Though, as nearly everyone is, I am a big fan of the first two Godfather movies, I have never really delved any deeper into Coppola's films, having only seen Bram Stoker's Dracula (alternately solid/silly) and Jack (enjoyable but not remarkable) in their entirety's...
Watching this film last night though makes me wonder how much of Coppola's talent has been squandered over the past 30 years...Utterly fascinating from beginning to end, The Conversation is a GREAT film...incorporating elements from Psycho, Rear Window, a host of French films and more it still comes off as entirely original. Its pacing is one rarely if ever seen in today's films as it builds slow and allows you to see its main character and all his neuroses.
It is almost humorous to watch the character's fascinations with what was at the time "amazing" technology such as closed circuit TV, audio bugging devices and surveillance equipment that we take for granted today. What was in 1974 a questionable invasion of privacy is now commonplace today...One can easily see someone remaking this film (poorly) today with computer hacking and photoshop'd pictures taking the place of the microphones and tape recorders seen here...
Hackman is great in terms of portraying a man utterly uncomfortable outside the walls of his profession and the equipment he surrounds himself with. He is someone who cannot/willnot move himself to be emotionally connected to those around him, remaining as detached from his "friends" and lovers as he is from the people he is hired to listen in on. When he begins to care about the fate of a couple he has listened in on, his whole world begins to crumble making him irritable, rash and oblivious to those with ulterior motives who move around him.
The jazz/piano music is perfect for this film, never overriding the images on the screen and fitting perfectly with early 70's San Francisco. No MTV editing here...the camera allows the characters to move in and out of the frame at their own pace, sometimes not feeling the need to follow them at all, allowing the viewer to observe visual cues like the emptiness of Caul's apartment and what you can infer from those...
As a film I watched in the cold of winter with a nice fire beside me and a drink in my hand, watching The Conversation made for truly pleasing couple of hours...
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