The Conversation
(1974)
Coppola’s intricate, sure-paced film treads
from mundanity to horror while retaining its focus on the “best bugger in the
business”. Gene Hackman’s surveillance expert Harry Caul is a meticulous, anal
character, quite unlikeable in some respects, but it’s his fussy dedication to
his trade that gradually exerts a hold on the audience. That, and the knowledge
that he nurses a profound guilt over a previous job that may have resulted in
the deaths of surveillance targets (his Catholic background is also repeatedly
referenced).
We first see him instructing Stan (John Cazale, playing a standard
Cazale type) that it doesn’t matter what the nature of their recording is, or what the people they are listening in on are up to; he only wants to ensure the best quality possible is rendered. But by the end of the
film the whys and wherefores are all he can think of, and the crucial twist is the icing on the
cake; we have been so focused on the way he has viewed his subjects that we
have all missed the wood for the trees.
This is Hackman’s show, but Coppola
surrounds him with strong players in small roles; Robert Duvall, an
impressively subdued yet threatening Harrison Ford, Frederic Forrest, and Bernie
Moran as a fast-talking rival bugger. As Harry’s paranoia increases, so does
the subjectivity of what he sees/imagines, and we move into Repulsion
territory. I can see that some might consider the film as a whole to be a bit
of a bore, but it exerts a hypnotic hold such that it remains in your
head long after the end credits.
****1/2