Day 19: I'm Not Afraid of Death, But I Am Afraid of Murder

THE CONVERSATION (1974)
Directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Allen Garfield

When you see a character on screen, and they protray paranoia in a believeable way, that's good acting.

When you're watching the same scene and you can feel the paranoia, that's good directing.

Made between the two Godfather films, The Conversation was another exhibit in the case that, in the 1970's, Francis Ford Coppola could do no wrong.  It is a perfectly constructed film with a heavy dose of Hitchcock-ian suspense, but with his own personal twist on it. 

Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul, a surveillence man hired to record a conversation between a man and a woman.  And he is the best there is; or so he thinks.  A deeply secretive man, Harry tells no personal details to his co-worker Stan (Cazale), to his girlfriend or anybody but his priest.  Hackman plays the role to perfection, starting out first as a rigid, humorless man, then letting intense paranoia bubble to the surface when he finds out that he is being beaten at his own game.  Harrison Ford is especially creepy as Martin Stett, a mysterious assistant for the director who hires Caul.  Ford says little in the film, but everything he says has weight and menace behind it.  Allen Garfiled plays rival surveillence man Bernie Moran, whose diminutive size belies his more diabolical side.  The scenes beteween Hackman and Garfield are when the paranoia starts to really surface, as Moran shows Caul that even he can be bugged.

The film relies heavily on sound design, as we hear the same conversation over and over again.  But we can hear very little of it at first.  There is all kinds of distortion, but we gradually hear more.  And the seemingly benign (as Stan puts it "Stupid") conversation suddenly carries more and more weight.  Caul begins to question everything about the conversation, as everything becomes clearer.  But even so, not much is revealed until Caul finds out who he's working for and why. 

This film kept me guessing from beginning to end.  It starts out posing questions, but gives you few clues.  And every time I thought I had things figured out, there was another twist.  Even the ending poses a question - probably the biggest question of all - how can the man who never shared a secret and never took chances ever be bested in his own field?  Caul literally tears himself apart trying to answer that question.

This is a thriller that surprises and engages all the way through.  Even I felt paranoid as I watched it.  It's one thing to recognize what's going on, but it's quite another to be sucked in to the story to the point where we feel what the characters feel.  I'm still looking over my shoulder.