Not Privy to The Conversation: Harry Caul as a Peripheral Character in Coppola’s Film
Michael T. Smith
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May 2020
In 1974, Francis Ford Coppola’s
The Conversation opened to nearly unanimous acclaim. The story was formed after filmmaker Ivan Kershner sent Coppola an article about a sound wizard named Hal Lipset (who was later summoned east to analyze the notorious eighteen-minute “blank” section of White House tape during the Watergate Investigations). Regarding surveillance technology, film scholar Turner finds a social dimension surrounding works like Coppola’s, stating that “electronic surveillance techniques and strategies influence the entire social order.”
1 The goal of Coppola’s film was to present the story of a man at work in such a field.