CONVERSATION, THE (director/writer: Francis Ford Coppola; cinematographer: Bill Butler; cast: Gene Hackman (Harry Caul), John Cazale (Stanley), Allen Garfield (William P. "Bernie" Moran), Frederic Forrest (Mark), Cindy Williams (Ann), Teri Garr (Amy), Harrison Ford (Martin Stett), Robert Duvall (The Director), Michael Higgins (Paul), Elizabeth MacRae (Meredith), 1974)
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
A precious and unnerving thriller, one that never fails to offer some kind of Hitchcockian surprise, as the film is unpredictable throughout. Gene Hackman is brilliant as the loner "electronic surveillance expert," who through a slow-process comes to realize that what he is doing isn't impersonal but has great consequences on both him and the people he bugs. Hackman, as Harry Caul, lives a very private life, interested only in his work. He is diligent at his craft, to the point where he is considered the best in the business. But his view of life has a cold ring to it, as he believes that human nature and curiosity are not part of the business. He is first seen on a case, where he has set up elaborate devices to take pictures from far off and eavesdrop on a couple, by using two parabolic microphones he himself created, which are positioned some distance away and a third bugging device carried by Paul (Higgings), who follows the strolling couple through San Francisco's crowded Union Square, during noontime, with a shopping bag on his arm and wearing a hearing aid.
Harry becomes irritated with the quality of work, as he listens to the tapes from the back of a specially rigged van, trying to block out the music and din from the lunchtime crowd. His assistant wants to know what this assignment is about, and Harry responds by telling Stanley (Cazale), "I don't care what they are talking about, all I want is a nice fat recording."
The director (Duval) of an unnamed big business has offered to pay Harry $15,000 to record a conversation between his wife, Ann (Cindy Williams), and a man named Mark (Forrest), who is apparently her lover. Harry has no idea what the purpose of the tape is and says he doesn't care. Concluding the taping of the conversation, as Ann spots Paul following the couple around. Harry then calls his client from an outside phone, because he doesn't have a phone at home. He is told by his assistant to deliver the tapes tomorrow afternoon and returns to his scantily decorated but heavily alarmed apartment, only to find that the landlord left a bottle of wine on the floor, for his birthday, by getting into the apartment with the spare key, something Harry had no knowledge the landlord had. This upsets Harry more than he is grateful for the gift.
He visits his girlfriend Amy (Garr), by quietly slipping the key in the door and throwing the door open, entering her abode like he is on a case. She doesn't even know it's his birthday, as he opens the wine he just got as a gift. She is glad to see him and starts asking him personal questions about himself, which makes him feel very uncomfortable, causing him to leave the warmth of her bed and tell her he is going, but not before he gives her money for the month's rent.
The secretive Harry is at peace only when he is working. Returning to his workplace, located in a dinghy warehouse basement, where he keeps his state-of-the-art equipment. He is at ease again, as he replays the tapes from the afternoon with Stan, picking up bits and pieces of the couple's conversation. He is alarmed to hear the couple think that they might be murdered if her husband got the chance. This troubles Harry, because he got on tape the liaison they set for Sunday in the hotel, including room number and time of date.
When he goes to deliver the tapes to the director, he isn't in, but his assistant Martin Stett (Harrison) is there, and pays Harry off. But Harry is troubled by this and refuses to release the tapes to anyone but the director. Leaving the office, he notices on separate floors the couple he was following.
The story is chilling, creating doubts in Harry's mind, as he recalls that previously his tapes resulted in the murder of three innocent people, upsetting him so much, that he left New York. He is an obediant Catholic and feels troubled about what is churning inside him, seeking solace in the confession booth. He confesses that he is afraid people could get hurt by his work and seems perplexed about what to do.
At a convention for surveillance technology people, he meets his peers in the field, feeling proud that he is superior to them in his knowledge, but for the first time, it is beginning to sink into him that he is on the same amoral playing field as they are. This comes about as he meets one of his competitors, a slimy, overbearing braggart, "Bernie" Moran (Garfield), who engages Harry in false flattery, trying to get him to be a partner. Harry has nothing but contempt for him, but he goes along with him and his own crew, as they meet some women and bring them over to Harry's workplace. Meredith (MacRae) shows an interest in him and in his troubled quiet way, he tries to relate to her, expressing some true feelings to her. To his hurt, it turns out that Moran gave him a pen, and that was the device used to bug the intimate conversation he had with Meredith. After he kicks them out, he sleeps with her, but restlessly tosses in his sleep, as he has a nightmare vision of the couple being murdered because of him. When he awakens, he finds that Meredith is gone, along with the tapes.
He is told by Stett that the director has the tapes and will pay him his money. The murder that takes place doesn't happen as he pictured it and to the bargain, his soul has been violated and his lifetime of striving for perfection in his field is questioned, and if that wasn't enough, someone has outfoxed the master surveillance expert, by planting a bug in his apartment that even he can't locate where it is. His only solace, is to sit in his sparse apartment and play the sax.
This somber thriller is a beauty, projecting a maddening character study, and infiltrating a secretive and cold world, where the protagonist, a private wire-tapper, has lost his sense of direction, knowing that one's privacy can so easily be exposed by expert technicians like himself and be used for any purpose. The acting was magnificent on all parts, the story was grippingly told, and its denouement, is the equal of the best thrillers ever made. A unique film, whose great sound track by Walter Murch, is essential to the plot, as the technology in the film was the key element in setting-up the very eerie atmosphere and bleakness associated with a technology used so despairingly. The film is even more relevant today than it was back in the 1970s, as the world has become even more so of a place where it is possible for technology to invade the privacy of any citizen.
REVIEWED ON 2/7/2000 GRADE: A
Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"
http://www.sover.net/~ozus
ozus@sover.net
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED DENNIS SCHWARTZ
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