By Harry McPhaul
The
Conversation was
a detective film unlike any other I have seen.
It was different in that it was not about a detective going around
gathering evidence to build a case against a person or company. All the evidence we ever see is right in the
beginning and it’s only a recording of a conversation between man and a woman
in Union Square.
The protagonist, Harry Caul (Gene
Hackman) is a type of private investigator that only records audio of the
people who he is hired to follow. He is
not required to analyze or interpret the data or start building a case for his
client. Harry sticks to this policy even
though he believes he has chance to save someone from being murdered.
I have not seen many films starring
Gene Hackman but from what I saw from this film I can see why many people appreciate
his acting ability. He perfectly
portrayed a surveillance expert throughout the whole film. In every scene you could see him watching
every single detail. The fact that he
never gave out his phone number or where he lived to even his friends was
another part I liked about the character.
It was as if Coppola spared no detail in creating this person who has
become the best in industry by being the most paranoid.
The film did feel a little slow for
most parts because Harry is not trying to obtain more information about the people
he was hired to follow. It sort of all
comes to head toward the end when we finally get to see the plot of the murder. After Harry puts together the pieces to the
murder (after the murder has already happened) he gets a phone call saying that
he is being watched so he will not call the police. He proceeds to tear up his apartment looking
for the “bug.” Then the credits start rolling and I was left with this feeling
of: what was the point. I could not
really understand why he was hired by the same people who were committing the
murder. Overall I did enjoy the
film. It was no Godfather but I’d give
it a 9/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment