Classic Film Analysis

     Remember the jazzy music from the opening scene? It's back, with a BANG! The camera slowly follows Caul as he tears apart his apartment looking for a bug, and the acompanying score gradually increases in volume. Can you pick out the trombones and saxophones and pianos? This is an orchestra, not a synthesized score. Good stuff, huh? So what does it do? Consider the start of the movie, where​​ we're shown through a window inside of Caul's apartment. Another apartment house across the street can be seen being systematically torn down. The parallelism between this image and that of Caul's apartment at the end (symbolizing his life as a whole) is striking. His life is entirely soaking in carnage, as is his apartment. The audience has journeyed with him as he tumbles into an absolute meltdown. The music here heightens the dramatic effect of the dialogue earlier: We know that you know, Mr. Caul. For your own sake, don't get involved any further. We'll be listening to you. (Martin Stett)

      Considering that Caul has not actually found a bug in his apartment, his extreme paranoia could most likely be the cause of his fear, which the jazzy musical score effectively represents. As such, the audience does not sympathise with his plight but rather takes it as a warning of what unadulterated surveillance, and eavesdropping, does to a man, and how misinterpreting reality to suit one's own psychological needs leaves the mind.