The Tap has been placed in Harry's saxophone.
Re-watch the scene at the convention when Harry confronts Martin stett (Harrison Ford).
As they are talking a man very quickly walks past them. when the man is out of shot Harry is for a split second distracted by him. Almost as if something has registered in his sub-conscious.
Now play this scene back in slow motion. The man is carrying a Saxophone.
I just watched The Conversation for the first time, and loved it. Like many, I was unsure as to where the tap in Hackman's apartment existed. So I watched the last scene over again with Coppola's commentary. He gave the option for where the tap could be, in the sax strap around Hackmans neck. He also gave the idea that the phone call could have been something Hackman thought up in his crazed state. However, Coppola ends the discussion with something like this: he doesn't know. He never decided on, or envisioned where it would be. So straight from the writer/director, there is no answer. It could be there, it could be all in his mind. The only importance is that the character has been severely disturbed by the story he was apart of.
Hope this helps.
P.s. Sometimes directors commentaries are useless, but sometimes they contain some useful info.
Its in the fu**ing glasses!!!
Stop all this nonsese
Glasses! Guaranteed!
I say that it's the telephone itself like how they described at the wiretappers convention earlier on in the film.
share[deleted]
It can't be in the glasses. The microphone in the pen was so incredibly tiny that even Harry was impressed with it. Something 1/4 of that size wouldn't fit in his glasses and if it would, the weight or change in balance would be noticeable. Anyone who sees the microphone in the pen and wears glasses knows it isn't possible for it to be in his glasses.
shareI think this "either/or" talk is kindness on Coppola's part, a desire not to offend the viewers who got so badly "whooshed" all these years. I'm not as kind as he is, so I'm just going to say it: it's obvious that there is no bug, that Harry hallucinated the phone call (and the murder for that matter). It's really a huge "whoosh" that so many people misunderstand this.
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You know, I'm not really convinced there even was a tap. The 90 minutes prior were largely spent showing what a paranoid headcase Caul was.....is it really that far-fetched to think he may also have been delusional?
shareHe didn't even have to be delusional - I also think there was no tap. I think they knew that all they had to do was scare him, and that an actual tap was unnecessary.
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I think it was under the chair he was sitting on. It was the one place he didn't look.
"If he truly loved her he'd let her hit the pavement."-The Big Bang Theory
This is just an idea, I just finished watching the film for the first time. What is there is no tap in his apartment but what they played is a recording of him playing saxophone? If the girl stole the tapes from his apartment that night and his friend played the clip of him playing saxophone during the party, which Harry shut off because he was upset. The tape that was stolen sounds similar to what he is playing at the time of the phone call- it doesn't seem far fetched that the girl stole that reel of tape that had the saxophone performance as much as the other ones with the conversation. Thus, what is played over the phone is an illusion and is a previous recording to make Harry go insane thinking there is a tap when there is none.
Just an idea.
Thx.
Without doubt I believe that the original poster of this thread, yrag-3 has correctly unearthed the clue that expains the mystery. Read all his post in this thread, he talks sense.
sharethis was my thought too. it could be the phone device, or it could have been one of the tapes that the woman took from harry's office that was played at the party.
shareNO WAY...It was NOT in the sax! That was a red herring. Remember, during the convention when Allan Garfield's character (and Harry Caul rival) Bernie Moran was demonstrating the Moran S15 Harmonica Pack wiretap that can be connected to the target's phone, the number can be dialed up to the last digit, and then a small harmonica-like tone is played into the receiver and then the last digit is dialed. BAM! You now have a phone whose receiver turns into a room-wide bug. Remember...The phone rang, Harry picked up (confirmation that it was INDEED his phone, as verified by Harrison Ford's character Martin Stett), no one on the other line, Harry hangs up and starts playing sax along to the jazz record. Phone rings AGAIN, this time with Stett (Ford) talking, saying to not get involved, then rewinds and replays the music that was just recorded thru the phone. As to who got the tap into the phone...That IS a mystery even I couldn't guess (but I suspect it could be Moran & Stett et al., cynic and conspiracy buff that I am.) With today's technology, I would say it's near 100% that these "toys" exist. Wish I had one... ;)
shareI've always thought the tap was from across the road, from outside. That's how Caul bugged the original conversation, from a distance, and that's how they in turn bug him at the end. IMHO.
sharethis movie sure is still very relevant today with the tapping scandals by newspapers (News of the World, The Sun) in the UK right now, isn't it?
PS: the harmonica bug is something that really existed and that still existst, seems to me the most likely explanation of how he was bugged but the point is that he is paranoid.
I wondered abut that too - but wasn't there some explanation that it was only because the subjects at the beginning were out in the open with three different listening apparatus aimed at them that Harry was eventually, after many many hours, able to piece together the convo from the three different sources?
I don't know how well a similar setup would work through the walls and windows of a building.
Just sayin'.
i agree that it was probably from a distance. A sax is fairly loud, and if his apartment is like most, noise probably filters out from the walls somewhat easily. So, it wouldn't be that difficult to get a recording from across the street or somewhere nearby, as he plays the saxophone.
shareHave to agree thermoj1.
What you have written makes perfect sense.
It was the phone ringing twice, one silent hang-up, one taped playback that led me to the same conclusion as you've posted.
Great theory thermoj1. I wish I was smart enough to figure these things out on my own! The director does clue us into this by keeping the focus on the phone after the first ring and slowly panning over to Harry.
However, if you listen closely to Harry's sax music that is played back to him on the second phone call something doesn't add up. They started recording Harry's music around 1:46:58 on the movie timeline. It lasts for over 5 seconds. However the phone rings at 1:47:01. So how come we didn't hear the phone ring in the recorded audio?
Maybe this is just a minor oversight by the director or maybe it's all in Harry's mind after all... being paranoid and delusional.
btw: I thought it was sad that Harry got to the point where he broke apart his beloved statue all for nothing. He was offended by merely hearing someone else speak the lords name in vain yet he desecrates his own idol.
Tap at the saxophone then have a full ear of sound.
As crazy as ....
The tap is in Harry's glasses. The plant handled Harry's glasses that night she stole the tapes. Also, the second or third to last scene is a clip where Ann touches Mark's glasses at Union Square. Why would coppola have put that scene in at the end, unless to show you... duh- it's his glasses!
shareunbelieveable! a 13 page thread about where the tap is. folks, there is no tap.... it's all in his head.
shareFrancis Ford Coppola says in the extras that the tap is in the clip attached to Harry's saxophone.
"He'd kill us if he got the chance."
--The Conversation
In my opinion the tap is nowhere and everywhere. The clues are too pervasive to hold value. The ending is a clear metaphor.
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Another possible clue:
Did no one notice what was happening OUTSIDE Caul's window as he was talking to the woman about the birthday gifts?
1) She must have used the window to gain access, or alarm would have been tripped.
(and doubtful she had all 3 keys duplicated)
2) There were people working (roofers?) just outside the window during
his phonecall.
Is it not possible "they" could have watched how the woman entered and
gained entrance that way...or set a bug from the outside of his apartment?
As far as the telephone bug...yes it does have to be installed..IN the phone.
They are called "infinity" or "harmonica" bugs. There are a few variations..
They bypass the hook switch to allow the handset or other microphone
to connect to the line. The better ones are battery powered as to not
to draw any excess current...(which is a meathod of detecting phone bugs)
The electronics & battery would make it easily seen to anyone familiar
with phones. I doubt it was a phone bug.
In the director's commentary, Coppola speaks of the camera work in Harry's first apartment interior scene. He says that the film camera behaves like a surveillance camera, waiting to detect movement, and then slowly panning to follow it... and it takes a while to detect that the subject has moved out of frame... (we see the wall for a while until it pans over to see Harry on the couch removing his pants).
Soooo.... I always read that last shot as Harry has found the bug and ripped it loose, now it is just dangling there. It lazily pans back and forth, its mechanism broken. Harry plays his sax triumphantly, even though the damage to the apartment is a phyrric victory.
I would personally say that Allen Garfield's character was in on the surveillance of Gene Hackman's character. I would probably say he was in the employ of Harrison Ford's character. The story showed John Cazale and Elizabeth MacRae's character in the employ of Allen Garfield's character. I would say that the telephone "junk" that Gene Hackman was shown was used in his apartment, since he received two phone calls - one silent and the next a recording of the jazz that Gene Hackman's character was playing. Gene Hackman's character wasn't as bright as he thought, I knew that the pen was a bug straight off and the way Allen Garfield's character blew off Elizabeth MacRae's character at the convention you knew that if she got close to Gene Hackman's character that she would steal either plans or tape recordings. Funny she knew exactly who was interested in the recordings. It was also interesting that Allen Garfield's character knew a lot about Gene Hackman's characters work and jobs even if he had to be told about the directional microphone 'trick'. I also believe that they used Gene Hackman's character for the surveillance work for the simple reason that he had done this type of work before and people died and on the surface had no problem with it - interestingly enough Allen Garfield's character brings that up at the party after the convention. Allen Garfield's character was annoyed with Gene Hackman's character because he refused to go into business with him for military work also...
shareI also assumed that Allen Garfield's character was the one who tapped the apartment -- maybe with the phone-tap he was showing at the convention.
shareI haven't read the entire thread, but what I'm not getting is: what's the point? Why would they want to tap his apartment after all is said and done? I'm pretty sure that if he wanted to expose what they did he wouldn't do it in his apartment. And if they were tapping his apartment, why would they warn him? Seems pointless to me, or am I missing something?
share[deleted]
It seems that it's in his saxophone because he continues to play it after his apartment is in ruins, and that's showing the sax is the only thing he really cares about and that he refuses to even check or ruin that one thing.
I'm pretty sure it's in his glasses. That very last flashback of Cindy Williams touching her lovers glasses was the clear give away.
sharebut what I'm not getting is: what's the point?
I think the Wire tap was in the wine bottle that was left in Harry's apartment for his birthday. Harry is puzzled how others knew it was his birthday and got into his apartment without triggering the alarm..Only professionals could get into his place..
The bottle has wooden mesh wrapped around it so the wire could easily have been under this. Harry played along to the record with his sax on his birthday so the piece they played down the phone to him could have been that whereas harry thought they had just bugged his place just before he received the call..Harry never found the wire as he brought the bottle to Amy's place.
At 10.40 Harry places the wine bottle on a chair in the living room and the camera stays on this spot for 50 seconds. Then later when Harry is searching for the wire , Coppola again has the same shot of the chair where Harry left the bottle..
Coppola and wine have a history right? Coincidence?
It's not in the bottle--he left that at his 'girlfriend's' house.
It doesn't really matter where the tap is. The last scene is symbolic for reasons already mentioned. There are some good theories passed around here though.
I think one of the purposes of the convention was to show all the nasty tricks these guys could use to monitor a target. I immediately thought back to that as Harry destroys his apartment. So many possibilities, and it drives Harry mad in the process.
Open the pod bay doors, Hal.