Location: Union Square. This dark study in paranoia written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola depicts spying technology that seems almost archaic, but for the issues the film raises about surveillance and privacy, it could have been made yesterday. Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul, an independent surveillance expert increasingly uneasy about being hired by a mysterious employer (represented by Harrison Ford in a pre-Indiana Jones role) to record the tense and cryptic conversations of a young couple as they stroll through the cacophony of Union Square at lunchtime.

Image from Shutterstock.