The Conversation (1974)

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The Conversation (1974) – F. F. Coppola

Imagine how paranoid Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), a professional wiretapper/surveillance expert worried about his own personal information, would be these days!  Coppola’s film almost seems quaint with its Radio Shack version of technology – but we can all easily imagine the experts who know too much and spend their time making themselves invisible online (and everywhere else).  So, the film is still relevant, perhaps even more so, as we contemplate the minds of those who scrape social media for personal data (a la Cambridge Analytica) and sell it on for personal profit.  Do they ever ruminate about the damage they might cause in other people’s lives?  This is Harry’s predicament.  He’s on a job, recording a conversation between a couple who clearly seem to be having an affair.  He’s proud of his technique, capturing every word even though they are constantly on the move, walking through a crowded city square in San Francisco.  But he begins to suspect that his employers might have sinister plans for these two and he decides to keep the tapes from them, dwelling on them over and over and over.  Sound design and editing was by Walter Murch – I listened in headphones and was suitably impressed.  Was there a “cheat” at the end? Very probably so – but let’s take it as expressionistic (Harry now hears that sentence differently, after he knows more).  Similar to other thrillers of the Watergate era (The Parallax View, All the President’s Men), this could leave you seeing conspiracies everywhere.  But let’s just hope that no one cares enough to find us in the sea of information flowing everywhere…