The Conversation
All actors and roles (10)
All team (32)
Short description
The Conversation centres on Harry Caul, a surveillance specialist who keeps his own life as sealed off as the recordings he makes. Hired to capture a conversation between a young man and woman as they walk through a crowded public space, he completes the job and then finds he cannot let it go. Believing the tape points to a threat against the couple, he breaks his own rule of staying detached from his clients' business and tries to work out what is really being said.
Francis Ford Coppola wrote, produced and directed the film, the fifth of the twenty-six features he has directed and the one that followed The Godfather Part II, with Apocalypse Now arriving in 1979. Gene Hackman plays Harry, with John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams and Michael Higgins rounding out the cast. Its critical standing is striking: reviewers rate it 9.4 out of 10 across 141 reviews, ahead of the 7.7 from 136,000 IMDb voters and the 7.5 from just over two thousand TMDB users, a gap showing the film is held in higher regard by critics than by casual viewers.
Made for about two million dollars and returning roughly twice that worldwide, it sits among the director's smaller, more personal projects from a period when his studio work was far larger in scale.
What's left behind the scenes
- In 1995, the film was included in the National Film Registry.
- Martin Stett was supposed to be a minor character in the film, but Harrison Ford's performance captivated the director so much that he expanded the role.
- The blue 'Mercedes' in which Cindy Williams' character sits belonged to Coppola. The car was the subject of a dispute with Paramount Pictures bosses about whether 'The Godfather' would reach a certain milestone in box office receipts. After the film became a hit, Coppola and George Lucas went to choose a car, telling the seller that he could send the bill to Paramount.
- The film's screenplay was written as early as 1966, and the success of 'The Godfather' (1972) allowed Coppola to bring it to life. The director noted that Michelangelo Antonioni's 'Blow-Up' served as a source of inspiration for him when creating the film.
- Bernie Moran was supposed to play Timothy Carey. He dropped out of the project, and filming did not begin until he was replaced by Allen Garfield.
- Due to creative differences, cinematographer Haskell Wexler left the film and was replaced by Bill Butler.
- The mime on Union Square was played by Robert Shields, who was actually a mime and performed specifically on Union Square.
- Due to creative differences, cinematographer Haskell Wexler left the film.
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