When I was first shown scenes from The Conversation in film appreciation class back in the 90s, I had never heard of it. The scenes were meant to be appreciated for the audio as a recording device played a tape over and over and we heard crackling and a conversation between two people. It was a very intriguing clip, and after I’d seen the clip I put the film at the top of my Netflix disc queue for a couple of years before I finally got sent the movie and I got to see one of the forgotten paranoia classics of the 70s.
I saw and read this look back at the movie that came out 50 years ago, and I enjoyed the appreciation.
Have you guys seen The Conversation? What did you think?
Well, it’s just my favorite Coppola movie, so yeah, I’ve seen it. I love the cast, and I love how everything is framed through Hackman’s character’s paranoia. It feels very 70s but I’d say it’s content and theme doesn’t feel like it’s aged at all.
Man but do I love this movie. I watch random stuff at the end of the night on Pluto, this is currently in the rotation of what’s on when I sit down. So I’ve been watching bits and pieces every day.
I’d like to think that of Antonioni, Coppola, and DePalma that between the three of them they executed this particular trope to its height and that of those three outstanding iterations on that theme, FFC’s is the best.
I have not, but it’s on my watchlist now. How this flew under my radar, I don’t know. Although, I have a mental block about a lot of 70s media so that might be the reason. Thanks for mentioning it.
It’s a great movie. I’ll probably let my oldest see it this year and am looking forward to what they think. It certainly won’t be the first old movie they’ve seen but I expect them to have trouble relating to the themes since the presentation of surveillance and control will seem so trifling by today’s standards. Could be wrong. The isolation should still be obvious.
My first experience with The Conversation was extremely memorable, as it was with Francis Ford Coppola introducing it himself, live and in person. In my high school auditorium, in 1980.
It was absolutely not a normal thing for a famous Hollywood director to show up at my midwestern public high school to introduce movies. Coppola was in town because he was handling media stuff for Jerry Brown’s presidential bid during the primaries. (Remember Jerry Brown’s 1980 presidential bid? I have to admit this is the only reason I do.) I guess someone convinced him the best way to connect with The Youth Vote was to show The Conversation at high schools while on the campaign trail.
I vividly remember Coppola saying that he should have waited ten years to make Apocalypse Now - then he could have done all the helicopter scenes with computers. Fancying myself a bit of a computer expert myself - because my dad had just bought an Apple ][ - I thought he was batshit insane. But he was right, even if his timeline was a bit optimistic. (It was more like 15-20 years.)
… I must have been a bit starstruck, or just distracted by being a teenager, because I don’t remember what my reaction was to the movie itself from that screening. (I have seen it a couple times since and yup, a classic.)
