The Conversation

Just how did Harry Caul develop such a prodigious reputation as a surveillance specialist? Rarely does he look anything but overwhelmed and outmatched. He sneaks around his girlfriend’s apartment hoping to catch her in some scandalous act, but she knows when he is there by the way he opens the door and the sound his footsteps make. He has several locks on his apartment, yet his landlord has no trouble getting in to drop off a gift for Harry for his birthday, a date which he believed was a secret. When a rival surveillance expert places a pen in his coat pocket, well, it comes as no surprise to everyone but Harry that it houses a microphone capable of recording conversations.

Understanding Harry Caul is the key to decoding this minor masterpiece from Francis Ford Coppola, which is shrouded in the shadow cast by Coppola’s critical megahits Godfather I and II and Apocalypse Now. Harry Caul, played brilliantly by Gene Hackman, in peak 1970s form, is no easy man to figure out. Secretive and paranoid, his strategy to avoid being surveilled himself is to be as dull as possible. He has no family and no real friends. With the exception of playing jazzy tunes on his saxophone, Harry appears to be interested in nothing but his work.

Harry is, however, a Catholic, and he possesses some of the guilt that comes along with it. Just not enough guilt to make him stop spying on people for a living. Harry yells at his co-worker Stan (John Cazale) for using the Lord’s name in vain, but overlooks his own moral shortcomings. It is as though he sees himself a vessel of God, observing everything that happens but letting others pass judgement. This is a policy that has worked for Harry throughout his career, but he finds himself struggling to maintain his professional distance in this film.

The film begins with Harry and some accomplices recording a conversation between a man and a woman. As Harry cleans and splices together the various recordings, he becomes increasingly invested in their fate. He begins to suspect that the couple are involved in an affair at the expense of a very powerful man. Harry fears that he may be contributing to a murder. How Harry’s ethical dilemma plays out depends largely on whether and to what degree one trusts Harry. Personally I have my doubts.

Given the bigger-then-ever amount we are recorded and captured on cameras and cell phones in the United States, the thematic backdrop of surveillance and spying in this suspense thriller resonates in a hauntingly and all-to-real way. If Harry Caul by himself could do all this in 1974, what could he accomplish now? So pervasive is the surveillance state that not even those who do the watching are safe from its gaze. Coppola lets this fear of surveillance build steadily throughout the film, with the help of a haunting score which sets the tone and generates the tension in many of the film’s scenes. Whatever may be said about the film’s sociopolitical and allegorical significance, its central mystery plot strand is mesmerizing and evocative. That Coppola seemingly weaves in the surveillance motif that is so prescient and carries so much gravitas is simply a bonus.

4.5/5

4.5/5