- Everybody in the business agrees that Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is the best at what he does. Incidentally, what he does is spy on other people. He's a surveillance man, which back in the 1970's meant a lot of carefully hidden bugs, phone taps, parabolic microphones, and unmarked vans. There's also plenty of magnetic tape to sift through when stitching together a conversation recorded in a public square by three different sources. Harry couldn't be prouder of his technological accomplishment, but one thing worries him. Although he tries to maintain an air of detachment in all aspects of his life, Harry gradually notices that the people he's spying on (Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest) sound as though they're afraid for their lives. That is what it sounds like, right?
- At this point, it is worth noting that maybe Harry isn't quite as capable as his reputation would suggest. Sure, he managed to pull off this recent job and yes, there's that legend about how Harry bugged the two politicians on a boat in the middle of a lake, but one gets the impression that Harry's talents occasionally come up short. For example, Harry enters his apartment early in the film only to discover that his landlady dropped off a birthday gift just inside his triple-locked, alarmed front door. And what about that spy pen his obnoxious competitor (Allen Garfield) slipped into Harry's pocket, or the time his surpassingly patient girlfriend (Teri Garr) caught him spying on her? Harry doesn't even realize that his assistant and only friend Stan (John Cazale) has defected to another company until he runs into him at a trade show. Is there any chance that a guy like this is going to be able to unravel a murder plot from the details of a single, seemingly innocuous conversation?
- Which brings us back to the real focus of the film, namely that conversation. Although the dialogue is initially plagued by weird distortion echoes and static, Harry applies his expertise to tease out words that are hardly even there. Most of what is said sounds like small talk shared between two lovers on an afternoon stroll. Then there's that line, "He'd kill us if he had the chance." Presumably the subject of that sentence refers to Harry's employer, an imposing company man known only as The Director (Robert Duvall). But if The Director is the man to fear, why does his peculiar assistant (Harrison Ford) keep trying to get his hands on the tape first? Perhaps the only clear thing about this case is the profound effect it is having on Harry. He's quickly transforming from an aloof entity who "just makes the tape" to a man paralyzed by a severe case of Catholic guilt over the consequences of his actions. I'll leave it to the audience to determine whether or not that is ultimately a good thing.
- I can offer no higher praise than to say that what Rear Window and Blow-Up did for seeing, Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation does for hearing. I often champion the notion that sound effects and even spoken dialogue are less crucial to film than the images, but every once in a while a film like this comes along to challenge that claim. Don't get me wrong, The Conversation also features some fantastic imagery, especially in its opening and closing sequences and a memorable murder in between, but its most impressive accomplishment is showing how the entire tone of a film can hinge upon how a single sentence is spoken and interpreted. Sometimes inflection really is everything. Through the skillful manipulation of what both Harry and the audience see and hear, Coppola treats us to a masterful character study of a man whose padlock and Faraday-cage paranoia and past experiences affect his work in ways he doesn't realize and can't prevent. It's got the thrills of a Hitchcockian murder, excellent performances by the entire cast, especially Hackman, and a truly tragic conclusion accompanied by a chaotic jazziness that reinforces Harry's final plunge into madness. In a business where paranoia could conceivably be an asset, Harry has too much of a good thing.
- The film was obviously referenced heavily in Enemy of the State, where Gene Hackman plays a remarkably similar character.
