The Conversation

Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul in this tense story about a man who has spent so much time spying on others that he has become all but incapable of opening his private life to others. The events of the film centre on the days following a shady job that he is hired to do. After recording the conversation of a couple he begins to suspect that there is a greater plot at hand than immediatly appears. Probably the richest part of the film is who the soundtrack is integrated into the story line and the symbolism of the story. The recorded conversation with its innocuous and dangerous strains is played repeatedly in the background layering meanings on top of the life of Harry. since Harry's job is the business of recording, the business of sounds, we hear the world as he hears it: taps, knocks, white noise, interrupting static, footsteps, the clicks that locks, doors, shoes, rings, and just about everythign else makes, and a cool blue jazz long play on the hi fi.

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