Gene Hackman is the best.

Uncommon Valor. Bat-21. Enemy of the State.

I second Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning, Superman.

That's 72 unforced errors for Richie Tenenbaum. He's playing the worst tennis of his life.

He's taken off both shoes and one of his sox.

Avocados Number wrote: Thinking about "The Conversation" reminds me of another great actor -- John Cazale. Before he died from bone cancer at the age of 42, he made just five feature films: "The Godfather" (as Fredo), "The Conversation" (as Stan), "The Godfather: Part II" (as Fredo), "Dog Day Afternoon" (as Sal), and "The Deer Hunter" (as "Stosh"). It's hard to think of any other actor whose film resume was as uniformly distinguished.

Oh man, that's quite a batting average! I hadn't thought much about Cazale or realized he died young, but you're right, he's terrific in the first four of those.

I've managed to miss Deer Hunter all these years but it had finally risen to the top of my queue and is already be on its way from Netflix.

Gotta agree with Conversation > Godfather, and that's no slight of the latter. The final scene has got to be one of the most powerful and haunting (but I think ambiguous: devastating but maybe also hopeful) in film. And it's not every movie where the creativity of the sound production grabs you from the start - unique stuff.

(Hmmm... now I've got this notion to put The Conversation together with Wings of Desire as a double feature. Having seen them within 6 months of each other and really dug both, I'm suddenly thinking there's some interesting overlap. But that's drifting off-topic from Hackman.)

Night Moves, circa 1975, was a classic flick. Every scene change added a twist to the plot.

Weary wrote:

I am a bit fan of Hackman's...almost no one has such range, including comedy. But "Royal Tennenbaums" is a truly awful movie

Agreed. Tenenbaums sucked.

My favorite Hackman flick is Narrow Margin - ticket price is for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!!

"what if i was to tell you you was a no good son of a bitch and a liar?"

"i dont deserve this"

"deserves got nothing to do with it"

"ill see you in hell william money"

"yea"

You all forgot the Birdcage ....

John Cazale really was brilliant. Al Pacino has said that he could've acted with Cazale forever. He was engaged to Meryl Streep when he died.And I second the kudos for Gene Hackman. Just an outstanding actor. Unfortunately, he said on Larry King in '04 that he thought he was at the end of his career. Turns out he hasn't done a film since then. Our loss.

Avocados Number wrote:

Thinking about "The Conversation" reminds me of another great actor -- John Cazale. Before he died from bone cancer at the age of 42, he made just five feature films: "The Godfather" (as Fredo), "The Conversation" (as Stan), "The Godfather: Part II" (as Fredo), "Dog Day Afternoon" (as Sal), and "The Deer Hunter" (as "Stosh"). It's hard to think of any other actor whose film resume was as uniformly distinguished. He was the antithesis of a leading actor, playing homely, Sad-Sack losers.

Not a Hackman quote but the French Connection scene analyzing drug shipment Goes like this:

Patrick mcDermatt as Harold, TheChemist: Blast off: one-eight-oh. Two hundred: Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval. Two ten: U.S. Government certified. Two twenty: lunar trajectory, junk of the month club, sirloin steak. Two thirty: Grade A poison. Absolute dynamite. Eighty-nine percent pure junk. Best I've ever seen. If the rest is like this, you'll be dealing on this load for two years.{/b]

Howard Gary as Joel Weinstock: So you say it's worth half a million?

Harold the Chemist: How many kilos?

Tony Lo Bianco as Salvatore "Sal" Boca: Sixty.

Howard the Chemist: Sixty kilos, eight big ones per kilo, right? This stuff will take a seven to one hit on the street.

Salvatore "Sal" Boca: And by the time it gets down to nickel bags, it will be worth at least thirty-two million.

Joel Weinstock: Thank you, Howard. Take what's left there with you and good night.

------------------------------------------------------------

How many times are we going to pass? How many?

FOUR!

Classic...

Ann Archer wrote:

My favorite Hackman flick is Narrow Margin - ticket price is for the whole seat, but you'll only need the edge!!

I don't know if it is my favorite but I agree that this is a great flick, specifically because of Hackman. The little confrontation scene he has with the bad guys in the diner car is excellent.

My favorite lines from the movie come in one of the final scenes

Caulfield (Hackman's character is on the top of the train, lying down. He has been evading the bad guys all the time but finally the female "bad guy", Weller, has the drop on him. She's standing up straight and has her gun aimed at him, with her back towards the direction the train is moving.

Caulfied: "You know what I like about you."

Weller: "What"

Caulfield: "You're tall"

(The train goes into a tunnel and Weller gets hit by it from behind and killed)