The protagonist Caul played by Gene Hackman is eavesdropping and recording the "conversations" of others, but he has no bad habits and is not a gang or other criminal organization. A member of the. Monitoring is just his job, and he has done a very good job in this technical field, which is the best. But the consequences of this job have kept his heart in the quagmire of self-blame. He said in a confession: "In a previous job, I was involved in a similar thing that would hurt these two young people now. This kind of thing has happened to me, and people suffer because of my work. Hurt, I am worried about it happening again. I am... I was not responsible for it before. I am not responsible for it either. I am truly sorry for all this and the sins of my past life." This passage shows the contradiction in his heart. If he thinks he is not responsible for it, why should he feel sorry for it? Why should he confess?
The main line of this plot is a suspense about murder, which is similar to Xi Lao's suspense story. The core of the suspense surrounding the murder is a sentence in the monitored "dialogue": "He'd kill us if he had the chance,". It was this sentence that made Caul misunderstood. It also seems to be ironic that even if it is technically possible to invade everyone's privacy, you still can't really understand their thoughts. Caul followed this clue, and the ending was unexpected. I won't say anything about it, so that it won't be interesting to everyone. The murder plot at the end also borrows the scene from the old Psycho in the bathroom, and also uses super-realistic shots. The toilet shot reminded me of a fragment from a British movie "Dirty and Sweet Things" I watched not long ago. At the end of the story, he discovered that his own room had also been tapped. In order to find the bug, he tore down all the furniture and utensils even the floor and partition walls in anger and fear. His Catholic faith also fell victim to this impulse. The statuette of the Virgin Mary is also completely torn. At the end of the film, Caul was sitting in his demolished home and playing the saxophone. The sound of the music was perplexed and helpless.
Caul's personal image is a very ordinary American image, even a little disgraced, wearing a translucent raincoat all day long. He is a good person, working hard, but subconsciously he has a certain sense of guilt and doubts about his work. All these reflect the mentality of Americans in the 1960s and 1970s. As a listener, Caul knows that privacy is more important and more fragile than easy to snoop. Therefore, he does not like to have close contacts with others. There are three locks on the door of his house, he never answers the phone or puts the phone on the yellow pages, and even keeps enough distance and mystery with his lover. In the end, however, it was discovered that these methods of keeping a distance from others were of no use. His landlord somehow came into his home and gave him a birthday present. And knowing his age, his letters have been read. One of his customers and the landlord knew his phone number. He was also secretly observed by her when he was dating his mistress. The most ironic thing is that he was even easily eavesdropped on a conversation he was pouring in by competitors in his industry, even though it was just a joke. Especially when he finally received a call when he was playing the saxophone at home. Hearing that it was indeed the recording he was playing just now, Caul was stunned, and I was stunned. One of the best people in the eavesdropping industry has been eavesdropped on without knowing it. I think most of the audience will feel the creeps like me. He is still the case, how can ordinary people like us have some privacy at all?
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