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The Conversation [Region 2] | ![The Conversation [Region 2]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51CmO-8xvTL._SL500_.jpg) | Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Actors: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams
Category: DVD
Buy New: $6.32
as of 3/22/2010 07:21 EDT details
New (4) Used (4) from $6.16
Seller: --cdzone-uk--
Rating:  132 reviews
Sales Rank: 182588
Format: PAL
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 2
Discs: 1
Running Time: 113 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5017188812191
ASIN: B0000TZ7IG
Theatrical Release Date: 1974
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 132
 fantastic February 10, 2010
Zachary A. Green (hoboken, nj)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
for all coppolaphiles, this is a must-see. especially the 1st shot. and the film really brings to mind the genius song by robyn hitchcock, "dont talk to me about gene hackman". look it up!!
What a STUPID conversation January 13, 2010
C. CRADDOCK (Bakersfield)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Regardless of my title--a quote from the film meant to be ironic in this context--The Conversation was a brilliant, intelligent film. On paper it doesn't sound like the sort of drama that lends itself to cinematic treatment: A man eavesdrops and records conversations for a living. He is tops in his field and takes great pride in his professionalism. Sometimes his work results in great harm to people, even death, so he tries to detach himself from what he is doing. He is conflicted. Knowing also about how easy it is to tap phones, bug rooms, and eavesdrop on people, he is understandably a little paranoid. He guards his personal privacy zealously. Is it still paranoia, though, when they actually are listening--are out to get you? With a protagonist who keeps so much hidden, it hardly seems like a formula for a compelling film, but in the hands of Director Francis Ford Coppola, with Gene Hackman giving one of his greatest performances, a compelling film is exactly what you get.
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Martin Stett: We know that you know, Mr. Caul. For your own sake, don't get involved any further.
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Harry Caul (Gene Hackman) is a professional Surveillance Expert. In an early scene Caul is talking to his landlady on the phone, disturbed that she has entered his apartment and left him a birthday gift. He wants to have the only copies of his keys. He seems to be over reacting, but subsequent events will make you wonder if he wasn't correct in his suspicions. While Hackman's character may be over reacting, Hackman is certainly not over acting. He holds back and trades in subtle nuance. Slowly, piece-by-piece, the puzzle is put together. There is a murder plot, but that is merely subtext. The real drama is what is happening to Harry Caul, and his futile attempts to stay detached from the consequences of his job.
For this role, Hackman learned to play tenor saxophone, and it was an excellent choice for his character. He acts on the saxophone, playing it exactly like his character would. He plays along with old jazz recordings, fitting in with the song being played, but in an abstract, almost obtuse manner. His audiophile equipment and intense listening to the tapes he plays along with, and the way he concentrates on his own tone, speak volumes about his character and his chosen profession.
Along with the vintage jazz recordings on the soundtrack there is also some great music composed for the film by David Shire. In fact, Shire scored the music before the film was shot, and Copolla played it on the set to set the mood. Shire wrote a great piano theme of jazz-influenced 20th Century Classical Music. It is haunting and captures the existential angst quite well. Bravo, David Shire.
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Martin Stett: [Final Line] We'll be listening to you.
==========================
Allen Garfield's William P. 'Bernie' Moran is Harry Caul's rival, but while Caul is introverted, Bernie is anything but. He is a crass, brash practitioner of surveillance with little or no regard for the consequences. The scenes at the Surveillance Convention and the party later at Caul's studio are brilliant. Garfield stands out in a field of fine performances by Teri Garr, Cindy Williams (Shirley on Laverne & Shirley), Harrison Ford, Robert Duvall, John Cazale, and the rest (as they say on Gilligan's Isle).
Robert Shields plays a mime in Union Square. In real life he actually did get his start working the crowd at Union Square. This is a crucial scene, as the crucial conversation is recorded here, with the subjects thinking that all the commotion and extraneous noise would make recording them impossible. A mime, impersonating people without making a sound, is somehow bitterly ironic. Here and throughout, Coppola uses the San Francisco location well, as only a true San Franciscan could. Not the picture postcard scenes a tourist would send, but places like Embarcadero Center, with its poured concrete effect, or the Jack Tarr Hotel. Some very ugly architecture that nevertheless made me feel homesick for The City by The Bay. Have you seen my heart anywhere? I think I left it there.
The bottom line is that The Conversation, directed by Francis Ford Copolla, is not only entertaining, but also intelligent and thought provoking. It says so much about our modern condition, and its message has only grown more relevant as time goes on. The Conversation was like a brilliant, scintillating conversation with a beautiful woman in Cafe Trieste over espresso after the San Francisco Opera.
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Stan: What a STUPID conversation.
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Heartbreakers (2001) Gene Hackman was William B. Tensy
Postcards from the Edge (1990) Gene Hackman was Lowell Kolchek
The Cotton Club (1984) Allen Garfield was Abbadabba Berman
One From The Heart (1982) Frederic Forrest was Hank, Teri Garr was Frannie, and Allen Garfield (as Allen Goorwitz) was Restaurant Owner; directed by Francis Ford Coppola
Blade Runner (The Director's Cut) (1982) Harrison Ford was Rick Deckard
Apocalypse Now (1979) Frederic Forrest was Jay 'Chef' Hicks, Harrison Ford was Colonel Lucas, and Robert Duvall was Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore
Nashville (1975) Allen Garfield was Barnett
American Graffiti (1973) Cindy Williams was Laurie Henderson and Harrison Ford was Bob Falfa
The Godfather (Widescreen Edition) (1972) John Cazale was Fredo Corleone; directed by Francis Ford Coppola
To Kill a Mockingbird (Collector's Edition) (1962) Robert Duvall was Arthur 'Boo' Radley
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Ann: This conversation is over.
===============================
 Boring and Overrated December 16, 2009
Avid Movie Collector (Tulsa, OK USA)
3 out of 5 found this review helpful
Maybe I just don't get it. The reading of all these positive reviews baffles me. Did I see the same movie everyone else did? The beginning of "The Conversation" showed so much promise. I liked it and was interested. That lasted only the first 15 minutes. After that I struggled to finish watching it. I watched the entire movie only to see if it got any better. It didn't. The person I watched it with fell asleep. I was bored almost the entire movie. If you base the movie solely on the way Gene Hackman played his character it was great. Gene Hackman did a great job portraying a very paranoid man. However, it is everything else in the movie that makes it not enjoyable. I was glad when it was finally over. I much rather watch "Enemy of the State". Now that's an exciting movie!
One of the better DVDs in my little collection November 14, 2009
Robert Buchanan (Wisconsin)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
More than any other DVD that I've rented or owned, I had the highest expectations for this, and I wasn't disappointed. Few other motion pictures deserve a good DVD edition as much as Francis Ford Coppola's introspective masterwork, a extraordinarily nuanced and deeply involved study of alienation, privacy and guilt. Coppola's flawless, unhurried direction and Gene Hackman's entirely credible performance - as a surveillance expert whose interest in an assignment involves him personally - drive this moody, suspenseful and deeply personal story. For me, this movie is a benchmark by which all other serious crime dramas and filmic character studies are measured.
The feature's audiovisual quality is quite fine. Transferred from a slightly gritty print (probably the best available), its color is much richer than that of the VHS edition. Every frame of this film's composition is imbued with urgent meaning, and this detail is emphasized by the restored 1.85:1 aspect ratio. Because it needs to be carefully heard as much as seen, a first-rate soundtrack is far more essential for this movie than most others. Exceptionally remastered, the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround track is lucid and features a carefully balanced mix - not a single noise or line of dialogue strays from sonic equilibrium. While the French dubbed track is ably voiced, it's hardly mixed with such care.
Large and yellow, the English subtitles can't be missed. The transcription of this text is entirely adequate.
Big, colorful thumbnail film stills highlight the scene selection menu. One of my few gripes with Paramount discs is that the chapters are too long and few between, and therefore difficult to navigate. Even though "The Conversation" is broken into only twelve chapters, I can't complain; the film consists mostly of long sequences and really should be linearly viewed, anyway.
Yet again, I was ready to sit through another boring featurette shot eight or nine years ago - one of ten thousand glossy productions that might teach me a few things about the film via interviews with crew members and maybe, if I was lucky, Gene Hackman. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to find that "Close-Up on the Conversation" is an American Zoetrope promotional short that was shot on location in late 1972 between and during takes, and features brief interviews with a mannerly Hackman and the insightful, bearlike and necessarily LOUD Coppola. It's a great little documentary that places the audience in the midst of the film's shooting, granting a pleasantly intimate - albeit brief - perspective of the production.
Although I can imagine being intrigued by it if I'd seen it prior in a theater in '74, the theatrical trailer has quite a few flaws common to those of the period: it's poorly edited, the expository narrative is all too literal and too much is revealed. It's a charming little bit of promotional kitsch for those who have seen the movie, but the uninitiated would do better to view the movie first.
Coppola's commentary track makes for entertaining (if not wholly absorbing) listening. His insights concerning his screenplay are unsurprising and fairly mundane, but the stories he has to tell regarding the movie's production are invariably interesting. Perhaps because he has relatively little to say about this favorite of his own works, much of the track consists of information about his private life and career that often hasn't much to do with the film. For me, this was only mildly engaging; the degree of a viewer's interest in Coppola will probably determine whether or not they enjoy it.
As yet more evidence that film editors produce superior commentary tracks to those of cinematographers on the rare occasions when they do so, Walter Murch's commentary draws on his prodigious memory to provide the viewer with a wealth of technical information and a keen perspective on how it relates to the film's story, all accessible in layman's terms. Murch's most interesting revelations involve three scenes that were cut and reworked quite differently than how they were originally written and shot, all of which were granted a greater profundity and impact as a result. I was also amazed to learn that this - among the most intricately and intuitively edited mainstream movies I know of - was Murch's first assignment on a feature film! This commentary is sparse almost to the point of being periodic - at times, Murch has nothing to say for as long as four of five minutes, but I'd rather this than a lot of insubstantial babble. He does reveal the film's penultimate plot twist fairly early in the movie, so those who haven't seen the movie should beware of this spoiler.
Scored by David Shire's memorable theme, the main menu's selections are brightly visible against a film still of Harry Caul's work studio, the tape recorder of which features animated reels. The special features menu is also animated by a closer shot of that recorder, playing the conversation itself, rewinding, playing again with improved fidelity, forwarding, playing with ever-improved clarity...but never revealing the first of this great movie's many secrets...!
 The Conversation - 1974 Movie Worth Watching October 28, 2009
M. Gibson (Cincinnati, Ohio United States)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Another great movie written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, A suspenseful movie from 1974 which had some great actors/actresses; Gene Hackman, Cindy Williams, Harrison Ford, Teri Garr to name a few.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 132
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