Sometimes a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, as Harry Caul (Hackman) finds out in this movie. He is an experienced private operator, regarded as the best in the business who eavesdrops on and records people.s conversations for his clients. His current targets are a seemingly regular young couple walking around a park having a relatively normal conversation. Harry cares about his .art. and thus considers the quality of his recordings to be more important than what he is recording. But while his code of practice dictates that he not get involved, in this particular case he becomes preoccupied with the young couple, especially after his client acts strangely when he goes to deliver the tape and collect his money. Acting on an impulse he refuses to turn over the tape and begins to delve further. His sophisticated techniques allow him to decipher some mumbled conversation that imply the couple are concerned that they will be murdered. As he comes to realise that someone is now following and recording him, he finds that tables have been turned and he must use his surveillance techniques for self preservation. He becomes quite obsessed with this couple causing his interactions with colleagues and friends to change.
The movie was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, and the central theme of the story is to follow the state of mind of the main character Henry Caul. Therefore Coppola wanted to tell the entire story from the perspective of this one character, who is portrayed excellently by Hackman. Both the movie and original screenplay were nominated for Oscars in 1975 but missed out, with the Best Picture Oscar going to none other than the Godfather II, also directed by Coppola. The Conversation is quite a slow moving suspense story that will not appeal to any one looking for action. However for viewers with some patience and who are prepared to go a little deeper, the story is based on an interesting premise and is a worthwhile encounter observing the main character.s experiences. |
So how does this DVD Scrub Up?
The video is presented in a widescreen anamorphic format (1.85:1 aspect ratio) and exhibits many of the standard problems with slightly older films including the presence of white specks across the screen and a detectable level of grain throughout. The video has a relatively soft feel to it which probably helps create the illusion of suspense and also enhances the impression that we are watching from the outside, ie spying on someone. Overall the visuals do however have that .washed out. type of look and that is further exacerbated by the use of a quite bland colour scheme. The brightest colours are reserved for the scenes where Caul tries to return the tape to his client, .The Director.. These scenes contrast to some of the other settings in that they are filmed in a modern building, and these are also the sharpest scenes. Shadow detail is really only average at best and some dark interior shots lose the ability to pick out detail.
A few examples of aliasing are evident such as on blinds and church pews, but not excessive enough to be problematic.
The layer change occurs at 48:10 between a scene change and while detectable is not at all disruptive.
|
There is the luxury of a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track provided but the surround presence doesn.t add a lot to the presentation. The surrounds are used conservatively and really only kick in to provide more subtle ambience and for the music numbers.
However since this is a dialogue based script, the most important criteria to be successfully satisfied is that the dialogue is clear and distinct (apart from when deliberately mumbled during eavesdropping scenes) and audio synch is OK.
The music soundtrack works well to enhance the growing suspense theme of the story and mostly consists of instrumental pieces and some jazz numbers (The main character plays the saxophone). Often a solitary piano is used to accompany Hackman in his solo scenes, to emphasis that he very much has a solitary personality.
|
|
|
