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Actors: Gene Hackman, Harrison Ford, John Cazale
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The Conversation |
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Possibly the most chilling films ever made in the 70s 'conspiracy theory' genre (see also The Parallax View, All The President's Men), The Conversation frightens with its grim, gripping view of the surveillance world.
Harry Caul is San Francisco's best 'bugging' expert - there's no one he can't spy on, there's no conversation he can't listen to. When he's asked to spy on a young couple, he discovers that things aren't always as they seem - and that remaining unaffected by the subjects he spies on is impossible.
--Cassie Whittell, Resident Scholar
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Harry Caul (Hackman) is a surveillance expert. His job is to collect confidential information for clients without asking any questions. The film opens with his latest challenging job: capturing the conversation of a couple as they weave through crowds and street performers in Union Square, San Francisco, at noon. As he clarifies and pieces together their conversation, a sense of dire threat to the young man and woman grows on him, and -- haunted by a previous job that resulted in the death of a family -- he becomes emotionally involved in the task. Harry is very much a loner -- isolated and a little paranoid. We meet some of his colleagues, and several women (one played by youthful Terri Garr) that swirl meaninglessly through his life. Fresh-faced Harrison Ford, 32 and just out of "American Grafitti," plays his contact with the client executive (an uncredited appearance by Robert Duvall). Cindy Williams, a few years from "Laverne and Shirley" is the young woman in the conversation. Crack editor and sound man Walter Murch received a well-deserved Academy Award nomination for this 1974 film where sound does many different things. On the eve of the Watergate affair, Francis Ford Coppola wrote and directed this quiet masterpiece -- slow, stately, yet tense and frightening, with sudden rare bursts of motion and sound -- using the profits from his first two Godfather pictures.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of The Conversation |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 60%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
Time/Era of Movie:
- 1960's-1970's
Spying & Terrorists
Yes
Cloak & Dagger Plotlets:
- main char doing spying/sabotage
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- private investigator
- spy
Age:
- 40's-50's
Eccentric:
Yes
- eccentric
- obsessed
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- short/standard curly (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Unclothed?
- Chest
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
- tougher
- cynical
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
- Very much smarter than other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- average build (man)
How much in movie?
- 20%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
- 40's-50's
Profession/status:
- businessman, big
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
Hair color
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- average (man)
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
How sensitive is this character?
- hard edged
- mean, arrogant
Setting
United States
Yes
The US:
- California
City?
Yes
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately messy visuals of dead
Movie makes you feel...
- challenged
- frustrated
How many deaths in film?
- 1
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
What kind of sex:
- vague references only
How much use of techno gadgets?
- 4 (a fair amount)
Unusual forms of death
- blunt clubbing (like seals)
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
If Soundtrack VERY NOTICEABLE...
- Jazz/r&b
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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