By Robert Scucci
| Revealed
As someone who works recurrently in audio, I can’t consider that I by no means laid eyes on 1974’s The Dialog. Written, directed, and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, The Dialog is a straight-up neo-noir thriller thriller that will make any audiophile wish to instantly begin tinkering with their setup simply to see what it’s able to. If you end up sitting in that camp, nonetheless, err on the facet of warning, since you by no means know what sort of conversations you’ll decide up on, or what sort of bother they may land you in.
From a technical standpoint, The Dialog is a superb watch even for many who don’t care about audio engineering in any respect, since you’re by no means slammed with pointless jargon or these dreaded junk-science explanations that are likely to derail motion pictures like this. There’s poetry in each swap flip and dial flip, every one nudging you nearer to the reality because the paranoid conspiracy takes form with out freely giving your complete farm too early.
Not A Non-public Eye, However A Non-public Ear
The Dialog wastes no time establishing its battle as we’re launched to Harry R. Caul (Gene Hackman), a savant-like surveillance professional whose declare to fame is wiretapping his topics and documenting his findings. Haunted by a previous investigation wherein his work resulted in a triple homicide, Harry is a deeply personal man, in addition to a painfully meticulous one. He’s supposed to keep up a strict degree of emotional detachment as a result of nature of his work, however his conscience has a behavior of creeping in when it’s least handy.
When tasked by his consumer, recognized solely as The Director (Robert Duvall), to listen in on a pair strolling in circles round Union Sq., Harry’s experience turns into instantly clear. He makes use of a number of microphones planted at varied vantage factors to seize fragments of wandering dialogue, all with the intention of splicing the recordings collectively later to assemble a single, unbroken dialog.
Whereas isolating dialogue buried beneath a sea of static, one sentence slowly emerges from the noise: “He’d kill us if he obtained the prospect.” Disturbed by what he’s uncovered, Harry makes an attempt to hunt clarification from The Director, solely to be intercepted by Martin Stett (Harrison Ford), the Director’s guarded and vaguely menacing assistant. Fearing that his work might as soon as once more lead to harmless bloodshed, Harry finds himself trapped between his expertise, his commerce, and his conscience, struggling to serve his consumer whereas grappling with the chance that the individuals he’s listening to could also be in actual hazard.
It’s Not What, It’s How
Francis Ford Coppola was sensible sufficient to lean into The Dialog’s technical features with out alienating the viewers via overexplanation. Due to Gene Hackman’s easy dealing with of sophisticated audio know-how, we’re proven a workflow that reveals an unlimited quantity about Harry’s persona and not using a single line of exposition spelling it out. The muscle reminiscence on show as he spools tape, wires collectively do-it-yourself EQ containers, and obsessively hunches over his workstation to dial in simply the correct amount of readability earlier than delivering his findings to The Director makes for a remarkably wealthy character research. Harry enjoying the hell out of his saxophone as a option to blow off stream when he’s stressed is simply the icing on the cake.
The Dialog’s thriller itself is full of twists and reversals that power you to query the place everybody’s loyalties lie, and the place Harry suits into the bigger image. This isn’t a standard whodunit a lot as a “who will do it?” and that distinction issues. The stress comes from watching Harry slowly understand that he might not simply be an observer, however a participant, all whereas his paranoia feels more and more justified. The added unease from the idea that different surveillance professionals may very well be listening in on him as effectively solely deepens the dread, leaving you to surprise which tapes will find yourself within the unsuitable fingers as Harry desperately tries to shut out the job with none blood on his fingers.
The Dialog is at present streaming on Prime Video.