Movie #14 - The French Connection

I must admit... I have wanted to watch this movie for many years now. Ever since I was a kid, I always heard that one of the best police movies is The French Connection. Well, it does not disappoint. This film is Gene Hackman at his best... not to forget, a cool counterpart in Roy Scheider.

Hackman and Scheider were at the top of their game in this movie. Intensity and passion were easily conveyed by both actors. This pairing of A-list actors from that era really worked... something that could be compared to the accomplishment of pairing Walken and De Niro in the Deer Hunter or Pacino and De Niro in Godfather II.

Hackman and Scheider portray New York City Narcotics officers 'Popeye' Doyle and 'Cloudy' Russo... great nicknames by the way. The plot was based on a true story of a real narcotics ring that two police officers had uncovered during the 70's which involved a french connection with smugglers from France.

The chase scenes here are incredible for the time period. This is probably a template movie for many television and movie chase scenes reminiscent of the classic film, Bullitt. I watched recently on a top movie list show that it was rumored that some of the action sequences were actually shot in real time without proper stuntmen and stuntcars.

This film was directed by one of my favourite directors... William Friedkin. Although his recent work has been total crap, his early work is inclusive of one of my favourite films of all time - The Exorcist. Friedkin won an Oscar for his efforts in this film along with Hackman for Best Actor. I would've liked to have seen Scheider win also, but he was nominated... which is great acknowledgement for his performance.

Back to my comment about the scenes. The rumour is that Friedkin mounted cameras on top of Hackman's car and along the street. He never did block off any traffic or hired stunt drivers for any of the shots. This way, the full out chase scene involving Hackman chasing after a subway car with his French sniper friend would seem more realistic on screen. Don't get me wrong, I am sure that Friedkin fixed some of those scenes, but I would not be surprised if most of that rumour is true. It did look more realistic and resulted in a great chase scene. The conclusion of that scene is probably the most recognizable shots in the film and hence, I chose it for the picture in this blog post.

Finally, I can say that I have watched the French Connection... if I ever see this movie again on television, I'll add it to the list of movies that I watch just to see one or two scenes for...