Product: French Connection [VHS] (1971)
Rating: 5.0
Spinach or Omelets?
To a significant extent, this film is based on a real-world situation in which hundreds of law enforcement officials worked for many months to locate and eliminate the connection between the source of heroin in France and its underworld contacts in the United States. As examined in Robin Moore's book, 112 pounds of heroin (with a then street value of about $90-million) were scheduled to arrived in the United States. Narcotics detectives Eddie ("Popeye") Egan and Sonny Grosso completed a lengthy investigation to learn who, when, where, how, etc. In the film, Hackman plays re-named Jimmy ("Popeye") Doyle and Roy Scheider plays his re-named partner Buddy Russo. (Both Eddie Eagan and Sonny Grosso have small parts in the film.) Other variations from the book are relatively insignificant. The situation remains essentially the same. The film carefully follows the extended and tedious period of surveillance which reveals the NYC source; preparations are then completed in anticipation of the shipment's arrival; finally, the connection is consummated and....Under William Friedkin's brilliant direction (which resulted in an Academy Award for him), this film weaves several separate but related plot threads, both within and beyond the United States, which involve criminal activities in meticulous coordination with efforts by law enforcement officials to respond to them. I was fascinated by the juxtaposition of elegance and luxury in affluent (albeit criminal) society with the squalor and decay of the world within which the heroin will ultimately be distributed. I was also fascinated by the style and temperament of Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) who supervises the shipment in striking contrast with his principal adversary, Doyle, who resembles an enraged bear wearing ill-fitting hand-me-down men's clothing. (FYI, Hackman received an Academy Award for his performance.) Doyle becomes obsessed with destroying the French connection, no matter what. This is most evident during a car chase through the streets of New York which remains the most harrowing ever included in a film. (Even better than the car chase in Bullitt three years earlier? Yes.) All of the acting is outstanding as are the cinematography and editing. The Academy Award for best film was one of five received and each was well-deserved. It is probably impossible to measure accurately the nature and extent of this film's impact on subsequent films as well as on programs produced for television. Seeing it again recently, I was again struck by the fact that it has lost none of its "edge" and that Hackman's performance has even more power now than it did in 1971.