The Movie
Gene Hackman had become one of the world's biggest movie stars after The French Connection and Francis Ford Coppola one of the most admired filmmakers in the wake of The Godfather. Shortly after these films, the two collaborated on what remains an underappreciated little character drama, The Conversation.
Hackman plays Harry Caul, a tightly-wound surveillance expert, not so much a private detective as a civilian spy. His latest job is to gather dirt on the young wife of a powerful businessman who is apparently carrying on an illicit affair. The movie begins with the recording of a discussion between the young lovers, but closer analysis of the tape suggests that their very lives may be in danger should they be discovered.
Harry has become so detached from the lives of his clients, and his targets, that he is now isolated and painfully private, but something about this job is different. Random discoveries, bits of unexpected evidence only fuel his (and our) paranoia, until he does the unthinkable in his line of work: He tries to become involved.
It doesn't go well.
The Picture
The 16:9 presentation is somewhat soft and definitely grainy, a relic of another age of filmmaking. The movie itself is extremely shadowy but there is no conspicuous edge enhancement. The blacks are rich, could be better but they could also be worse. I noted only modest noise, as on the big heating grate in Harry's apartment. Backgrounds and out-of-focus foreground objects can look a little compressed and artificial, but close-ups offer a pleasing sharpness, and the image is sufficiently nuanced that we can just make out that the platter on Harry's turntable is moving.
The Sound
The default track appears to be a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 incarnation of the 2000 remix of the film, and while the modern multichannel spread is engaging, its real power is the clarity. Soon enough we find ourselves really listening to the different portions of the critical tape, wondering "Could this mean something?" In-scene music displays a more aggressive mix than David Shire's doleful piano score that drives the frequent wordless stretches. The rears are also well-utilized for the din and the P.A. system at a convention, and we're hit with a real sonic jolt late in the game.
The 5.1 audio has a very different feel from the original, Oscar-nominated theatrical mix, included here as DTS-HD Master Audio two-channel mono, not the usual Dolby Digital afterthought. The disc also provides a DTS-HD Master Audio Sound Check feature but no French options (the Paramount DVD had a French mono track), audio or subtitles, despite The Conversation winning the Palme D'Or at Cannes.
The Extras
Thankfully, Coppola appears to be something of a pack rat, and the archives were opened for this new Blu-ray edition of this very personal film. In addition to one of those short vintage promotional films (eight-and-a-half minutes) and an on-set interview with Hackman, we can see for the first time the screen tests of co-stars Cindy Williams (but reading for Teri Garr's role) and Harrison Ford (for Frederic Forrest's role, about twelve minutes total).
"No Cigar" (two-and-a-half minutes) looks at Coppola's similarly-themed 1956 16mm film, the very first he ever made. A four-minute tour compares Conversation locations to their present state, and thank God the IHOP is still there at Lombard and Pierce. The director interviews composer Shire himself, and in a fascinating find, we can hear Coppola reading six passages from his own script (49 minutes total), recorded at a San Francisco café back in the day. We get a glimpse of portions dropped from the film as well as final clips as part of the accompanying video montage.
Ported from the DVD are twin audio commentaries with writer/producer/director Francis Ford Coppola and supervising film editor/sound montage designer and re-recordist Walter Murch. Most of this content is being released for the first time, and all of the video is HD. Quite a bit of effort went into this disc, right down to the little touches throughout the menus.
Final Thoughts
The disc looks a darned sight better than DVD, this is by far the best it has ever sounded, and the newfound extras are a delicious cherry. I'm guessing that if this movie were made today, there would be car chases and a much higher body count. But as conceived, The Conversation is a resonant, psychologically complex character study that saves its one major twist for the end.
Product Details
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