Product: French Connection [VHS] (1971)
Rating: 5.0
A classic, influential film gets a wonderful DVD treatment
This is one of my favorite films and probably the best cop movie ever made, in my opinion. Finally, the film is available on DVD, and the "Five Star Collection" gives this classic the treatment it deserves.I've heard complaints that the picture is still a bit on the grainy side, but I feel that's the way it was filmed. Director William Friedkin was going for a gritty, almost documentary-style feel for this film, and it's appropriate. It's certainly watchable and of the highest quality ever for this film.The commentary by William Friedkin is very interesting and insightful, particularly to fans of the film. I wasn't too crazy about the times when he would explain exactly what's happening in a particular scene...it seemed a bit condescending. Yes, William, we KNOW there's a drug deal going down. We want the behind-the-scenes stories and that kind of stuff. Still, a very good commentary overall. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider give interesting commentaries as well, but they don't seem to be "scene specific"...just casually relating stories of how they came to be involved in the picture and stuff like that.The extras are fantastic, including deleted scenes with commentary by Friedkin and TWO documentaries, one produced by the BBC that revisits locales and talks with many of those involved. You'll find out basically everything you want to know about the film, and then some.As far as the film itself...if you haven't seen it yet, rent it and see what the fuss is all about. Gene Hackman fully deserved his Best Actor Oscar portraying narcotics detective Popeye Doyle, whose hunch about some thugs in a local night club lead to he and his buddy Cloudy (the marvelous Roy Scheider) tailing them, leading to a transatlantic drug bust of enormous proportions. The film basically laid the blueprint for the buddy cop movie, but it's never been done so well as it is here.