SHADOWS Contactless: Friday August 21 2020 SBS on Demand + Messenger: THE CONVERSATION

You remember the song Torn Between Two Lovers? An MOR hit by Coloradan Mary McGregor way back in 1976. Well, this is the same thing except that it's more Caught Between Two Godfathers. Yep, Francis Ford Coppola was riding high on the breakthrough success of The Godfather and was only a year away from the equally celebrated sequel when he found the time to get a lot grittier, recall his indy roots and tell this tale of a man burdened with a secret.

Harry Caul (whose name sounds like a beard mask if you have an American accent) knows one thing more than anything else and that's surveillance. His pre-chic industrial digs are an impenetrable fortress against prying attention as he is the embodiment of such stealthy invasion. One of the best in the business he records a conversation between two lovers that sounds like a murder plot. He's been there before and let it happen. Does he break his professionalism or give himself another lifelong sack of rocks to haul uphill.

Gene Hackman gives his intense best, here, containing chain reactions behind his sober, knowing face. And he's just one. If you know your New Hollywood movies (and you should) most of this cast will feel like old friends. With everything so served up these days, especially in lockdown, it's easy to forget how the intention behind this work is the thing that hasn't changed: it's just got easier to do.

Join me, as I'll know if you don't.