Product: French Connection [VHS] (1971)
Rating: 5.0
One of the best ever
Let's just get the plot synopsis out of the way: Popeye Doyle and Cloudy Russo are to NYPD detectives who make the largest heroin bust of their time. As the title implies, heroin is being smuggled in by a prominent Frenchman and sold through middlemen in Manhattan. Doyle and Russo do an amazing job of tracking down the bad guys, but unfortunately, the bad guys still claim somewhat of a victory in the end. The movie's based on a true story, but of course, many liberties are taken. Alright, that's that.This is simply one of the greatest movies I have ever seen. Gene Hackman never topped himself with his Oscar-winning performance as Popeye Doyle. He's able to channel the obsessiveness, harshness, and faux racism of the actual person he's based on so genuinely that you wouldn't doubt that he's an actual hardened detective. Roy Scheider does an outstanding job as Popeye's sidekick Cloudy. He plays Cloudy a bit more mellow than Popeye, but you can tell that he's just as good a cop as his partner. The cast also includes Fernando Rey who turns in a great performance as the French villain.Of course, the acting is superb, but the cinematography and the action are equally great. Since Friedkin wanted the movie shot in a documentary style, the on-screen action takes on a very realistic appearance. This enhances our appreciation of the New York that is seldom portrayed - the non-5th-avenue, real, heroin-infested backstreets of the 60's. And, yes of course, one of the greatest chases in the history of movies - Popeye in a car chasing the French hitman who's on a train. There's no CGI here. And as you'll learn from the commentaries, the crashes you see are real since the filmmakers didn't bother to obtain permits to shoot on the streets and instead just stole the shots.That brings me to the DVD extras. The commentary by director Friedkin is excellent. It really gave me a new appreciation for this movie. Friedkin talks at length about the 2 detectives the main characters are based on, the difficulties in making the movie, and probably most interesting to a film fanatic, the correlations between the movie and the actual case itself. The commentaries by Hackman and Scheider are also great, but unfortunately, each only speak for about 20-30 minutes. The DVD also has an insightful documentary produced by the BBC about the movie and the actual case.I'm sorry I'm talking so long, but there's still more to say. There are seven 7 deleted scenes and accompanying commentaries on the DVD. After viewing these, I realized just how revolutionary the ideas behind this movie actually were. The final cut of the movie was controversial enough in its portrayals of drug use, police behavior, and Popeye's racist attitudes, but one look at the deleted scenes will convince you that Friedkin would have pushed the envelope farther if only audiences were ready for it. The most striking of the scenes depicts the French hitman enjoying sadomasochistic activities with a prostitute. That may be par for the course for today's movies, but just imagine what it would have been like back then.I've rambled enough, but it's only because I love this movie and this DVD. Make sure you pick it up next time you go to Blockbuster or wherever.