The French Connection (B or 3/4 stars)
'The French Connection', directed by William Friedkin, is a 5-time Academy Award-winning action film from 1971. At the story's onset, Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) & Buddy "Cloudy" Russo - based on real-life NY narcotics detectives Eddie Egan & Sonny Gross - are partners on the narc squad, who lead their uptown Manhattan precinct in drug busts. On a risky hunch, Popeye convinces Buddy that they should stake-out small-time criminal Sal Boca (Tony LoBianco). Boca is a big-shot to a cluster of shady friends; living the druggy high life while owning a lowly candy store. The suspicions they have come to fruition, as Sal is followed to the apartment of one, Joel Weinstock -- a suspected drug dealer who was never arrested.
Word 'on the street' gets out that there is a huge shipment of heroin coming in from Marseilles, France, as Popeye & Buddy {through wiretapping & 24-hour tailing} find out that the man behind that shipment is drug king Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey). He has arrived in NYC with a menacing underling Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi) to seal the deal of 60 kilos of heroin with Boca, who is representing Joel Weinstock & is making his 1st lucrative drug deal. Most of the action has Popeye trying to trail Charnier, nicknamed Frog # One by the police. But Charnier notices Popeye & gives him the slip. Feeling that Popeye is a drawback to the deal going forward, Pierre then shoots at Popeye from a rooftop; instead, accidentally hitting a woman passer-by. After a nerve-rattling elevated-railroad chase sequence, a smattering of characters are killed and, the success of our heroes' plight could be all in vain.
This is a somewhat exciting, relatively fast-paced crime thriller that works best at capturing the authenticity of NYC locations. The film is shot with lots of handheld cameras, which gives off a faux-documentary feel to the police procedural/street-level busts that occur throughout -- to this point, no other film aside from Costa-Gravas' Z from 1969 {a film which the director here was inspired from} employed that type of fly-on-the-wall, gritty realism doc feel while watching it. I am giving this film a B/3 out of 4 star rating because while the movie is clearly a good one with solid acting, interesting camerawork, etc. ... it simply does not seem as spectacular watching it today in the 21st century as it likely did when it was revolutionary in 1971. I was not riveted. The action scenes did not blow me away; while acknowledging that they must've been "somethin' else" to audiences & critics back then.
Gene Hackman is very good as our brutish, bitter, but somewhat likeable vigilante that is hell bent on taking down the drug smuggling ring. Hackman rightfully won the Best Actor Academy Award for this film; sparking a plethora of great leading & supporting roles for the rest of Hackman's successful career. Hackman has always been greatly admired & has endured since the mid-1960s; even though he retired from movies in 2004 -- he is 93 today in 2023. Roy Scheider is excellent as Hackman's right-hand man. And both Fernando Rey & Marcel Bozzuffi make for fine villains.
Technically, the film impresses with powerful stunts, practical effects, frenetic action & the aforementioned elevated-railroad chase scene. But again, it's all very impressive, to me ... for the time it was made. I don't think the film has the strongest narrative drive or great dialogue. And the relentless zeal for NYC's decaying milieu just didn't do it for me -- was a turn-off. I guess grainy, sordid realism on film is not my genre of choice. Still, I can't not acknowledge The French Connection's objective strengths as a steely thinking person's action flick. Still, I am kinda baffled that it won Best Picture, Screenplay & some other categories against the likes of The Last Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, among others.
Word 'on the street' gets out that there is a huge shipment of heroin coming in from Marseilles, France, as Popeye & Buddy {through wiretapping & 24-hour tailing} find out that the man behind that shipment is drug king Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey). He has arrived in NYC with a menacing underling Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi) to seal the deal of 60 kilos of heroin with Boca, who is representing Joel Weinstock & is making his 1st lucrative drug deal. Most of the action has Popeye trying to trail Charnier, nicknamed Frog # One by the police. But Charnier notices Popeye & gives him the slip. Feeling that Popeye is a drawback to the deal going forward, Pierre then shoots at Popeye from a rooftop; instead, accidentally hitting a woman passer-by. After a nerve-rattling elevated-railroad chase sequence, a smattering of characters are killed and, the success of our heroes' plight could be all in vain.
This is a somewhat exciting, relatively fast-paced crime thriller that works best at capturing the authenticity of NYC locations. The film is shot with lots of handheld cameras, which gives off a faux-documentary feel to the police procedural/street-level busts that occur throughout -- to this point, no other film aside from Costa-Gravas' Z from 1969 {a film which the director here was inspired from} employed that type of fly-on-the-wall, gritty realism doc feel while watching it. I am giving this film a B/3 out of 4 star rating because while the movie is clearly a good one with solid acting, interesting camerawork, etc. ... it simply does not seem as spectacular watching it today in the 21st century as it likely did when it was revolutionary in 1971. I was not riveted. The action scenes did not blow me away; while acknowledging that they must've been "somethin' else" to audiences & critics back then.
Gene Hackman is very good as our brutish, bitter, but somewhat likeable vigilante that is hell bent on taking down the drug smuggling ring. Hackman rightfully won the Best Actor Academy Award for this film; sparking a plethora of great leading & supporting roles for the rest of Hackman's successful career. Hackman has always been greatly admired & has endured since the mid-1960s; even though he retired from movies in 2004 -- he is 93 today in 2023. Roy Scheider is excellent as Hackman's right-hand man. And both Fernando Rey & Marcel Bozzuffi make for fine villains.
Technically, the film impresses with powerful stunts, practical effects, frenetic action & the aforementioned elevated-railroad chase scene. But again, it's all very impressive, to me ... for the time it was made. I don't think the film has the strongest narrative drive or great dialogue. And the relentless zeal for NYC's decaying milieu just didn't do it for me -- was a turn-off. I guess grainy, sordid realism on film is not my genre of choice. Still, I can't not acknowledge The French Connection's objective strengths as a steely thinking person's action flick. Still, I am kinda baffled that it won Best Picture, Screenplay & some other categories against the likes of The Last Picture Show, A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof, among others.