I’m watching the editor’s commentary track for the The Conversation and it’s shit like this that will make me spend six hours getting through the latest installment of my netflix queue. Hackman’s character, Harry Caul, is based on a real guy, Hal Lipset, who was brought in as technical adviser. He explained that people at the top of their craft often made their own equipment with whatever they had lying around—not relying on commercially available products, even those catering to their specific trade, because they were often too coarse or didn’t precisely do exactly what they wanted them to do.

As someone who’s always been fascinated by surveillance and intelligence, this is a good flick. Obvious nod (or rip off) to Antonioni, and would make a good “double-feature.” Maybe. Blow Up might be one of those things you need to see and then go do something else for a while.

Conversation’s great, though. I’m not sure if I’ll listen to the Coppola track, I just can’t stand him sometimes.