The French Connection

While the 1960s brought us a slew of anti-heroes that even made their way to police films, predecessors such as BULLIT and MADIGAN are tame compared to this ground-breaking film. While these previous films gave a much bleaker view of police work and corruption, THE FRENCH CONNECTION was unique in the intensity of the sleaze that permeates the film. In most ways, this serves to heighten the realism, though even today some viewers will blanch at the films frequent use of the f-word and the general griminess of the city. Fortunately, in recent trips to the city, I was pleased to see how clean and safe the New York has become, but for the New York City office of tourism, this film must have been a nightmare!! Junkies, garbage, murders and the lowest elements frequent this interpretation of the Big Apple--making it look a bit worm-eaten and squishy!

The lead of the film is Gene Hackman and his quiet partner is Roy Scheider. Hackman's character, in particular, made it hard to differentiate him from the criminals because he played fast and loose with some people's rights and because he was prone to getting drunk and picking up one night stands. This was definitely NOT the cop your daddy would have seen in films in the good old days and I am pretty sure Jack Webb didn't approve of this Popeye Doyle character!!!

Despite the seaminess of the film, it was a great detective film because of its exceptional action sequences that made up for the very mundane nature of the job. Long periods of wire tapping and grunt work were punctuated with some of the most exciting scenes in film history--including what most experts would concede is the best chase scene on film. Additionally, the script and direction made the film quite exciting and gritty--thanks also to improvisations to spice up the cop lingo. In so many ways, this film helped create a new type of police film and led to movies such as SERPICO, THE BLUE KNIGHT and the DIRTY HARRY films. See this film and see where it all began--as this was the first rated-R cop film to win the Oscar for Best Picture and STILL today is a film you don't want to let your kids watch (unless you are an irresponsible idiot).

In the great tradition of American thrillers , this famous movie concerns ¨Popeye Doyle¨(Gene Hackman) , an unorthodox narcotics undercover police following the Marsella French connection about a smuggling ring connected with a New York crook (Tony LoBianco) . He teams up with cop Buddy Russo, ¨Cloudy¨(Roy Scheider) , following the trail to hunt down the ringleader named Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) , a suave gentleman but astute baddie , and his hoodlum (Marcel Bozzuffi). The time is just right for an out and out thriller like this . When "Popeye" cuts loose, anything goes! Doyle is bad news - but a good cop. A $32,000,000 chase turns into the American thriller of the year! .There are no rules and no holds barred when Popeye cuts loose!

In this highly rated film there is noisy action , suspense , thrills , violence and being extremely entertaining . Gene Hackman as the rebel and non-conformist Popeye is magnificent , he won a deserved Academy Award . His nemesis , Fernando Rey as the drug smuggler , plays perfectly his role as the cunning and elegant villain . Furthermore , a splendid support cast , such as : Roy Scheider , Tony LoBianco , Marcel Bozuffi , among others . The movie contains one of the best car chases ever shot with another prize for the professional film editor (Greenberg) and one of the most gripping pursuits between Popeye Doyle and Alain Charnier. Aproppiate and realistic cinematography by Owen Roizman , Friedkin's usual cameraman (The Exorcist) and adequate music score by Don Ellis . Interesting screenplay by Ernest Tidyman , an expert writer on thrillers and action movies (Shaft) . This is a great film , professionally directed by William Friedkin and followed by a nice sequel ¨French Connection II¨ by John Frankenheimer and again with Gene Hackman and Fernando Rey. Rating : Above average and well worth seeing , as it is an authentic classic movie .

'The French Connection' has really stood the test of time. William Friedkin is one American director who has almost been forgotten about, despite making some excellent movies like 'The Birthday Party', 'The Exorcist' and 'Cruising'. 'The French Connection' is his best movie by far, and one of the 1970s best crime movies, which means it's one of the best EVER. The lead actors are first rate, and the script by Ernest Tidyman ('Shaft') is a good one, but Friedkin makes this something special by applying documentary film techniques to this gritty and realistic detective story. 'The French Connection' was groundbreaking in this respect and influenced just about every subsequent cop movie, all the way up to contemporary TV shows like 'NYPD Blue' and the like. Gene Hackman is just terrific as Popeye Doyle. Hackman had been around for about ten years, and impressed many with his supporting role in 'Bonnie And Clyde', but this movie made him a major star. Along with 'The Conversation' and 'Scarecrow' it's still one of his most impressive performances. Roy Scheider was almost a complete unknown prior to this but he's also very good as Popeye's partner Buddy Russo. Scheider went on to some fine work in movies such as 'Jaws', 'Marathon Man', 'Last Embrace', '52 Pick-Up' and 'Naked Lunch', but never quite became the big name star that Hackman did. Bunuel regular Fernando Rey (cast by mistake after a misunderstanding, Friedkin thinking he was hiring a different actor!) and the underrated character actor Tony Lo Bianco, who had recently appeared in the cult classic 'The Honeymoon Killers', lead a fine supporting cast who really add to the movie's success. The exciting car chase sequence in this movie is now legendary, and is arguably the best one ever filmed, but there is so much more to this film than just that. 'The French Connection' is a superb movie, and still better than just about any similar Hollywood crime thriller made in the last few years. Highly recommended!

"The French Connection" is an excellent film in every way imaginable. Gene Hackman (Oscar-winning) stars as a tough New York cop who is obsessed with stopping the flow of heroin into the city from France. Fernando Rey is perfect as the ring-leader of the smuggling. Tough, gritty, and realistic, "The French Connection" is an intense character-study that is never short on suspense or action. The film won five Oscars in 1971, including the Best Picture Oscar and one for William Friedkin's (only 32 at the time) intense direction. In a year that produced "The Last Picture Show" and "A Clockwork Orange", this film's win makes it even more impressive than it was nearly 30 years ago. Excellent. 5 stars out of 5.

Following a mix of hunches and leads, two tough NYPD narcotic cops set up surveillance on a candy store in the belief that the owners of the store are somehow involved in drug dealing on the side. Putting the squeeze on the store leads them to a couple of new people, specifically a smooth French criminal called Alain Charnier who is trying to orchestrate a massive drug sale in New York. The pressure looks like bringing success to Detectives Doyle and Russo, but Charnier's organisation has tight time targets and decides to take action to remove the heat from the job.

Sometimes with "classic" films it is easy to get sucked into the hype and reputation and just love it before you have even seen it; for that reason, although I have seen it several times, I decided to give it a fresh viewing before I dared try to write my thoughts on it – it finished ten minutes ago, so my memory is still fresh. Although I feel that it has remained well known thanks to "that" car chase, I think that recalling only that scene is to do a disservice to a film that is an enjoyable thriller in a tough, typically 1970's mould. The plot sees a minor hunch turn into a bigger police job and it would be easy to pick holes in some of the logic within it, it still grips and provides a nicely gritty cop thriller. It isn't as clever or as original as those coming to it on the back of its reputation might expect it to be, as it does pretty much what the rest of the genre does. Now I'll be fair and acknowledge that I don't know whether this film was the first to create this type of film or if it was just part of the development of them, but certainly watching it now it does blend in with others in the same genre.

The direction makes it better than the material as Friedkin injects real tension and grit into the story keeping it exciting while also being rather sombre and low-key. The acting also makes it and, rightly, Hackman carries much of the film with a great performance as Doyle. Grizzled, bigoted and apparently heartless, it is interesting to contrast his character with Rey's Charnier, who is much cooler and effective. Scheider is, as always, reliable in support and he gives a good performance throughout while the rest of the cast play their roles well enough. There is no doubt though, that Hackman is the heart of the film and his performance reflects this and makes the audience emotionally involved with his story from the very start.

Overall this is a great 1970's cop thriller with all that comes with that genre. It is enjoyably gritty and fast paced with "heroes" of questionable morality and smooth criminals. People will always hark on about that car chase and, yes, it is good, but there is more to this film and it stands out as one of the best of the genre.