THE CONVERSATION - 1974
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams Michael Higgins, Teri Garr, Elizabeth MacRae, Robert Duvall, and Harrison Ford
Genre: Psychological Thriller (Audio clip)
Talk about a film which was both very much ahead of its time and still very contemporary for when it was released fifty years ago....in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the Pentagon Papers, and generally an increased public awareness of the surveillance state. It's actually pretty telling how much of this film's mid-section actually focuses on our protagonist Harry Caul (Gene Hackman in one of his best career performances) who is a high-end surveillance expert - attending a big convention for surveillance featuring all of the latest gadgets on display.
He's well-know among these folks and it all seems PRETTY fun....raucous presentations, spokesmodels, lots of glad-handling amongst everyone. :) And of course as the night winds down, Harry and a few of his fellow "buggers" then hit the town with some ladies they met there (who DO seem out of their league...hmmm)...and go back to his heavily fortified place, all of his equipment fenced in surrounded by large open spaces.
It all feels WAY too relaxed and there's still an early '70's era naivete to just how out in the open these guys seem about their craft....even with Harry himself by far the most buttoned up of this particular group. But of course as the night progresses with more alcohol being consumed and more of these guys seemingly just talking shop (especially Harry's apparent East Coast rival BERNIE played to smarmy perfection by Allen Garfield) about their most impressive surveillance gigs....it all starts to take a nasty turn. :/ The discussion turns towards a few grisly deaths which might have resulted from a union-busting job which Harry took on a few years back....and Bernie also plays a nasty trick on Harry involving some of his latest spy tech. It no longer feels like fun and games, it never actually was....
Much of the brilliance of director Francis Ford Coppola's Oscar nominated screenplay comes from how he explores the seeming mundanity of this treacherous world on the surface...and how even immersed professionals like Harry attempt to cling to that to keep themselves sane. But if you're not emotionally prepared to devote your life to 24/7 wiretapping and endless hours spent just analyzing recordings of strangers saying potentially incriminating things....then that infact BECOMES your life. It gets to the point where you find yourself needing to LISTEN to said recordings just to relax yourself to fall asleep...which is what we find Harry infact doing at the very end of this particular evening. :o
Rewatching this for the first time since FIRST seeing it during the early lockdown days of the pandemic a few years ago (what better time right? 😀), I was struck by how just how often this movie feels like a simple hang-out movie for much of its runtime....when it's delving into full-on paranoia thriller at several key points. Hackman is pretty much on-screen every minute and it's compelling to also just watch his odd duck of a character attempt to interact with others in person or over the phone. He's never really capable of normal interactions which also just adds to the overall tension....
The whole story hinges on one particular surveillance job in San Francisco involving two folks having apparent secret affair played by two fantastic character actors who BOTH sadly passed away just last year....Cindy Williams and Frédéric Forrest, RIP. :( Harry begins to question the purpose behind this job which he was hired to do by the jilted industrialist husband (Robert Duvall credited as "The Director" in a brief appearance) of Cindy's character. And actually many of Harry's more tense/awkward interactions end up being with the Director's menacing assistant effectively played by a young Harrison Ford (three years before he did Star Wars) who kinda steals most of his scenes.
In fact the remainder of the cast is just stacked with heavy hitters bringing the heat regardless of how small some of their roles are.....Teri Garr, Michael Higgins AND the late, great John Cazale! 🤗
Which this undoubtedly is....it gets increasingly twisted during the final 20 minutes and leaves a mark at the end on par with anything else Coppola has directed! And of course he had plenty of help from top-flight collaborators including crisp camera work from DP Bill Butler (Jaws, Capricorn One), a moody, jazzy score from the underrated David Shire and....crucially....next-level sound design lead by three-time Oscar winning legend Walter Murch. (Though not for this film...he would win a few years later for Apocalypse Now) The overall soundscape for this story - hearing SO many different variations of this one recorded conversation which becomes the focal point of Harry's obsession - is just so essential to what makes this film so effective.
Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film):
Now about that score…..yes it’s composed by one of the more underappreciated film composers of the 1970’s, Buffalo, NY’s OWN David Shire. During this decade, he would probably reach the pinnacle of his popularity performing/producing some lively instrumental disco tracks for previous episode Saturday Night Fever but beyond that, Shire also composed some uniquely moody and effective scores as well for Norma Rae, All the President’s Men, and my personal favorite…..the FANTASTIC rambunctious theme music for previous episode The Taking of Pelham One Two Three. (Audio clip)
Of course his background score for this film contributes a great deal to the overall mood which is more often than not unnerving….and that’s because it’s elegant, melancholy, and strangely….kind of catchy. Pretty much entire piano-based, it periodically ramps up into melodies more tense but more often than not, we just hear subtle variations of this ONE main theme occasionally at critical pockets within the film….a film which mind you has its share of entirely silent stretches. This particular “Main Theme” still does an effective job of filling some of that silence – it’s sad and it helps us feel a bit more for Harry. (Audio clip)
Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):
JOHN CAZALE….wow what a LEGENDARY career. A Boston native, he came up in the ‘60’s with the New York theater crowd alongside friends like Al Pacino…..before he landed his FIRST feature film role in The Godfather, portraying Pacino’s brother of course…..Fredo Corleone. And Cazale KILLED it in tis part even dazzling further The Godfather Part II just a couple of years later. Cazale would end up only acting in five feature films during this decade…..though EACH of them are considered classics AND EACH received the Oscar nomination for Best Picture. Sadly much of what caused such a sterling yet short run was that his life was cut short by cancer, causing the actor to sadly pass away WAY too early at the age of 42 in 1978 RIGHT after filming his final masterpiece, The Deer Hunter. Even though you could make a VERY strong case that is best performance was in Godfather II, my personal favorite will always be his sneaky great work in Dog Day Afternoon alongside old pal Pacino, both of them playing bank robbers. (Audio clip)
Well here he plays Harry's beleaguered assistant Stan as only John Cazale could...with hangdog precision, proving once again that if you were watching a movie from the 1970's co-starring Cazale (same year he did Coppola's Godfather Part II and a year before he all but stole Dog Day Afternoon) then you were most likely watching a GREAT movie! Of course, nobody knows for sure what might what have become of Cazale had he lived past the age of ’42, but regardless…..he clearly had GREAT taste in scripts, directors, and natural talent. (Audio clip)
Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):
When it comes to surveillance thrillers like this or previous episodes Blow Out, Kimi or hell even a heist thriller like previous episode Thief….the sequences which always just get me COMPLETELY hooked in are when we simply watch our protagonists tinker or problem solve through whatever tech is available at their finger-tips. And notice each of those films listed have ONE thing common: they each come a TRUE master director….DePalma, Soderbergh, Mann, and in this case Coppola. And that should make sense because simply put, NOBODY can portray the most mundane and/or seemingly intricate of activities as truly cinematic. (Audio clip)
One such sequence occurs about 35 minutes into this movie as Harry notices a spot in the recent tape he recorded where the couple in question have clearly moved to an area in the park where their conversation is likely to be drowned out by live music….more specifically very loud drumming – what he hears even when enhancing it sounds VERY garbled. So he pulls out some relatively small metal box filled with wires and tiny metal drums inside of it….I’m guessing to amplify specific frequencies of sound. And then plugging some chords into it, turning some knobs, and rewinding back…..VOILA, he can hear one VERY critical sentence uttered by one of them causing him to pause when he realizes just what this might mean. As relatively brief, quiet, and low-key as this particular sequence is, it’s COMPLETELY absorbing as a result of top-flight sound design and of course…..Hackman’s subtly dialed in performance. (Audio clip)
MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):
As current as the subject matter for this film felt in ‘73/74, Francis Ford Coppola had apparently written an early version of tis screenplay as far back as 1965. And of course, it wasn’t until the breakout success of The Godfather and him agreeing to co-write and direct a sequel relatively quickly that he was given the go-ahead for this from the studio Paramount. It’s a good thing too because he was truly on to something even being influenced by Trouffaut’s Blow-Up…. Sandwiched smack between his two Godfather masterworks, Coppola here delivered a smaller-scale story while still exploring BIG themes which would remain relevant even half a century later: the end of privacy, the isolation of constantly observing others from a distance, AND our humanity’s futile efforts to constantly attempt to remain AHEAD of technology. For shepherding what would likely remain his most intimate masterpiece, Francis Ford Coppola is the MVP.
Final Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Happy 50th Anniversary to one of THE Best Conspiracy Thrillers of its era or any era in particular….also truly one of Hackman’s best, kinda crazy that he wasn’t nominated that year.
Streaming on Showtime TV
And that ends another EVESDROPPING review!
