Retrospective Film Review

The Conversation (1974) — the most underrated film of the 1970s

A paranoid, secretive surveillance expert has a crisis of conscience when he suspects that the couple he is spying on will be murdered.

Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) can record any conversation in the world. In the fantastic opening shot of The Conversation, our perspective slowly closes in on a couple strolling through a park, engaged in furtive discussion while trying not to be overheard. As a surveillance expert, Caul’s found a way around their attempts to conceal their clandestine meeting: the conversation is recorded.

A powerful business magnate has offered Caul $15,000 (the equivalent of $95,000 today) to capture their words on tape. He couldn’t have approached a more capable person, for Harry Caul is not normal. Considered a pre-eminent talent in his field, he speaks a different language to most. His language is that of microphones, amplifiers, and lavaliers, and most importantly, it’s bolstered by a clinical, strategic indifference. However, as Italo Calvino tells us in Invisible…