In "The Conversation" a guy walks across Union Square in downtown San Francisco, while a camera slowly zooms in on him. Then it finds someone else and follows him and what he does for the next 2 hours, and the movie's over. That guy walking across Union Square was me in the first months of my living there, and I never got a dime for being in the show - hell, I didn't even know they were filming! Seriously, though, in the autumn of 1972, while the initial shots of "The Conversation" were being made (with Haskell Wexler photographing), Francis Ford Coppola was the King Of The Film World, having "The Godfather" in its initial run in theaters, signed already for a sequel, and beginning a labor of love he'd waited several years to start. In the same days a small news story was beginning to emerge, but would take months to snowball into the Watergate scandal of President Nixon's White House.

Inspired by Michaelangelo Antonioni's masterpiece "Blowup", Coppola had written a script in 1966 about a surveillance expert who may or may not have information on a crime about to be committed. Where the 'hero' of "Blowup" had been rather guiltlessly, fecklessly amoral, Coppola's character, Harry Caul, is a guilt-ridden amoral Catholic at war with himself. Coppola pitched it to Carlo Ponti (Sophia Loren's husband and producer of "Blowup"), who turned it down. Everyone turned it down. Paramount had turned it down until "The Godfather" opened - and they accepted "The Conversation" as part of a package deal with Coppola. Coppola was partners in American Zoetrope at the time, a fledgling San Francisco company he co-founded with his prot

Picture: Absolutely stunning! This film hasn't looked as good since it opened in San Francisco more than a quarter-century ago. Framed at 1.85, the anamorphic transfer is extremely film-like, rendering the color palette quite well, and with no edge-enhancement or pixelization evident. A few speckles of dirt are seen very fleetingly, but not to any point of distraction. Coppola's company American Zoetrope did the DVD authoring, and their work is impressive indeed (witness also "Apocalypse Now", "Tucker: The Man And His Dreams", and "The Virgin Suicides" as further evidence of AZ's authoring - I suspect they have also done the upcoming "Godfather" set). Sound: The original mono track has been replaced with a new and quite dynamic Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. Before you take umbrage, however, the remix was done by the man who originally mixed the film, editor Walter Murch (more about him momentarily). While this is not by any means an action thriller in the conventional sense it IS a film about sound, and the mix here is a perfect complement to the image. The 5.1 mix hardly sounds dated, as it is not called upon to ever show enormous dynamic range.

A commentary by director/writer/producer Francis Ford Coppola is provided. Coppola talks mainly about the inspirations and story development of the film, and Caul's character. Gene Hackman was not thrilled by the look or intonations of Harry, having just come off his Oscar high for "The French Connection", and was taciturn the entire shoot, which worked perfectly for the character. And we learn that Coppola's typist misspelled Caul (assigning it this spelling, which describes a portion of the sac which covers a fetus), something which Coppola felt quite apropos to his concept of Harry. A second commentary by film and sound editor Walter Murch is more technical, and is equally fascinating. This was Murch's first film editing job, and he does a remarkable job letting us in on how the film took shape from the massive amount of footage Coppola provided him. (Walter Murch is a largely unsung hero in modern film - he cut "Ghost", and won Oscars for film editing AND sound for "The English Patient", and pioneered modern sound mixes with the 9 months he worked on the Dolby tracks for the original release of "Apocalypse Now". Murch's sound work was so important he shares a writing screen credit with George Lucas for "THX 1138".) Murch shares an amusing and embarrassing personal story about the overflowing toilet scene, and provides a rare glimpse into the post-production creativity which goes into films. Both Coppola and Murch point out the strategy of having the camera sit, let people pass in and out of frame, then 'discover' they have moved and pan and tilt to follow them; it doesn't necessarily register consciously, but it certainly gives us the feeling of being mechanical 'peeping toms'. And they both talk about the most surprising element of this masterpiece: that Coppola shut down production a week early, so the film as originally conceived was never finished! Also included in the package is a 9 minute featurette made during the filming, "Close Up On 'The Conversation'". It is much more interesting that today's HBO-hype sales tools, in that it allows you to understand what the film is about, and see some wonderful behind-the-scenes work as we are able to watch Coppola directing three scenes from the film (the loft party scene, the trade show, and Harry's apartment near the end of the film). Last up is the theatrical trailer.

A powerful and resonant independent film masterpiece from the early 1970s, "The Conversation" is given it's just due by Paramount (and American Zoetrope) with this release. It is a thorough DVD - with simply two commentaries and a short contemporary mini-portrait of it's making this package is a delight to fans of the film - and will be illuminating to those not yet inducted into the ranks. "The Conversation" is a brilliant classic by anyone's standards, and it is a joy to be able to own Paramount's new video version.