The surveillance expert Harry Caul has to monitor a young couple, but after some time he realises his work could harm people (again).
I have to say one thing at the beginning. For those who want to see a modern high-tech thriller with a sensational twist, this is the wrong movie. It is at times very thrilling and I think even has some elements of a horror movie, but the real quality of this movie is what lies beyond the story. Many critics have praised it as a statement on lost privacy due to modern technology. Besides that it is a fantastic character study.
So far, so good. If you haven't seen the movie and want to see it some time, don't read on. I will spoil many things. Who should really read on, are those people who didn't like it at first watch due to the reasons mentioned in the title of the review. I'll try to convince you of this movie's greatness and give you some reasons to watch it again. Although you of course don't have to. :D.
The brillance of Coppola's "The Conversation" lies within the symbols he is using. So the most important thing is, that the conversation of the young couple, which we hear again and again during the movie mainly is there to represent the inner life of Harry Caul. As this is only a short form of the analysis I'm working on at the moment I won't discuss Harry's character too much. What has to be sure, anyway, is that he's suffering from paranoia, is very faithful and that his work once led to the death of three people. Of course this is only a short form of his characterisation, but I only want to tell you those facts in order to make the symbols I will discuss here easy to understand.
I won't tell the story in chronological order as I expect you've seen the movie when you're still reading this.
Examples of how the conversation reflects the inner life of Harry:
- the pair's short discussion about the homeless guy who is lying on a park bench: Ann says that she always thinks the same thing when she sees such people. She thinks that he was once someone's little baby boy and she wonders where all his uncles and aunts are today.
This reflects not only the loneliness, but alo the hopelessness of Harry. There was a time his life had a chance to be a good one, but now it's on a point where he has big problems, even if they are "only" of psychological nature. And their seems to be no way out of this situation. We get a confirmation for that idea in a scene later in the movie.
- There is a short kiss of Ann and Paul (not accidentally a wearer of glasses), which is shown some times in the movie. This represents Harrys desire for a working partnership. Harry actually seems to have some kind of sexual relationship to a quite young woman, Amy, which eventually breaks just in the first scene we learn about it. Due to the fact that Amy is never mentioned again in the film, we could think it was only a sexual relationship that Harry quits when it is beginning to be too serious. But there are several hints that want to tell us that he actually had real feelings for her. The most important one is that Amy sings the same song that Ann is whistling. It doesn't bring anything to the story, so it wants to tell us something different. Ann represents Amy in Harrys inner life. Just after Harry breaks up with Amy, we see the kissing scene again. Harry wants a real relationship and he wants it with Amy.
And what makes this character study so interesting is the way the used symbols tell us so much at the same time. They aren't here just to be here, but because it's the easiest way to tell the meaning of the story. There is one scene in which this is used totally perfect.
Harry visits a convention for surveillance experts and after it's over he makes some kind of a party with some colleagues at his workplace. However, there is this one woman that seems to be interested in him (well, at least for one night). Later we realise that she only sleeps with Harry in order to steal the tapes, but that doesn't matter right now. Due to a small eclat the party ends quite quickly and finally there is only Harry and the woman left in his working place. As if he'd be obsessed by the tapes, Harry starts playing them. The woman however takes him away from the work and says he should lay on the bed. And then there is this one single shot that says really much just within actually a few seconds. We see Harry lying on the bed, and the woman is just taking her clothes off, standing besides the bed. But we don't really see too much of it, because the focus is on the tape which is standing on the desk, some metres away from the bed. I know it's difficult to imagine. So for those who own it on DVD: It's about at 1.14.35!
However, this shot shows that although there is this beautiful woman going to have sex with him, Harrys mind only focuses on his work. He can't get over this tape, because he is extremely afraid that it could harm the young couple, maybe even kill it. And you can go even further. Like I said in the beginning, the conversation, the tapes only represent the inner life of Harry. So the shot also tells us that Harry, though already being over 40, is not yet ready to have serious relationships to any people because he still isn't ready with himself. Perfectly commenting this scene, of course, is the couple. During their conversation Paul once asks Ann:
"Does it bother you?" - "What?" - "Running around in circles."
I'll stop here now. There's so much left to talk about. There is the dream sequence, which gives a hint to Harrys past, there is the religion, there is the saxophone, there is Harrison Ford, there is the convention and the party afterwards which all would have to be discussed quite long. And of course there is the ending, which seems to be very simple at the first time you see it, but there are many things it could try to tell us. However, like I said, I'm working on a analysis of "The Conversation" at the moment and this was just a short guide for some little details, but there really is much much more.
I hope you got a bit of an idea how genius this film really is. If you want to share some ideas for the analysis or want to discuss about the movie or the review, just write. I'd be really happy about that, even if you'r telling me it is crap. :D.
I hate ratings, but as this is one of my absolute favourite movies it only can be a 10/10.
P.S.: And for the twist: Read it on wikipedia. It all lies in the accent. In German however the twist actually doesn't exist. :D. You can read that on (the german) wikipedia either.
