Search - The Conversation on DVD


The Conversation
The Conversation
Actors: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Genres: Action & Adventure, Drama, Mystery & Suspense
PG     2000     1hr 53min

A routine wire-tapping job turns into a modern nightmare as Harry hears something disturbing in his recording of a young couple in the park. Genre: Feature Film-Drama Rating: PG Release Date: 8-AUG-2006 Media Type: DVD

     

Larger Image

Movie Details

Actors: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams
Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Genres: Action & Adventure, Drama, Mystery & Suspense
Sub-Genres: Harrison Ford, Drama, Mystery & Suspense
Studio: Paramount
Format: DVD - Color,Widescreen - Closed-captioned
DVD Release Date: 12/12/2000
Original Release Date: 01/01/1974
Theatrical Release Date: 00/00/1974
Release Year: 2000
Run Time: 1hr 53min
Screens: Color,Widescreen
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 5
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Languages: English, French

Similar Movies

The Day of the Jackal
Director: Fred Zinnemann
   PG   1998   2hr 23min
Blow Up
Director: Michelangelo Antonioni
   UR   2004   1hr 51min
Badlands
Director: Terrence Malick
   PG   1999   1hr 34min
The Pawnbroker
Director: Sidney Lumet
9
   UR   2003   1hr 56min
The King of Comedy
   PG   2002   1hr 49min

Similarly Requested DVDs

Das Boot - The Director's Cut
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
   UR   1997   2hr 29min
   
No Country for Old Men
Directors: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
   R   2008   2hr 2min
   
Chinatown
Director: Roman Polanski
   R   1999   2hr 11min
   
The Deer Hunter
Director: Michael Cimino
   R   1998   3hr 2min
   
In Bruges
Director: Martin McDonagh
   R   2008   1hr 47min
   
The Pianist
Director: Roman Polanski
   R   2003   2hr 30min
   
No Way Out
   R   2000   1hr 54min
   
Glengarry Glen Ross
Director: James Foley
   R   2002   1hr 40min
   
The Prestige
Director: Christopher Nolan
   PG-13   2007   2hr 10min
   
Defiance
Director: Edward Zwick
   R   2009   2hr 17min
   
 

Member Movie Reviews

S A A. (Learned2Heal)
Reviewed on 11/22/2008...
One of my all-time favorites, The Conversation is a very artistic, visually and psychologically arresting - very, veeery slow moving movie. It is a masterpiece! It showcases the awesome acting talent of Gene Hackman, a man who can play intensely diverse characters with equal ease and believability.

If you are interested in the synopsis, this movie's page has a good one, insofar as the plot details are concerned. However, it does not begin to convey to what depths of involvement this movie and this actor will take you. For that, you will have to take the plunge and actually watch this truly unforgettable piece of art yourself.
2 of 2 member(s) found this review helpful.

Movie Reviews

Bummer...
Michael J. Black | Cleveland, OH USA | 08/24/2010
(1 out of 5 stars)

"This new release is sadly just a repackaging of the original disc which was released 10 years ago. It's the same exact lousy transfer. Such a shame.."
Creepy, subtle, and gets under your skin
J. Harper | Houston, tx United States | 08/19/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)

"Ignore the negative reviews, this is a dynamite movie. It is more subtle than your average movie, it builds slowly, and in many places, asks questions at the beginning of the film that are not answered till later in the film. This is a movie that does not hand you all the answers on a silver platter (and this where the negative reviews come from, I think this says more about the reviewer than about the actual film). This is not a movie you can go nipping out at the fridge while you are watching. You have to pay close attention to all the little details, there is nothing placed in there by accident, the tinest little detail can blow up in your face later in the movie.
It is well thought out, script and editing is top notch, acting is on the money (though Harrison Ford strikes me as out of place and not very convincing, I like him as an actor). If you haven't seen this, you have missed out (in my book this is right up there with "Night of the Hunter" and "The Third Man". There is also a good book which has a lot of info on the making of this movie called "The Conversations", which is well worth reading, and has a lot of good info about movie editing."
Listen Closely, If You Dare
R.A. McKenzie | New York | 09/01/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)

"I wasn't alive in 1974, but I can't imagine how strange and alluring "The Conversation" must've felt to those who witnessed it when it was first released. Was the surveillance technology advanced for its time? Was the culture paranoid of being watched? Did audiences fully understand the film's undertones at the time? Did people expect our culture would become even more monitored in the future?

I don't really know the answers to those questions, and in a way, I prefer not to when I think about "The Conversation". To Harry Caul, those questions are irrelevant when the story begins. He truly dedicates his surveillance to making a clear and well-produced record, and tries not to listen to the content. He sees his work as a way to record "sound", without any attention to its meaning. Only when Caul begins to ponder the consequences of his actions does his life begin to unravel.

Fans of "The Conversation" love to wonder how technology has impacted our culture. Other fans are simply engrossed in the characters and plot developments. What's great about this movie is that you ignore one of those angles and still be mesmerized. If your attention is solely on Harry Caul and how his latest job has affected his life, then "The Conversation" is a terrific thriller. And if your attention wanders towards how our lives have been changed forever by technology, specifically surveillance, then "The Conversation" will give you plenty to think about. You can be as isolated as Caul is when the story begins, and you can be as involved as Caul is when the story ends.

The premise sounds simple when you talk about plot. In short, Harry Caul (played with great restraint and insecurity by Gene Hackman) is an expert on spying on people for different clients. His latest job requires some tweaking because his targets' conversation is cluttered with all sorts of sounds from the San Francisco streets. As he tunes his recording, he begins to suspect something terrible is about to happen.

Like all great stories, "The Conversation" is effective because of the telling. Seeing a technician tune an audio recording sounds boring, but it works because since Harry Caul seems to lack interest in a social life, we want to see what he IS passionate about: His work. Or how about those annoying scenes in movies when a bunch of characters are being unpleasant drunks? In "The Conversation", there's a lengthy sequence where Harry has allowed some fellow surveillance experts into his workplace. Rather than be a bunch of idiots behave foolishly, there's a hotshot East Coast expert named Bernie (Allen Garfield) whose made a name for himself, but is borderline-obsessed with how Harry pulled off a couple of tricky jobs. His cockiness is equalled only by his jealousy, which results in some very cruel tricks as the evening goes on.

The supporting cast is top-notch, because we remember the faces we need to, and forget the faces that Coppola wants us to forget. The targets of Harry's latest job are shown just enough so that we remember their faces and voices, but don't know too much about their personalities...just like Harry does. On the other hand, Harrison Ford delivers an unforgettably creepy turn as the assistant to Harry's client. There's a scene where Harry is obviously being followed, and when Harry finally confronts the assistant, Ford slyly replies:

"I haven't been 'FOLLOWING' you. I've been 'LOOKING' for you." It's clear that it's the former.

It's not often that the sound effects of a movie make headlines, however Walter Murch's work on the sound is more crucial to the piece than most movies (Ben Burtt's work on "WALL-E" comes to mind). I have yet to watch the DVD extras with Walter Murch, but the way the conversation between Harry's targets (hence the title) fades in and out is superb. During the opening credits, the camera slowly zooms in on a town square, filled with distant music and chatter. But then a soft electronic distortion fades in and out. As the camera approaches closer to the ground, the garbled noise is even more noticable. When we get closer to the conversation and the targets, their sentences are periodically interrupted with low clarity. Sometimes what we miss is inconcequential chit-chat; other times, we miss crucial pieces to the puzzle that will change Harry's life forever.

If there's any weakness in this movie, it's one early scene where Harry visits a woman in the middle of the night. It's a sad scene where Harry confuses his ladyfriend's questions for an interrogation. She simply wants to know more about his life, and he's still shaken that someone managed to leave a present in his apartment when he thought he had the only key. The reason this scene doesn't quite work for me is because it never made sense to me how someone as lonely as Harry Caul managed to meet this woman in the first place, let alone how they managed to have a physical relationship. If this scene had been removed, the later courtship between Harry and one of the alluring partygoers still would've worked. However, that's a minor quibble that quickly resolves itself early in the movie, letting the story quickly regain its momentum.

And once "The Conversation" picks up momentum, it maintains its grip through the end of the picture, from the details of Harry's investigation to the troubling aftermath of a shocking, violent turn-of-events. To be sure, "The Conversation" has one of the most unforgettable endings (and camera shots) in motion picture history.

"The Conversation" is my favorite film from the 1970s. There is so much more I want to share with you, the sign of any great film, I think. "The Conversation" is not only filled with complexities and subtleties, you can enjoy the film as simply or as deeply as you want to. Francis Ford Coppola and Gene Hackman have stated in separate interviews that "The Conversation" is probably the favorite of their respective film careers. I couldn't agree more."