Review of The Conversation (1974) by Jeffrey C — 02 Oct 2010

The thriller The Conversation is written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola and stars Gene Hackman, John Cazale, and Allen Garfield. The film takes place in modern day California.

The movie starts out with a man and a woman having a conversation in a public park with a large crowd. This conversation is of much importance as to the rest of the film because it is being recorded by a man named Harry Caul (Hackman) and the crew he works with. Caul is a professional in the surveillance business and is considered to be the best on the west coast. When Caul finishes touching up the tapes he recorded he goes to give it to the director for $15,000 but only the director's assistant (Harrison Ford) is there. Caul decides not to give them to the assistant because he wants to give them directly to the director. Then Caul heads to a surveillance convention where he meets a man, Bernie Moran (Garfield). Moran is very competitive and thinks he is the best at the job in the country and pushes a few too many of Caul's buttons. The main plot of the film is that the tapes that Caul has he believes are evidence that will be used so the director can kill these two people and he does not feel morally correct giving the director the man and woman's death warrant.

The screenplay was very smart, especially for a thriller. The film is not the average thriller in any way, it has no guns or chase scenes. It is mostly psychological. At points though during the film is was slow and somewhat boring, but it made up for it in the end. There was a lot of characterization in this film which I liked a lot. I completely understood Caul's feelings and I also knew that he was getting annoyed with Moran since the very beginning. In almost every aspect except for the parts where it was slow.

Francis Ford Coppola reaffirms the fact that he is a fantastic director with this film. He keeps the suspense going the whole way through and has many beautiful shots. Many of the shots are like surveillance cameras which is just brilliant. He definitely knows how to get great performances out of his actors especially Hackman. He proved that he was the greatest director for the decade of the 1970s but sadly after that decade he did nothing really noteworthy. Hopefully he will come back into mainstream films and end his career on a high note.

The acting in this film was magnificent. Gene Hackman was wonderful as the lead being a very introverted type of person. His character was so real he was easily the best part of the film. The fact that he wasn't even nominated for an Oscar for his performance is one of the greatest Oscar snubs in history. If someone had told me that he won the Oscar I would have believed them immediately and said that he deserved it. The rest of the cast acted fine as well. John Cazale had a small part but played it perfectly as did Harrison Ford. Allen Garfield gave a really strong performance as the competitive Moran, who was quite annoying. Overall a very strong ensemble performance.

The score for this film was also great and it never missed a beat. It was suspenseful at times and calm at other times and it connected the whole film together. Francis Ford Coppola's films all seem to have great scores in the 70s.

Overall I give this film a strong 8/10, it is a great addition to Coppola's filmography and has an ending that will keep you thinking. I recommend this film to those who enjoy thought provoking suspense films.