MovieChat Forums > The Conversation (1974) Discussion > 40 years later,I still can't figure this...

40 years later,I still can't figure this movie out.

posted 8 years ago by olds1999
9 replies | jump to latest

I watched it again tonight. I agree with a lot of other posters. It is all in Harry Cauls imagination!The hotel room murder,makes no sense. Harry should have known that the hotel walls are plaster board,and have no sound proofing. He could have clearly heard everything with a simple listening device on the wall. It was ridiculous to have him drilling a hole for a mike,under the bath room sink.Where the sound of running water would have blocked out talking. And if he heard the killing going on,why did he not call hotel security or the police? Then to find the room spotless and perfectly made up? The toilet spewing blood is obviously a hallucination. Then back in Harry's apt. This was 1974. The business of installing bugs,was not all that sophisticated.An expert like Harry,should have been able to find a listening device. If one existed.Instead he can't find one. Even going crazy,tearing open the walls and removing the floor boards. And arranging for the murder,to look it happened in a car crash! How did they work that out?

[–] Degree7 8 years ago

It is rather enigmatic isn't it. I didn't care for it when I first watched it, but recently it's worked its way inside my head, and I've been thinking about it a lot.. Like someone's bugged me.

~ I'm a 21st century man and I don't wanna be here.

[–] dyahrmarkt 8 years ago

Harry isn't all that good at what he does. He's actually quite undeserving of his reputation. I think the stuff that happened to him in the past broke him as an individual, and he couldn't get the magic, if there was any, back.

Why drill into the wall, indeed? The movie's as much an examination of this rather complex guy as a thriller in its own right. When you have to go down the path with a guy like Harry, you're bound to see things from his extremely narrow point of view and forget all practical reality. Why not CALL THE POLICE, for god's sake?

The film is ingenious in that what is "really" going on is never quite revealed. Many posting here think they've pretty well wrapped it up, but it isn't that simple a movie. Coppola deliberately blurs the "straight" nature of the storyline in favor of a twisted character study...there wouldn't be any story to tell otherwise, at least nothing beyond your average thriller done a thousand million times. What makes this film unique is getting into Harry's head.

Please nest your IMDB page, and respond to the correct person -

[–] mikehaldenby 8 years ago

He was being bugged by the harmonica phone bug invented by Moran who has been hired by Stett. It's obvious even though the phone rings....unlike Moran''s original device. Yet Harry doesn't even consider this possibility.

[–] McQueen1980 8 years ago

harry has a nervous breakdown and starts imagining things
its up to us to decide whats real and whats fake

[–] dannieboy20906 8 years ago

I like your idea. I don't know if it is what Mr. Coppola intends, but it fits the movie.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

[–] xdayton 8 years ago

Nonsense. Never has Coppola indicated that it was all a hallucination. The blood in the toilet wss caused by bloody towels or kleenex being stashed in the tank and backing up into the bowl.

The drill device was common at the time.

The bug at the end of the movie was a wire hidden in the saxophone itself, according to the screenwriter (a surveillance expert upon whom the story is based).

I'm not sure why the OP has such a hard time understanding this movie.

[–] dannieboy20906 8 years ago

If the screenwriter intended us to know that the bug was in the saxophone he should have done a better job explaining it. I will also note that there is only one writing credit, Mr. Coppola, who also directed. Obviously, part of your post you are simply inventing. Dr. Stanley did not say that it is all hallucination, but that some is and some isn't. Certainly portions of Caul's perceptions are in a dream sequence. Some things he may have seen or only imagined. He is clearly eaten up by guilt and angst fueled by his devout Catholicism. And tearing his apartment apart seeking a bug that he only suspects is overkill. Just close out the lease and move.

So, I still agree with Dr. Stanley; it is open to the viewer to choose or guess how much is real.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.

[–] hannahrose313 7 years ago

What I think happened:

Ford, the kid with the glasses, and Shirley all decided to get rid of Duvall. The comment towards Shirley by one of the reporters regarding the new "top spot" makes me think it has to do with a power struggle, or getting one of the three in the (said) spot. They decide that they will make Duvall think that Shirley is having an affair with one of the company's workers (kid with glasses), by setting up a fake conversation that will be observed by a well regarded surveillance tech. Harry had a reputation for not getting involved in his cases, regardless of the consequences (murder of accountants family) so he was a prime choice. The conversation would be used as bait to get Duvall alone in a random motel room to be murdered. Ford probably drilled it in his head Shirley was having an affair, as he is shown playing the tape as Harry got there, and Duvall remarks "you just want to believe it's true".

[–] Stratego (29252) 8 months ago

They lure Duvall to a hotel room in order to kill him and than stage a car accident? No, just, no.