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Saturday Evening Movie Thread: The Conversation 1974 [movigique]

Sandwiched between the 1972 Best Picture Oscar-WinnerGodfather and the 1974 Best Picture Oscar-Winner Godfather II, Francis Ford Coppola directed a low-budget, low-cardinal character study chosenThe Conversation. A modest success (returning iii-4x its budget, but orders of magnitude less thanGodfather) and a disquisitional darling, I tried watching it once on the small-scale screen and could non get into it. Even though information technology's the opposite of the epic gangster flicks, I still would primarily recommend it be watched on the big screen: it'south a pic that demands a lot of attending to detail. Information technology is very conspicuously amidst the best of Coppola's films.

Gene Hackman contemplates life equally a plumber.

Released four months before Nixon's resignation but conceived in the mid-'60s, Coppola claims to take been shocked at how closely the technology used by the White House Plumbers mapped with what he filmed. (He wrote, produced and directed.) It'due south no surprise that the film still resonates on the topic of privacy, even though the story itself (the eponymous chat) is just solid thriller textile that works as pure entertainment without the larger themes.

The Chat has three major aspects that show our protagonist Harry Caul in different lights: It is a mystery; information technology is a deep-swoop into the questions of privacy; information technology is a showcase for the hottest privacy invasion applied science of the '70s. Let'due south take the last offset because there's a big sequence that takes identify at a security convention, and it'due south kind of amazing almost fifty years later.

The convention is pretty standard, consummate with booth bunny and a bunch of nerds and creeps talking technical details, only the sense of wonder equally you see tiny bugs and phone taps that are activated by calling the subject'due south telephone is unparalleled in 2022 when you realize anybody: a) carries effectually and lives with devices designed for spying on them; b) has more invasion privacy power by sheer blow than pros did in '74.

"Why would anyone desire to carry this in their pocket?" "We'll invent a thing called 'Twitter'..."

The point of this convention is to horrify the states: These highly paid creeps have admission to engineering science that allows them access to every individual conversation we think we're having. It's meant to make us paranoidand it still works! Only now the highly-paid creeps are massive corporations and decadent governments whose entire basis of performance is violating privacy. This aspect of the movie gives us the most "heroic" view of our protagonist, played expertly by Cistron Hackman.

Harry is a true professional person: He is excellent at his job, he builds his own equipment, he is sought subsequently and has a kind of integrity in that he refuses overtures that could be very assisting and takes no personal interest in his subjects: He does his chore without prurient involvement, and even without human curiosity as his assistant (the sadly short-lived John Cazale) points out.

But this focus on the job underscores the fact that Harry is a literal tool. He takes a job to listen to "the conversation" (between Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest) and rejoices in the technical aspects of the task (in sequences very reminiscent of Blow Up and later echoed past Blow Out), but when his client (Robert Duvall) has his heavy (Harrison Ford) running interference, he begins to suspect that the young couple's lives are at stake.

A couple years later, at 29, Cindy Williams would keep to portray a young unmarried daughter in the late '50s for a decade.

What's more, when 1 of Harry'southward rivals (Alan Garfield) turns the tables on him, eavesdropping on him every bit a joke, we tin see that Harry really,really doesn't like information technology. In fact, Harry is paranoid: His lover (Teri Garr) knows null most him, he makes business concern calls from pay phones, he is alarmed when people wish him a happy birthday, and he spends considerable time cajoling the spare key from his landlady.

As he becomes increasingly agitated at the prospects of his work being used for nefarious purposes--something that has happened earlier to disastrous consequences, we learn--his sense of urgency to practice something, to go involved, to try to stop a tragedy, dramatically highlights his limitations. Also being a tool, Harry's a coward, and his insistence professional person ignorance raises an insurmountable barrier every bit far every bit knowing whether or non he's serving skillful or serving evil.

Cazale would keep to star in "Dog Day Afternoon" and "The Deer Hunter" before succumbing to Meryl Streep and cancer.

The dramatic climax of the film comes at about ninety minutes, and could've gone whatsoever number of means. Information technology could've been completely ambiguous, for instance, with Harry completely unaware of what his actions resulted in. (It's not, merely how 1974 would that have been?) This is followed past about twenty minutes of twists and revelations in which we see very plainly the effect of trying to avert responsibility in the name of professionalism.

Shot in Technicolor, though the drab '70s version of information technology (which suits here), with deliberately wonky sound in parts and a lot of repetition of parts up front, I still don't think I could sit through information technology on the small screen. A utilise of Jazz Historic period classics heightens the sense of paranoia. Like, you can sympathise existence on a secret mission and hearing "When the Red Ruddy Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin' Along", only to later hear someone else singing it--that might make you suspicious because who in 1974 was singing that song? Also, considering the music is and then upbeat in contrast with the tone of the film, it'due south virtually ironic in and of itself.

Composer David Shire (who would go on to win an Oscar for Norma Rae) slips in some traditional music subsequently on in the picture; I didn't catch exactly when. The get-go part of the picture show, however, is all diegetic--the music all has a source within the film--and the shift is subtle and effective, as is the whole transition from an almost documentary feel to a more traditional cinematic experience.

That Coppola guy could brand a movie, once upon a time.

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