\n<\/p>\n
Gene Hackman arrives at the Pearly Gates. Saint Peter welcomes him in without even looking up. Hackman asks, \u201cHow did you know it was me?\u201d Saint Peter replies, \u201cYou have a certain way of opening up the door. Y\u2019know, first the key goes in real quiet, and then the door comes open real fast, just like you think you\u2019re going to catch me at something.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m not sure there is a movie that took my head, and in particular my ears, and put them squarely on the rails they were meant to be on quite like the The Conversation<\/em> did, in large part thanks to sound designer Walter Murch, and of course the embodiment of the fraught act of listening that is Hackman\u2019s surveillance expert, Harry Caul. I\u2019ve been uncovering the deep truths of this 1974 Francis Ford Coppola film ever since. <\/p>\n My attempt at a joke in the first paragraph above cribs directly from what Teri Garr\u2019s character, Amy, says to Hackman\u2019s Caul. <\/p>\n