Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 film, The Conversation, is a mystery/thriller that strikes a viewer with a sound. The Conversation is shot from the point of view of the hero – a surveillance expert, who feels remorse over the content of the sound he recorded. Therefore, sound as an object appears in this picture more often than in other films. The movie’s opening scene introduces the conversation that drives much of the plot and Gene Hackman as Harry Caul’s character actions.
The conversation repeats multiple times throughout the film to enhance the effect of paranoia that accompanies Hackman, who thinks that his tapes may lead to the death of a couple as an audio surveillance expert. The conversation has a significant effect on the viewer as it transfers Harry’s emotion that continuously evaluates the situation with the potential threat to others and his hesitation and repression from his work. It tells the viewer that Harry cannot tell anything about his emotions and work issues, but only sound can.
The Conversation has a musical score that features a piano solo accompanied by spare and shrill electronic sounds that provoke shivers and oppression. The repetitive score appears from time to time when Harry reflects on his actions and possible upcoming consequences to pull the audience into the wiretapper’s collapsing mindset. The musical score is made by distortion of tapes of the piano’s sounds that create different tonalities to make the sound is heard from the inside of the character’s mind.
The filmmakers were able to focus the viewer’s attention on critical sounds. For instance, when Harry first edits the tape that he and his crew have documented, the noise from the train’s bell appears to draw attention that is reintroduced in Harry’s dream sequence, who cannot rest even while dreaming. The usage of electronic sound effects and ambient noise expresses repression that Harry has due to his work despite having a stoic character and silent mouth. This is how filmmakers were able to compile various sounds, not only music, to express genuine emotions that a character cannot express himself.