"The Conversation": Coppola's quiet, contemplative and underrated masterpiece

He'd kill us if he got the chance."

Although the topic of “bests” in film will always be hotly debated in most circles inhabited by those souls so inclined to talk about cinema, whether it’s specific or overly broad—arguments over the best actors, genres and decades—there’s little point in questioning certain truths. One of those truths is that the New Hollywood era—a time when a group of young American filmmakers rose to prominence and broke the molds of the old studio system and its censors in a fashion similar to the French New Wave, producing culturally critical, sometimes exceptionally violent, and unusually anti-establishment productions all while fully-funded by big brass at Columbia, Universal, Paramount and Warner Brothers—is one of the most important times in cinematic history. It just is, largely because of the directors who led the charge and how they changed movies forever.

Although Arthur Penn, or more pointedly his breakout “Bonnie and Clyde” (1967), is credited with giving birth to the new era, filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, William Friedkin, George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola (and a host of others, not the least of which includes Brian De Palma, Roman Polanski, Robert Altman, Sidney Pollack, Sidney Lumet and all those guys at Raybert/BBS Productions) were the one’s who really pushed the envelope, and gave moviegoers some of greatest movies of all time in the process. Scorsese, of course, had his “Mean Streets” (1973) and “Taxi Driver” (1976). Friedkin, “The French Connection” (1971). Lucas, “THX 1138” (1971), “American Graffiti” (1973), and ironically—because in retrospect, it launched the Blockbuster era, which killed the lower-budgeted, pseudo-independent spirit of the so-called American New Wave—the first “Star Wars” (1977). But it’s Francis Ford Coppola who, perhaps debatably, but in my eyes undoubtedly, reins supreme above all others of the era, with his quartet of perfection: “The Godfather” (1972), “The Godfather Part II” (1974), “Apocalypse Now” (1979), and his underrated masterpiece “The Conversation”.

Gene Hackman, in his personal favorite, and probably his finest, performance plays Harry Caul. Caul is a surveillance expert. And he’s very good at his job. Obsessed with his own privacy, he lives locked behind a triple-locked door, and keeps even the most trivial information about himself from everyone, including his girlfriend (played by a young Teri Garr), who doesn’t know what he does for a living or even what his phone number is. An unassuming, but strange, figure, he wears unfashionable thick-framed glasses and a transparent raincoat nearly everywhere he goes.

Middle-aged, balding and with a mustache, Caul is deeply religious, introverted and dreadfully antisocial, entirely disinterested in anything but his work. He plays along to old records on his sax to calm himself after particularly rough days on the job. He’s been that way every since he became too involved in a case many years ago, which lead to the death of three people, He has no friends. Even his close colleague, Stan (John Cazale) is a stranger to him. He’s extremely professional is his work, simply recording conversations for his clients and tailing the faceless people he’s paid to keep tabs on. Caul doesn’t really pay attention to what it is they’re saying or doing. And he gets angry with Stan for insisting that the two talk about these people’s day-to-day trials and tribulations.

That is, until while cleaning up a particularly noisy tape, he hears something not meant to be heard by anyone but the couple (Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest) he’s been hired to follow. He’s particularly troubled by one phrase in their titular conversation: he’d kill us if he got the chance.

Those words haunt Caul. Who’d kill them? And why? Conflicted, but determined to find out more, he investigates, learning through garbled snippets and hushed and hurried whispers that the man and woman—who work for an industrialist (Robert Duvall), the man who hired him—are having an affair. When confronted and asked to hand over the tapes by the businessman’s assistant (Harrison Ford), Caul is apprehensive and decides to keep the material for himself a while longer, digging deeper into the recording, uncovering more of the mystery, while increasingly becoming paranoid about his own safety. He’s certain that he’s being followed. And he fears that if he turns the tapes over now, neither he nor the couple will be safe.

Somewhat unjustly overshadowed by the greatness of his other three films—and I mean to make no qualms, they are all very justly considered great—“The Conversation” will always be remembered as the other movie that Coppola made in 1974. But, it really is a brilliant film. The direction and cinematography, editing and sound design all give the film a paranoid atmosphere. The frequently repeated phrase, “he’s kill us if he got the chance” was recorded a number of times, with several different takes appearing throughout the film, each time conveying some new meaning, adding either greater mystery or clarity to the plot with the same words but an entirely different intonation. While watching the film, you often feel like a voyeur. Like Caul, only watching his life from a safe distance, outfit with the latest surveillance tech allowing you to see everything—even the most personal and guarded moments in this troubled man’s life. The story is suspenseful, if also a little creepy. The acting is exceptional, with none of the supporting cast—all relative newcomers when the film was made—overshadowing the real star, Hackman. Hackman gives his greatest performance in “The Conversation”, on that is so completely different than anything he’d played before—certainly a far cry from Popeye Doyle—and has played, with exception to his role in “Enemy of the State” (1998), which is an unofficial sequel to “The Conversation”, since.

“The Conversation” is a masterful work from a master director, and one that remains (comparatively) little seen in contrast to Coppola’s other more celebrated films. Originally intended to be a horror film, produced by Roger Corman, starring Marlon Brando, Coppola’s script for “The Conversation” dates back to the middle-sixties when he was making things like “Dementia 13” (1963). The director has stated that Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Blow Up” (1966) served as an inspiration for the story—in its themes and surveillance-heavy plot most obviously. But, money troubles and a change in artistic direction left the script unproduced for years until, after the success of “The Godfather”, Coppola picked the project back up in 1973.

And that turned out to be the perfect time to make the film, which he rewrote and more fittingly adapted into a tense psychological thriller. (Although, the project’s horror origins are still readily apparent in the vivid, mist-filled and blood-splattered nightmares of Caul as he worries for the couple—the woman in particular—and their safety). And the film was eerily prescient. Released right around the time of the Watergate scandal, the themes and subject matter were as timely as ever. Although Coppola insists that this is merely a coincidence, and that it’s impossible for Nixon’s shaming to have influenced the film in anyway due to filming schedules and release dates, it nonetheless remains a curious connection, made more curious by Nixon’s presence on a TV screen while an increasingly psychotic Caul watches the news in the film’s tense climax.

Although it lost Best Picture Oscar—to Coppola’s own “The Godfather Part II” (1974)—the film was nominated for 3 Academy Awards, and “The Conversation” won the Palme d'Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. In 1995, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

“The Conversation” remains, to this day, a true masterpiece and is, without a doubt, the most underrated of Coppola’s impressive 70's output. “The Conversation” is certainly as good as either of the first two “Godfather” films or “Apocalypse Now”. You may not have seen it—or you have, and already know—but it’s definitely a film worth having in your collection, and this new Blu-ray from Lionsgate and Coppola’s own American Zoetrope make my recommendation all the easier.

***** (5) out of ***** (5) stars

Editorial Note: this review was originally written for DVDCompare.net, another site where I write. For further information, and a look at the video and audio qualities and special features on the blu-ray disc, read more here.

Directed and written by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Cindy Williams, Frederic Forrest with Harrison Ford and Robert Duvall
Music By: David Shore
Rating: R
Runtime: 113 minutes (1 hour, 53 minutes)
Studio: Paramount (Theatrical); Lionsgate/American Zoetrope (Blu-ray)