THE CONVERSATION (1974,
Paramount/American Zoetrope, 113 min.);
directed, produced, and written by Francis Ford Coppola; with Gene Hackman (Harry Caul), John Cazale (Stan), Allen
Garfield (Bernie Moran), Frederic Forrest (Mark), Cindy Williams (Ann), Michael
Higgins (Paul), Elizabeth Macrae (Meredith), Teri
Garr (Amy), Harrison Ford (Martin Stett), and Robert
Duvall (The Chairman).
Please jot down answers to the following questions, and answer three in detail (100-200 words each).
1. The
Conversation has a great opening section.
This first fifteen minutes, set in a park in downtown
2. One of the things a good modern writer
does is to be really sparing with "exposition," with the giving of
background information about characters and situations. The good writer will compel readers/viewers
to fill in the background for themselves.
The Conversation in fact is
ABOUT that very activity, about the search for
background on people, the quest for information. How does our understanding of the basic plot
mystery develop as the film progresses?
How does our understanding of Harry Caul's
identity develop as the film progresses?
3. Let's talk about the "milieu"
of the film. What does the film have to
show us about the "world" of the professional snoopers? An obvious point of focus would be the
Private Investigators' Convention, but look at other scenes as well. What kind of world do these guys live in?
4. Look at the film's structure. Why does it begin when it does, end when it
does? What has changed in between?
5. Harry Caul is
one of the great characters in recent film.
Although seemingly non-descript and unremarkable, he is in fact complex
and memorable. What makes him complex
and memorable?
6. The
Conversation is probably Gene Hackman's best
performance on film. Look for the
elements that make that performance great--the way he holds his body to suggest
self-consciousness and discomfort; the way he expresses the character's inner
vanity; the way he shows Harry's stubbornness and his evasiveness; the quality
of his voice, the way he wears his clothes.
Describe these things. Which
scene seems particularly well-acted?
7. Discuss the role played by the women in
the film: Amy, Ann, and Meredith.
8. Like nearly
every film made after 1930, The
Conversation is a sound film. But it
is also a film about sound, about the same recording technology
(recording, mixing, looping, etc.) that makes the sound picture possible. Discuss a scene in which the soundtrack seems
particularly interesting.
9. This film has no narrator to tell us
what to think about Harry or the story in general, but you'll find that Coppola
uses music to accomplish this end to a great extent. Notice how music is used both to control the mood
and to comment upon the action.
10. At the heart of this film lies "The
Conversation," holding the film together so that we can pursue our study
in character. Why does this conversation
fascinate, obsess Harry as it does? What
does Harry's search for the truth about this conversation teach us about the
nature of TRUTH in general? Can we ever really know the truth? Is it even worth searching for the truth?
11. Lots of big themes here--Privacy (vs.
Intrusion), Personal Responsibility (vs. Indifference), Power (vs. Love),
Isolation (vs. Commitment), Professionalism (vs. Humanism), Guilt
(vs. Innocence). Discuss them.
12. What role do the secondary actors play in
this film? Are any of them memorable in
their own right?
13. You'll notice that the more Harry creeps
out of his miserable shell, the more vulnerable he becomes, until the snooper
becomes the snooped. This is classic
"irony," but then this film (like so many great ones) is full of
little ironies, cruel jokes upon our poor proxy, Harry Caul. Discuss them.
14. How do you feel at the end of the
film? Discuss that final image. What is Harry left with? What kind of man is he at the end? Is this a “tragic” ending?