The Conversation

August 10th, 2005 | Filed under Reviews

This is one of those flicks that I have been meaning to check out for months, if not years and it has been sitting in the top 10 of my netflix queue since I restarted my account. Other things kept jumping up past it, but it continually held it’s ground.

This 1970s classic starring Gene Hackman, written and directed by Copalla with the editorial and sound design by Walter Murch, is a psuedo-psychological-story of Harry Caul (Hackman), a wiretapping surveillance expert who breaks his golden rule of not getting involved with the gig or the clients. The story centers around a very difficult to record converation that Harry and his team of experts capture on tape.

Where the film really shines is in Murch’s brillant editing and sound design. He treats the audiences to various snippets of the conversation Harry records, never truly giving the whole story to them until the end of the film. The visual style of the film, set up by DoP Bill Butler is equally impressive, especially the openning zoom shot that was one of the first uses of electronic zooms.

All in all this a wonderful film and an excellent representation of what American Zoetrope achieved in it’s unfortunately brief existance. Check it out for an experience in what it is truly like to be alone, and how the inflection of words can make all the difference.