Runtime: 113 minutes
Directed by: Francis Ford Coppola
Starring: Gene Hackman, John Cazale, Allen Garfield, Frederic Forrest, Cindy Williams
From: Paramount
What a run Francis Ford Coppola had in the 70's:
Surveillance experts sure know how to party.
Lead Harry Caul (Gene Hackman, who was truly never better than he was here... no small feat) and his love of jazz happens to create an important analogy when it comes to describing the pace of this film. I know some don't care for the movie due to its languid pace, but that works for me. The movie takes its time to unravel the story and reveal more about its lead and why he's such a guarded, private person; like with jazz, you should relax and enjoy the journey as it should be pretty rewarding.
Caul and his fellow surveillance expert associates (including John Cazale) capture a conversation held between two people-a man and a woman-that are walking around a park in San Francisco. Someone-only known as The Director and played by a big name who I won't reveal here as his role was uncredited in the movie-wants to pay a lot of money for it and Harry starts to wonder why; you see, in the past a family was brutally killed as a result of what he recorded. He starts to read between the lines and becomes fearful for that couple. Meanwhile, his personality causes problems with both his love life (if you keep your distance and hardly say anything about yourself to a woman...) and friends/rivals.
The movie takes its time to tell the story and overall I will say this is great; what an amazing performance from Hackman. He's had no shortage of quality roles but this has to be the best he ever was. He said a lot without doing much in the way of speaking. It should be no surprise that it was well-directed by Coppola and had a quality jazz score, or that the others in the cast did a swell job, but Old Gene was the true highlight here. There are some magnificent moments, especially the finale.
I won't reveal more about the movie as I wouldn't want to ruin anything for anyone who wishes to go on this journey in the future. If you have Prime then it's for free; this is one of many examples of why I have been a Prime member for a few years straight now while I only subscribe to Netflix on rare occasions and always for a month at a time.
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