The Conversation (1974)

The Conversation
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Written by Francis Ford Coppola
1974/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Harry Caul: If there’s one sure fire rule that I have learned in this business is… I don’t know anything about human nature. I don’t know anything about curiousity. That’s not part of what I do.

Sadly, this film is more relevant than ever.  It’s my favorite film by Coppola and my favorite performance by Gene Hackman

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is one of the best surveillance men in the business.  He has been hired by the director of a powerful company (Robert Duvall) to find out what his young wife Ann (Cindy Williams) is up to.  We watch as Harry and his colleagues try to capture a conversation Ann has with Mark (Frederic Forrest at lunchtime in a busy park in San Francisco.  The sound quality isn’t too great but Harry has the conversation recorded from multiple devices in various locations and by carefully splicing tapes together and cleaning up the sound, the conversation comes together.  He tries to deliver this to the director but he is out of the office.  He refuses to give the tape to creepy executive Martin Stett (Harrison Ford).

We learn that Harry, the ultimate eavesdropper, guards his own privacy zealously.  He won’t even tell Amy (Terri Garr) the most basic details of his life.  He always drops in on her without previous announcement.  Amy tries and fails to get Harry to open up on his birthday. She tells him she is not going to wait for him any more.  This gets under his skin but does not disturb his stoic exterior.

Harry goes to a trade convention and brings a few colleagues back to his office for a little party that allows the one of the guests to steal his tape.  Harry can put this back together. After listening to the tape over and over, Harry becomes convinced that the couple are in great danger of being murdered.  I will stop here.  With John Cazale as one of Harry’s employees

Hackman is fantastic in this movie.  His character forced him to restrain his performance and he is believable the whole way through.  I felt so sorry for him by the end.  He wasn’t even nominated for an Oscar. The winner was Art Carney who prevailed over Albert Finney, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and Dustin Hoffman.   The script is  really clever and engaging.  The time flew by.  I love David Shire’ jazz piano score.  Another movie that is extremely rewatchable even though you know the whole story.  Highly recommended.

The Conversation was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture, Best Writing, Original Screenplay and, fittingly, Best Sound