u/Joe6pack1138

After all these years, I finally got around to this one, and wow - it's really good. Francis Ford Coppola creates a tense film-noir about a really repressed guy who does surveillance for a living, and gets too involved with a certain conversation.

It has so many things I like. The 70s fashion and cars, shot in San Francisco, and the truly geeky level of 'gear' - surveillance / sound equipment - lots of time shifting and 'impressionistic' moments, with a music concrete type soundtrack.

Gene Hackman is gripping as Harry Caul [modeled after Harry in 'Steppenwolf'] - giving perhaps an even better performance than as Buck in 'Bonnie and Clyde.'

Harrison Ford is really the most 'distinct' character in the movie, being very terse and businesslike, mysterious and threatening too.

Teri Garr has some scenes, and John Cazale [Dog Day Afternoon, The Deer Hunter, The Godfather] is Harry's assistant. Several other characters gather for a party in Harry's workshop and these scenes are not to miss. Robert Duvall [uncredited] has a couple of muffled lines, it's strange.

It's totally coincidental that the movie was released just a few months before Nixon resigned because of the Watergate Wiretapping Scandal - it wasn't planned that way. Neither was the fact that the same state-of-the-art equipment used in the movie was used in the Watergate Hotel.

This goes on my re-watch list. I'm actually late to the party; there are trailers and a bunch of commentaries and DVD special bits on youtube - so it's been high on the list a long time.

Thai people are extremely entrepreneurial, and in both city and country, many people have some kind of street-facing business presence. That means anything from selling mangos or bananas from the tree in the yard through a lemonade-stand setup - to barbers, tailors, dispensaries - all the way up to full-on meals, coffee, or snacks. Some even sell beer!
The Thai government cultivates 'self sufficiency' living, to avoid dependence on other nations, so, their zoning is much more permissive. [Even with all of these small un-regulated eateries, they don't have the Tijuana-Two-Step stomach problems as in Mexico or India]. Many, many city housing units are actually built in the typical three-story shotgun style, except that the ground floor has a storefront built in, complete with rolling metal security door. So, these little businesses peppered around provide countless 'third-spaces' where people can meet up.
That doesn't mean Thailand has it all figured out - they still haven't gotten the concept of 'pedestrian-friendly' or public waste disposal facilities. But their solution to the 'third-space' issue is interesting.