The Conversation is a 1974 psychological spy drama starring Gene Hackman as a private surveillance specialist who experiences a crisis of conscience when he realizes that his clients may be plotting a murder. The movie is an underrated, slow-burning piece of film that is a product of its time while also somehow transcending its time.

Of its time: the outfits. The clunky, analog surveillance technology. The décor in the headquarters of the firm that hires Hackman for its possibly underhanded purposes. A pre-Star Wars Harrison Ford whose character carries hints of the 1970s machismo that would show up in Han Solo three years later.

But it’s not entirely stuck in 1974. There’s a strong element of the past at work here; specifically, 1920s Film Noir. It’s not concerned with pushing the action forward at a frantic pace. Thematically, The Conversation also manages to reach into the future, with questions of privacy and technology that would be at home in a modern story.

At the heart of all this timelessness and of-its-time-ness is the soundtrack by David Shire.

Shire himself is a bit underrated. I’ve always loved his super-funky title theme for The Taking of Pelham 123, and he did much of the non-Bee Gees scoring of Saturday Night Fever as well.

Both of those soundtracks are VERY 1970s, almost definingly so, but his soundtrack to The Conversation is not tied to its time at all.

What makes this a beautiful song:

1. Rather than hearkening back to the Noir soundtracks of the 1920s, this song seems to predict the soundtrack of a modern story about technology and privacy: Severance. (This is inspiration, not plagiarism, by the way: The composer for Apple TV’s hit show has been open about the influence that David Shire’s work had on him.)

2. Like most of the music on The Conversation’s soundtrack, this song features a solo piano, as alone as the film’s protagonist.

3. There is so much in the melody that makes it feel uneasy: the flat fifth in the left hand chord progression, the chromatic downward spiralling 30 seconds in…it’s all explained in enthusiastic detail by this excellent YouTuber.

Recommended listening activity:

Having a quiet moment to yourself in your car, but making it exciting by pretending you’re on a stakeout.

Spotify.

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