The Movie: The Conversation is simply a masterpiece. I don't know why I waited so long to get around to seeing this movie! Gene Hackman plays a freelance surveillance expert named Harry Caul who is hired to record a conversation between a man and a woman. Some of his recordings have resulted in people being killed over their content, but Harry has always maintained a professional detachment from the content of the recordings -- his job is to make and deliver the recording, not to care what it is that he is recording.

There is something different about this particular recording. As he's going through enhancing the sound, he loses that professional detachment and becomes increasingly consumed with trying to stop whatever he thinks might be happening from happening (I think he might also be falling in love with the girl in the recording... in a way). It is quite gripping once it gets going, and an extremely well made film with an amazing performance from Gene Hackman.

The film does an awesome job of conveying the paranoia and obsession felt by Harry Caul in a visual (and auditory) manner. In short, this is a definite must see!

The DVD:

The video transfer on this disc is nice in that it's been cleaned up, but not too cleaned up -- it still looks like 1974... which is a good thing, in my opinion. Audio has been enhanced and remixed into a 5.1 surround setup, and that too was actually quite well done, resulting in a nice, smooth, continuous soundscape, but one that still sounds like... well, 1974!

Special features include an original featurette from the time the film was made, as well as a pair of audio commentary tracks. The commentary track by director Francis Ford Coppola is as many of his others are, just fantastic. Like sitting around the fireplace listening to your Uncle Francis tell the story of how the movie got made. The other commentary track is by legendary film editor Walter Murch who discussed certain aspects of the creation of the film from his own point of view. There were a few insights in there but a lot of it was more like a play by play of what is going on in the movie.

Overall this is a very nice presentation of an absolutely fantastic film! Check it out!