Movie Review #9 - The Conversation (1974)

Sounds like the water spins clockwise

After watching the documentary on John Cazale, I finally got around to watching The Conversation. It's the only Cazale film that I had not seen (he's excellent, of course), despite numerous friends and critics telling me it was amazing. They were right, it is amazing. I guess the main reason I had delayed watching the film was that it's directed by Coppola (!!!). No doubt he is a great filmmaker, but too often I find that his films are long and hard to sit through. The Godfather films are good, but overrated, and Apocalypse Now was very boring (granted, I've only seen the Redux). The Conversation, however, is a taut, enthralling, 2-hour long thriller.

Hackman's performance drives this film. He is fantastic as the structured and compulsive surveillance operator, slowly succumbing to moral qualms. It is an interesting counter to all the James Bond films that we've been watching. Here we are watching a real-life spy; alone and quiet, not boisterous and suave.

Similarly excellent is Harrison Ford. Before Han Solo and Indiana Jones would make him a superstar, Ford gives an excellent performance as the young man organising the surveillance for his boss.

A movie is technically great if you don't notice what the camera is doing, if you don't notice the music and sound effects playing, if you don't notice the cuts. It means you're completely absorbed in the story, and all the different filmmaking aspects are simply driving the story forward to help you engage with it.

I only pondered the technical aspects after the film was finished, because I was so absorbed whilst it was on. The most obvious, is the excellent sound design. It is thrilling watching Hackman play a tape, rewind it, play it again, rewind it, play it again, etc. just to determine what his targets are saying. Ultimately, because what is being said involves matters of life and death.

This is a slow film, yet it builds tension and paranoia at all times. I found it very reminiscent of Polanski; a master of psychological thrillers. Perhaps not as renowned as other films of its era, The Conversation is another demonstration of masterful filmmaking. The tension will kill you, if you give it the chance.

5 Stars