Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation is the movie I was really looking forward to watch after his dark and stunning "Apocalypse Now". Like Sidney Lumet, Francis Ford Coppola has presented us with diverse stories and have not treaded a similar path twice, be it story development or movie treatment.
The Conversation starts with a bird's eye view of the town in which the protagonist Henry Caul, played superbly by Gene Hackman resides and makes a living by recording conversations for which he is paid. Henry is best in his line of work, as a result of which he is asked to record the conversations of such sensitive nature, which may put the lives of the people he records in grave danger. Initially he is shown to be uninterested of the subject of the conversations he records, so that he can detach himself from the guilt of putting these people he is recording in danger, but over a course of period he realizes that his latest recording(done expertly by him and his team), may put the life of two lovers in danger he begins having pangs of guilt which have multiplied over the course of his career. The movie shows how this guilt and his aloofness with the rest of the world drives him to insanity.
The story structure may remind some of the movie THE SHINING, which was although of genre horror, had a similar treatment to the story and a slow buildup to a powerful climax like The Conversation.
Gene Hackman is very convincing as Henry Caul and delivers a solid performance. The most striking scenes in the movie are when his vulnerability is shown, like when his secret lover confronts him to open up his secret life to her, or when he is fooled by his competitor. Gene is amazing in these scenes and ofcourse at the end when you are not sure as him what are the events he is actually witnessing or is imagining them.
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