Review of The Conversation (1974) by Tiberio S — 21 Oct 2012

New Review:

The first time I saw this I really missed the connecting points that make this such a masterpiece. It's inherently a dark comedy, but I thought it was supposed to be a thriller, and was misled upon first viewing.

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is a paranoid surveillance expert. Away from expertise in surveillance, he's painfully isolated. His only friends are ones he gathers from conventions in surveillance technology, as well as coworkers in his private investigation company. He's spiteful of anyone who outsmarts him, and sets himself up to be in that position oftentimes. Most unsettling is Martin Stett (Harrison Ford), who has hired Caul to investigate a seemingly insignificant conversation between a man and a woman in a public park. Ford's performance is irritatingly calm and mysterious - he holds absolute power throughout, and claims whatever is asked of Caul is coming from a higher order (most of the time we're not really sure). Caul doesn't much like what he's gotten himself into, and is very suspicious of the reality surrounding his circumstances. Who is watching who? What is he really watching?

The film moves so that questions keep being raised but no answers are delivered. Each time a question is formed, we just go right into experiencing more of Caul's life and personality. The suspense is slow and quiet, but by Act Three the tension is skyrocketing; we really don't know what the hell is going on. It's got all the great qualities of a 70's character-exploration, while looming mysteries have us thinking, not necessarily seeing, larger conspiracies, and a higher echelon that each individual in the world is subject to.

Old Review - 3 stars:

I have mixed feelings about this. It's a slow, tedious process to watch, and all along the way we pick up a plenitude of information about our main character, Harry. But it all seems so redundant, and not in a properly structured professional way, but in the fashion of a youth filmmaker practicing an exercise for Directing 101. The film seems to prove my point that Coppola is not really the kind of filmmaker who is methodical in his approach, but more or less just plops his camera down and hopes to get lucky. Still, if you can make it an hour and a half through the movie, the experience is worth it because the last 20 minutes are an absolute (pardon my language) mind fuck! And I will be so bold as to say that it also contains the single most heart-stopping scare in all of my cinematic experiences!