Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Screenplay: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Harrison Ford, Allen Garfield, Cindy Williams and Frederic Forrest
Country: United States
Running Time: 114 mins
Year: 1974
When discussing the work of Francis Ford Coppola, where does one even begin? Arguably one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, with so many classics under his belt, it almost doesn’t seem fair to other directors out there. The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Rumble Fish, The Outsiders, the man tends to deliver the goods whenever he’s making a film. Even some of his more underseen works like One From the Heart (which David covered for Blueprint: Review earlier in the year) or his debut Dementia 13 have their fans and are regarded as great cult films. However, earlier this year, I watched what I think might very well be my favourite Coppola film ever, and that’s The Conversation.
Directed between The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, The Conversation remains one of the most fascinating projects that Coppola would direct, and that’s including the upcoming Megalopolis, which sounds wild. In the film, we follow Harry Caul (played by Gene Hackman), a surveillance worker who’s found himself involved in a wiretapping scenario in which he believes the couple he’s been ordered to listen in on might be in danger. As mentioned earlier, I watched the film for the first time earlier in the year and found myself absolutely blown away by Coppola diving into the paranoia-thriller genre, which is a personal favourite of mine and meshing it with the “obsessed individual who won’t let something go” genre, for good measure.
Everything about The Conversation works in a way that few films are able to pull off, offering a narrative that’s engaging from the very first frame. A long overhead shot of the park where the titular conversation occurs, highlighting our central character as one of countless people in the crowd, before introducing us to his methods. The gorgeous, melancholic score from David Shire is a personal favourite, perfectly encapsulating Caul’s loner life as he travels from work to home, following him as the sole companion in his life. The perfect direction and screenplay from Coppola, always keeping the audience gripped in the mystery that Caul finds himself trapped in, it’s all top-notch stuff.
While Harrison Ford gives a great performance as the unnerving assistant Martin Stett, my favourite supporting performance has to be from the legendary John Cazelle as Harry’s colleague and friend Stan, who feels like the polar opposite of our protagonist, openly wanting to give in to his impulsive of intrigue and know what’s going on, without hiding it like Harry. It’s a great small role that goes underappreciated in Cazelle’s brief filmography, but it’s great. Of course, Hackman’s undeniably excellent in the role, with this being my favourite performance out of the ones I’ve seen from him (although, I still have a lot to watch!) and it’s such a departure from his typical roles that it even challenged him, according to interviews.
It’s the type of film that’s been spoken about to death for good reason, it achieves that rare status of a perfect film and seeing it finally make its UHD debut, just in time for its 50th anniversary is great! If you somehow haven’t seen The Conversation yet, there’s never been a more perfect time!
Film: 
The Conversation releases on Limited Edition 4K UHD and Blu-ray on the 15th of July, via Studio Canal, with standard releases to follow in the future, judging by Studio Canal’s past efforts. The new restoration looks excellent, I actually had the chance to see it on the big screen at my local independent cinema (as part of a nationwide re-release by Studio Canal) and compared it to the disc as both are utilising the same restoration and it’s excellent on both disc and in the cinema. The Dolby Vision HDR grade at home definitely helps out some of the darker, grainier sequences, although given that the film mostly takes place during the daytime, it’s not something that completely changes or reinvents the film. Compared to the previous 2011 Blu-ray, it’s a huge step-up in quality that warrants an upgrade easily. The picture quality is outstanding and shouldn’t disappoint any fans. On the audio front, there’s two English audio tracks and two German dubbed tracks. The English 2.0 LPCM Dual Mono track is how I viewed the film, feeling the most accurate to its theatrical presentation and it sounds perfect, although I tested the 5.1 DTS-HD MA and that was solid too. I didn’t check out the German tracks, considering they’re both dubs, but it’s cool that they’re included. Optional English SDH and German subtitle tracks are included. The following extras are included:
2-DISC 4K UHD COLLECTOR’S EDITION
64-page booklet with new essays
Exclusive tape cassette soundtrack
2x posters of original artwork
Extras material:
Q&A with Walter Murch, filmed at Curzon Soho, 2017
Behind the Scenes Stills Gallery
Feature commentary with writer-director Francis Ford Coppola
Feature commentary with editor Walter Murch
Close-up on ‘The Conversation’
Coppola script dictations
Cindy Williams screen test
Harrison Ford screen test
Composer David Shire interviewed by Francis Ford Coppola
Interview with Gene Hackman (1973)
Harry Caul’s San Francisco: Locations Then & Now
No Cigar (1956 short, Francis Ford Coppola)
Theatrical Trailer
50th anniversary Trailer (2024)
The only ‘new’ extra included on this release, the Q&A with Walter Murch (which was filmed at Curzon Soho in 2017) runs for 43 minutes and has the film’s sound mixer/editor recount the production, share anecdotes about the production and more. It’s a fun watch that’ll please fans, although there’s overlap with the commentary (which is to be expected). Worth a watch!
The first archival commentary with writer-director Francis Ford Coppola is a great listen, which is to be expected from any Coppola audio commentary. It’s a never-ending buffet of anecdotes about the production, the level of research that went into getting every aspect of the film authentic, and the troubles getting an original concept like this funded back in the early 70s. A must listen.
The second archival commentary with editor Walter Murch is a good listen. Murch mixed the sound for the film alongside editing it, which makes him the perfect participant for a commentary about a film so reliant on its sound and editing, and offers a technical look at what went into making The Conversation the masterpiece that it is.
Close-up on ‘The Conversation’ is a great nine minute watch, essentially working as an on-set making-of documentary for promoting the film, with interviews from Coppola and Hackman presented alongside on-set footage. An interesting and recommended watch.
The Coppola script dictations are fascinating, containing six segments that run for a total of 49 minutes where Coppola plays out the screenplay as it’s presented on screen. It’s a really unique extra and goes to show how committed to this project Coppola was throughout the entire production, and is the standout legacy extra here.
Two screen tests are included, one for Cindy Williams that runs for five minutes and another for Harrison Ford which runs for almost seven. Screen tests are always a fun inclusion and I’m glad they were included.
The archival interview with David Shire (conducted by Francis Ford Coppola) runs for 11 minutes and is a fun watch, with Shire recounting the first screening for The Conversation resulting in himself and three other crew members falling asleep within twenty minutes. Another good watch.
The archival interview with Gene Hackman runs for 4 minutes and is a fun watch, filmed on set with Hackman in his Caul get-up and while it’s not the most in-depth of interviews, there’s some fun anecdotes from Gene. I really enjoyed the included boom mic hiccups, which add to the charm.
The “Harry Caul’s San Francisco: Locations Then & Now” featurette is a fun four minute watch that does exactly what it says on the tin, showcasing the locations from the film back in 1973 and comparing it to when this extra was created in 2011.
No Cigar is Coppola’s very first short film, and snippets of the short are included alongside Coppola giving context for when it was made and how it influenced his future work. A fun inclusion, although I would have liked to see the short film included in its entirety without the commentary. Runs for around 2 minutes.
Both an original theatrical trailer, and a new trailer for this release are included.
A behind the scenes still gallery is also included.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t provided with any of the physical extras, such as the cassette soundtrack, the posters, etc.
While there’s only one new extra included on-disc, the physical goodies included are sure to be of Studio Canal’s typical high-quality (look to their releases of Total Recall, The Outsiders, Flash Gordon or Mulholland Drive as examples) and the legacy extras are all great. The Conversation looks better than ever on UHD and will please fans looking for the best home media release yet. Highly recommended.
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