbances at the Democratic National Convention, and
8125-462: The election to be as close as in 1960. One year prior to the 1968 Republican National Convention the early favorite for the party's presidential nomination was Michigan governor George Romney , but Romney's campaign foundered on the issue of the Vietnam War . Nixon established himself as the clear front-runner after a series of early primary victories. His chief rivals for the nomination were Governor Ronald Reagan of California, who commanded
8250-414: The emphasis on "us" in the recording, not only signifying the couple's fear of being killed by the Director if he discovered the affair, but also their own plan to murder him first. Stett calls Caul at his apartment, and warns him not to investigate, playing a recording of Caul's saxophone to prove they are listening. Caul frantically searches for bugs in his apartment, destroying nearly everything in it. In
8375-407: The end, Caul sits alone amid the wreckage, playing his saxophone. Principal photography began November 27, 1972, and finished in late February 1973. Coppola has cited Michelangelo Antonioni 's Blowup (1966) as a key influence on his conceptualization of the film's themes, such as surveillance versus participation, and perception versus reality. "Francis had seen [it] a year or two before, and had
8500-505: The establishment of a permanent base on the Moon by the end of the 1970s and the launch of a crewed expedition to Mars in the 1980s. On May 24, 1972, Nixon approved a five-year cooperative program between NASA and the Soviet space program , culminating in the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project , a joint mission of an American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in 1975. Nixon submitted two significant medical research initiatives to Congress in February 1971. The first, popularly referred to as
8625-404: The failure of Operation Lam Son 719 , which was designed to be the first major test of the South Vietnamese Army since the implementation of Vietnamization , the drawdown of American soldiers in Vietnam continued throughout Nixon's tenure. In early 1970, Nixon sent U.S. and South Vietnamese soldiers into Cambodia to attack North Vietnamese bases, expanding the ground war out of Vietnam for
8750-577: The federalization of Medicaid for poor families with dependent minor children, and support for health maintenance organizations (HMOs). This market-based system would, Nixon argued, "build on the strengths of the private system." Both the House and Senate held hearings on national health insurance in 1971, but no legislation emerged from either committee. In October 1972, Nixon signed the Social Security Amendments of 1972, extending Medicare to those under 65 who had been severely disabled for over two years or had end stage renal disease and gradually raising
8875-406: The film has a weighted average score of 88 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Roger Ebert's contemporary review gave The Conversation four out of four stars and described Hackman's portrayal of Caul as "one of the most affecting and tragic characters in the movies". In 2001, Ebert added The Conversation to his "Great Movies" list, describing Hackman's performance as
9000-453: The film was shot. On some cues, Shire used musique concrète techniques, taking the taped sounds of the piano and distorting them in different ways to create alternative tonalities to round out the score. The score was released on CD by Intrada Records in 2001. The character of Harry Caul was inspired by surveillance technology expert Martin Kaiser, who also served as a technical consultant on
9125-484: The film. According to Kaiser, the final scene of the film—in which Caul is convinced he is being eavesdropped in his apartment, cannot find the listening device, and consoles himself by playing his saxophone—was inspired by the passive covert listening devices created by Léon Theremin , such as the Great Seal bug . "He couldn't find out where [the bug] was because it was the instrument itself." Coppola also based Caul on
9250-640: The first Democratic Party primary on March 12 in New Hampshire, and the closeness of the results startled the party establishment and spurred Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York to enter the race. Two weeks later, Johnson told a stunned nation that he would not seek a second term. In the weeks that followed, much of the momentum that had been moving the McCarthy campaign forward shifted toward Kennedy. Vice President Hubert Humphrey declared his own candidacy, drawing support from many of Johnson's supporters. Kennedy
9375-494: The first time that an intra-term vacancy in the office of vice president was filled. The Speaker of the House , Carl Albert from Oklahoma, was next in line to the presidency during the 57-day vacancy. Nixon made four successful appointments to the Supreme Court while in office, shifting the Court in a more conservative direction following the era of the liberal Warren Court . Nixon took office with one pending vacancy, as
9500-467: The first time. He had previously approved a secret B-52 carpet bombing campaign of North Vietnamese positions in Cambodia in March 1969 (code-named Operation Menu ), without the consent of Cambodian leader Norodom Sihanouk . Even within the administration, many disapproved of the incursions into Cambodia, and anti-war protesters were irate. The bombing of Cambodia continued into the 1970s in support of
9625-477: The form of Supplemental Security Income , which provides aid to low-income individuals who are aged or disabled. The Nixon administration adopted a "low profile" on school desegregation, but the administration enforced court desegregation orders and implemented the first affirmative action plan in the United States. Nixon also presided over the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency and
9750-461: The freeze to 60 days. The price controls became unpopular with the public and business people, who saw powerful labor unions as preferable to the price board bureaucracy. Business owners, however, now saw the controls as permanent rather than temporary, and voluntary compliance among small businesses decreased. The controls and the accompanying food shortages —as meat disappeared from grocery stores and farmers drowned chickens rather than sell them at
9875-549: The goals of environmentalists. Nixon was largely uninterested in environmental policy, but he did not oppose the goals of the environmental movement. In 1970, he signed the National Environmental Policy Act and established the Environmental Protection Agency , which was charged with coordinating and enforcing federal environmental policy. During his presidency, Nixon also signed the Clean Air Act of 1970, and
10000-440: The hand of friendship to all people... And we work toward the goal of an open world, open sky, open cities, open hearts, open minds." At the start of 1967, most Democrats expected that President Lyndon B. Johnson would be re-nominated. Those expectations were shattered by Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota, who centered his campaign on opposition to Johnson's policies on the Vietnam War . McCarthy narrowly lost to Johnson in
10125-536: The idea to fuse the concept of Blowup with the world of audio surveillance." 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 partially why the film gained the recognition it has received, but it
10250-695: The last U.S. soldiers from South Vietnam in 1973, ending the military draft that same year. To prevent the possibility of further U.S. intervention in Vietnam, Congress passed the War Powers Resolution over Nixon's veto. In domestic affairs, Nixon advocated a policy of " New Federalism ", in which federal powers and responsibilities would be shifted to state governments. However, he faced a Democratic Congress that did not share his goals and, in some cases, enacted legislation over his veto. Nixon's proposed reform of federal welfare programs did not pass Congress, but Congress did adopt one aspect of his proposal in
10375-553: The lead role was listed as the 37th greatest in history by Premiere magazine in 2006. In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed the film as the eleventh-best edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership. The film ranked 33rd on the BBC's 2015 list of "100 Greatest American Films", voted by film critics from around the world. In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter ranked the film 8th among 69 counted winners of
10500-426: The leak first appeared, Nixon was inclined to do nothing, but Kissinger persuaded him to try to prevent their publication. The Supreme Court ruled for the newspapers in the 1971 case of New York Times Co. v. United States , thereby allowing for the publication of the excerpts. By mid-1971, disillusionment with the war had reached a new high, as 71 percent of Americans believed that sending soldiers to Vietnam had been
10625-611: The legislation in July 1974. The Nixon years witnessed the first large-scale efforts to desegregate the nation's public schools. Seeking to avoid alienating Southern whites, whom Nixon hoped would form part of a durable Republican coalition, the president adopted a "low profile" on school desegregation. He pursued this policy by allowing the courts to receive the criticism for desegregation orders, which Nixon's Justice Department would then enforce. By September 1970, less than ten percent of black children were attending segregated schools. After
10750-721: The limit on hospital days, added income-based out-of-pocket limits, and added outpatient prescription drug coverage. In April, Kennedy and House Ways and Means committee chairman Wilbur Mills introduced the National Health Insurance Act, a bill to provide near-universal national health insurance with benefits identical to the expanded Nixon plan—but with mandatory participation by employers and employees through payroll taxes and with lower cost sharing. Both plans were criticized by labor, consumer, and senior citizens organizations, and neither gained traction. In mid-1974, shortly after Nixon's resignation, Mills tried to advance
10875-577: The loyalty of many conservatives , and Governor Nelson Rockefeller of New York, who had a strong following among party moderates . At the August Republican National Convention in Miami Beach, Florida , Reagan and Rockefeller discussed joining forces in a stop-Nixon movement, but the coalition never materialized and Nixon secured the nomination on the first ballot. He selected Governor Spiro Agnew of Maryland as his running mate,
11000-542: 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. The original cinematographer of The Conversation was Haskell Wexler . Severe creative and personal differences with Coppola led to Wexler's firing shortly after production began, and Coppola replaced him with Bill Butler . Wexler's footage on The Conversation
11125-525: The number of racial minorities hired across the nation in various construction trades, implementing the first affirmative action plan in the United States. The Philadelphia Plan required government contractors in Philadelphia to hire a minimum number of minority workers. In 1970, Nixon extended the Philadelphia Plan to encompass all federal contracts worth more than $ 50,000, and in 1971 he expanded
11250-435: The only Republican president since World War II to have a positive impact on the environment, asserting that "Nixon did not have to be personally committed to the environment to become one of the most successful presidents in promoting environmental priorities." While applauding Nixon's progressive policy agenda, environmentalists found much to criticize in his record. The administration strongly supported continued funding of
11375-611: The only U.S. president ever to do so. He was succeeded by Gerald Ford , whom he had appointed vice president after Spiro Agnew became embroiled in a separate corruption scandal and was forced to resign. Nixon, a prominent member of the Republican Party from California who previously served as vice president for two terms under president Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 to 1961, took office following his narrow victory over Democrat incumbent vice president Hubert Humphrey and American Independent Party nominee George Wallace in
11500-571: The operation convinced Nixon of the necessity to quickly reach a final agreement with North Vietnam. After years of fighting, the Paris Peace Accords were signed at the beginning of 1973. The agreement implemented a cease fire and allowed for the withdrawal of remaining American troops; however, it did not require the 160,000 North Vietnam Army regulars located in the South to withdraw. By March 1973, U.S. military forces had been withdrawn from Vietnam. Once American combat support ended, there
11625-559: The opposition. They were exposed when the break-in of the Democratic National Committee Headquarters ended in the arrest of five burglars. This kicked off the Watergate Scandal and gave rise to a congressional investigation. Nixon denied any involvement in the break-in. However, after a tape emerged revealing that Nixon had known about the White House connection to the burglaries shortly after they occurred,
11750-411: The passage of major environmental laws like the Clean Water Act , although that law was vetoed by Nixon and passed by override. Economically, the Nixon years saw the start of a period of " stagflation " that would continue into the 1970s. Nixon was far ahead in the polls in the 1972 presidential election, but during the campaign, Nixon operatives conducted several illegal operations designed to undermine
11875-473: The photograph used for Lyle in his NSA file is actually a photograph of Caul. Enemy of the State also includes a scene which is very similar to The Conversation ' s opening surveillance scene in San Francisco's Union Square. A television pilot starring Kyle MacLachlan as Harry Caul was produced for NBC. It was not picked up for a full series. Neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts
12000-633: The plan to encompass women and racial minorities. Nixon and Attorney General Mitchell also helped enact an extension of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that expanded federal supervision of voting rights to all jurisdictions in which less than 50 percent of the minority population was registered to vote. Dean J. Kotlowski states that: Over the course of the Vietnam War, a large segment of the American population came to be opposed to U.S. involvement in South Vietnam. Public opinion steadily turned against
12125-463: The poverty rate dropped from 12.8 percent in 1968 to 11.1 percent in 1973. In August 1970, Democratic senator Ted Kennedy introduced legislation to establish a single-payer universal health care system financed by taxes and with no cost sharing . In February 1971, Nixon proposed a more limited package of health care reform, consisting of an employee mandate to offer private health insurance if employees volunteered to pay 25 percent of premiums,
12250-475: The president the power to impose wage and price controls , though the Democratic congressional leadership, knowing Nixon had opposed such controls through his career, did not expect Nixon to actually use the authority. With inflation unresolved by August 1971, and an election year looming, Nixon convened a summit of his economic advisers at Camp David . He then announced temporary wage and price controls, allowed
12375-732: The proposal became the Twenty-sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution on July 1, 1971, after being ratified by the requisite number of states (38). Nixon also endorsed the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which passed both houses of Congress in 1972 and was submitted to the state legislatures for ratification. The amendment failed to be ratified by 38 states within the period set by Congress for ratification. Nixon had campaigned as an ERA supporter in 1968, though feminists criticized him for doing little to help
12500-756: The proposal. Many conservatives opposed the establishment of the national income floor, while many liberals believed that the floor was too low. Though the FAP passed the House, the bill died in the Senate Finance Committee in May 1970. Though Nixon's overall proposal failed, Congress did adopt one aspect of the FAP, as it voted to establish the Supplemental Security Income program, which provides aid to low-income individuals who are aged or disabled. Determined to dismantle much of Johnson's Great Society and its accompanying federal bureaucracy, Nixon defunded or abolished several programs, including
12625-428: The protagonist of Herman Hesse 's 1927 novel Steppenwolf , Harry Haller, a "total cipher" who lives alone in a boarding house. Coppola also made Caul religious, originally intending the character to have a confession scene; Coppola has said that the practice of confession is "one of the earliest forms of the invasion of privacy—earliest forms of surveillance." The film had a $ 1,600,000 budget and grossed $ 4,420,000 in
12750-598: The scaffolding of film noir . " Film noir " was coined by critic Nino Frank in 1946 and popularized by French critics Raymond Borde and Etienne Chaumeton in 1955. The term revived in general use beginning in the 1980s, with a revival of the style. The classic film noir era is usually dated from the early 1940s to the late 1950s. The films were often adaptations of American crime novels, which were also described as " hardboiled ". Some authors resisted these terms. For example, James M. Cain , author of The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) and Double Indemnity (1944),
12875-564: The start of the next academic year. As the U.S. continually drew down the number of troops in Vietnam, the number of protests declined, especially after 1970. The Nixon administration vigorously prosecuted anti-war protesters like the " Chicago Seven ", and ordered the FBI, CIA, NSA, and other intelligence agencies to monitor radical groups. Nixon also introduced anti-crime measures like the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and
13000-421: The tapes, and that the Director couldn't wait any longer, so Caul must also deliver the pictures taken, and collect his money in a meeting with them, that same day. In that meeting, Caul learns that the woman in the recording is the Director's wife, involved in an affair. Caul, suspecting murder, books a hotel room next to the one mentioned in the recording, and overhears a heated argument. Convinced he has overheard
13125-661: The time Nixon took office, there were over 500,000 American soldiers in Southeast Asia . Over 30,000 U.S. military personnel serving in the Vietnam War had been killed since 1961, with approximately half of those deaths occurring in 1968. The war was broadly unpopular in the United States with widespread and sometimes violent protests taking place on a regular basis. The Johnson administration agreed to suspend bombing in exchange for negotiations without preconditions, but this agreement never fully took force. According to Walter Isaacson , soon after taking office, Nixon concluded that
13250-431: The use of Dutch angles , interplay of light and shadows, unbalanced framing ; blurring of the lines between good and bad and right and wrong , and thematic motifs including revenge , paranoia , and alienation . Typically American crime dramas or psychological thrillers , films noir had common themes and plot devices, and many distinctive visual elements. Characters were often conflicted antiheroes , trapped in
13375-560: The visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term "neo-noir" surged in popularity, fueled by movies such as Sydney Pollack 's Absence of Malice , Brian De Palma 's Blow Out , and Martin Scorsese 's After Hours . The French term film noir translates literally to English as "black film", indicating sinister stories often presented in
13500-504: The vote. Nixon secured 301 electoral votes to Humphrey's 191 and 46 for Wallace. Nixon gained the support of many white ethnic and Southern white voters who traditionally had supported the Democratic Party, but he lost ground among African American voters. In his victory speech, Nixon pledged that his administration would try to bring the divided nation together . Despite Nixon's victory, Republicans failed to win control of either
13625-696: The war following 1967, and by 1970 only a third of Americans believed that the U.S. had not made a mistake by sending troops to fight in Vietnam. Anti-war activists organized massive protests like the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam , which attracted over 600,000 protesters in various cities. Opinions concerning the war grew more polarized after the Selective Service System instituted a draft lottery in December 1969 . Some 30,000 young men fled to Canada to evade
13750-405: Was Governor of Maryland and vice president. On October 10, 1973, Agnew pleaded no contest to tax evasion and became the second vice president after John C. Calhoun to resign from office. Nixon used his authority under the 25th Amendment to nominate Gerald Ford for vice president. The well-respected Ford was confirmed by Congress and took office on December 6, 1973. This represented
13875-530: Was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan in June 1968, leaving Humphrey and McCarthy as the two remaining major candidates in the race. Humphrey won the presidential nomination at the August Democratic National Convention in Chicago , and Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine was selected as his running mate. Outside the convention hall, thousands of young antiwar activists who had gathered to protest
14000-456: Was a brief truce, but fighting quickly broke out again, as both South Vietnam and North Vietnam violated the truce. Congress effectively ended any possibility of another American military intervention by passing the War Powers Resolution over Nixon's veto. The war concluded with the Fall of Saigon the year after Nixon's resignation, resulting in a unified communist Vietnam and a costly failure for
14125-711: Was able to convince Congress to eliminate one cabinet-level department, the United States Post Office Department . In July 1971, after passage of the Postal Reorganization Act , the Post Office Department was transformed into the United States Postal Service , an independent entity within the executive branch of the federal government. Nixon supported passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act , which established
14250-511: Was completely reshot except for the technically complex surveillance scene in Union Square. This movie was the first of two Oscar-nominated films where Wexler would be fired and replaced by Butler, the second being One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), where Wexler had similar problems with Miloš Forman . Walter Murch served as the supervising editor and sound designer. Murch had more or less
14375-425: Was entirely coincidental. Not only was the script for The Conversation completed in the mid-1960s, before Nixon became president, 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
14500-485: Was just as improper as legal segregation, and he took a strong public stance against its continuation. The issue of cross-district busing faded from the fore of national politics after the Supreme Court placed limits on the use of cross-district busing with its decision in the 1974 case of Milliken v. Bradley . Nixon established the Office of Minority Business Enterprise to promote the establishment of minority-owned businesses. The administration also worked to increase
14625-536: Was led by National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger . Nixon's first secretary of state, William P. Rogers , was largely sidelined during his tenure, and in 1973, Kissinger succeeded Rogers as secretary of state while continuing to serve as National Security Advisor. Nixon presided over the reorganization of the Bureau of the Budget into the more powerful Office of Management and Budget , further concentrating executive power in
14750-513: Was not strongly interested in, such as environmental policy. In a 1970 memo to top aides, he stated that in domestic areas other than crime, school integration, and economic issues, "I am only interested when we make a major breakthrough or have a major failure. Otherwise don't bother me." Nixon recruited former campaign rival George Romney to serve as the secretary of housing and urban development, but Romney and Secretary of Transportation John Volpe quickly fell out of favor as Nixon attempted to cut
14875-459: Was particularly the case for the noir-inflected Reservoir Dogs , which was instrumental in establishing Tarantino in October 1992. Nixon Administration Richard Nixon 's tenure as the 37th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1969, and ended when he resigned on August 9, 1974, in the face of almost certain impeachment and removal from office,
15000-478: Was reduced and in 1973 ended; the armed forces became all-volunteer. In the aftermath of the Easter Offensive, peace talks between the United States and North Vietnam resumed, and by October 1972 a framework for a settlement had been reached. Objections from South Vietnamese President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu derailed this agreement, and the peace talks broke down. In December 1972, Nixon ordered another massive bombing campaign, Operation Linebacker II ; domestic criticism of
15125-467: Was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Harry Caul, a surveillance expert in San Francisco , specializes in wiretapping services. He and his team are hired by a client, who identifies himself as "the Director", to eavesdrop on a couple walking through Union Square . Despite
15250-561: Was succeeded by Alexander Haig , who became the dominant figure in the White House during the last months of Nixon's presidency. As the Watergate scandal heated up in mid-1973, Vice President Spiro Agnew became a target in an unrelated investigation of corruption in Baltimore County, Maryland of public officials and architects, engineering, and paving contractors. He was accused of accepting kickbacks in exchange for contracts while serving as Baltimore County Executive , then when he
15375-411: Was to reduce inflation; the most obvious means of doing so was to end the war. As the war continued, the administration adopted a policy of restricting the growth of the money supply to address the inflation problem. In February 1970, as a part of the effort to keep federal spending down, Nixon delayed pay raises to federal employees by six months. When the nation's postal workers went on strike, he used
15500-426: Was ultimately confirmed. Burger, Powell, and Rehnquist all compiled a conservative voting record on the Court, while Blackmun moved to the left during his tenure. Rehnquist would later succeed Burger as chief justice in 1986. Nixon appointed a total of 231 federal judges, surpassing the previous record of 193 set by Franklin D. Roosevelt . In addition to his four Supreme Court appointments, Nixon appointed 46 judges to
15625-468: Was with a generally liberal Democratic Congress, Nixon used his veto power on multiple occasions during his presidency. Congress's response came in the form of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974 , which established a new budget process, and included a procedure providing congressional control over the impoundment of funds by the president. Nixon, mired in Watergate, signed
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