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The French Connection
1971's The French Connection was a gritty yet meticulously crafted fact-based action adventure that helped usher in a new era of realistic filmmaking that earmarked a lot of the films made in the 1970's. Its connections with audiences and critics made it a box office smash and won the film five Oscars, including Best Picture of the Year.
The film follows a hard-nosed narcotics cop named Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and his partner, Buddy Russo who, after years of moderate success chasing small time drug dealers, get a chance to stop a huge shipment of heroine on its way to Manhattan from Marseilles, coordinated by international drug dealer named Alain Charnier and a French television star named Henri Devereaux.
Ernest Tidyman's Oscar winning adaptation of a book by Robin Moore is actually a somewhat fictionalized story centered around a pair of real life cops named Eddie Egan and Sonny Russo (who has a small part in the film) and how their work on this case actually ended up terminating their jobs on narcotics. The screenplay is carefully constructed with an uncanny attention to exposition, setting up exactly what is going to happen, beginning in Marseilles, and providing just enough backstory on all of the characters involved to help the viewer understand the players. It was especially impressive the way the opening scenes found time to provide a sympathetic side to Charnier showing him bidding farewell to his young bride before leaving for America.
There were a couple of things that really impressed me about this film. There were some things that happen in the beginning of the film that initially made no sense, but by the time the credits rolled, the importance of everything we had seen at the beginning of the film came into focus. Also loved the establishment of this central character, Popeye Doyle, who lived his job, and just seemed to ignore his superiors when during the second act was taken off the case.
There's one memorable scene after another here. Loved Doyle pretending to shake down an entire bar in order to speak privately to his CI and that memorable little game of cat and mouse between Doyle and Charnier on the subway. And that nail-biting chase between automobile and subway was unlike anything I've ever seen.
The film features some dazzling camerawork that actually made this reviewer dizzy during some moments with a grand assist from the Oscar-winning film editing by Gerald Greenberg. In addition to Best Picture, after two previous supporting nominations, Gene Hackman won his first Oscar for Outstanding Lead actor for his explosive work as Doyle and the late Roy Scheider received a supporting nomination for Buddy Russo. Fernando Rey made an imposing Charnier, a performance that was more attitude than dialogue, which gave the character an imposing chill. A must-see for action fans that was followed by a sequel.
1971's The French Connection was a gritty yet meticulously crafted fact-based action adventure that helped usher in a new era of realistic filmmaking that earmarked a lot of the films made in the 1970's. Its connections with audiences and critics made it a box office smash and won the film five Oscars, including Best Picture of the Year.
The film follows a hard-nosed narcotics cop named Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and his partner, Buddy Russo who, after years of moderate success chasing small time drug dealers, get a chance to stop a huge shipment of heroine on its way to Manhattan from Marseilles, coordinated by international drug dealer named Alain Charnier and a French television star named Henri Devereaux.
Ernest Tidyman's Oscar winning adaptation of a book by Robin Moore is actually a somewhat fictionalized story centered around a pair of real life cops named Eddie Egan and Sonny Russo (who has a small part in the film) and how their work on this case actually ended up terminating their jobs on narcotics. The screenplay is carefully constructed with an uncanny attention to exposition, setting up exactly what is going to happen, beginning in Marseilles, and providing just enough backstory on all of the characters involved to help the viewer understand the players. It was especially impressive the way the opening scenes found time to provide a sympathetic side to Charnier showing him bidding farewell to his young bride before leaving for America.
There were a couple of things that really impressed me about this film. There were some things that happen in the beginning of the film that initially made no sense, but by the time the credits rolled, the importance of everything we had seen at the beginning of the film came into focus. Also loved the establishment of this central character, Popeye Doyle, who lived his job, and just seemed to ignore his superiors when during the second act was taken off the case.
There's one memorable scene after another here. Loved Doyle pretending to shake down an entire bar in order to speak privately to his CI and that memorable little game of cat and mouse between Doyle and Charnier on the subway. And that nail-biting chase between automobile and subway was unlike anything I've ever seen.
The film features some dazzling camerawork that actually made this reviewer dizzy during some moments with a grand assist from the Oscar-winning film editing by Gerald Greenberg. In addition to Best Picture, after two previous supporting nominations, Gene Hackman won his first Oscar for Outstanding Lead actor for his explosive work as Doyle and the late Roy Scheider received a supporting nomination for Buddy Russo. Fernando Rey made an imposing Charnier, a performance that was more attitude than dialogue, which gave the character an imposing chill. A must-see for action fans that was followed by a sequel.