Product: French Connection [VHS] (1971)
Rating: 5.0
You'll be Picking Your Feet in Poughkeepsie
What can be said about this landmark picture? It's got everything. You've got Gene Hackman commanding the screen as Popeye Doyle in every scene he's in whether he's busting a drug bar, chasing a sniper while driving manicly under the El tracks, or pursuing his elusive prey, Charnier, better known as "Frog One". Roy Scheider gives a great supporting performance as Cloudy, Popeye's cooler headed partner as does Fernando Rey as the wily Charnier. Kudos also go to William Friedkin for his sure-handed direction. He orchestrates every aspect of this film perfectly from the establishing scenes in Marseilles, to the buyers in New York, to the police investigation of the connection. Though we have been inundated in recent years with police dramas both cinematic and on television, this is the mother of them all. Thirty plus years on this film holds up as well as it did on it's initial release.