Product: French Connection [VHS] (1971)
Rating: 5.0
Best Cop film ever
The French Connection is the ultimate movie crime drama, and is now a yard stick by which all others are judged. Director, William Friedkin strived for realism in this film by shooting it like a documentary. You can almost smell the seedy streets, and get an idea what the John Lindsay-era of New York was really like. There is absolutely nothing stagy about this film. Unlike the unrealistic dramatic exploits in films like Lethal Weapon, everything in the French Connection is believable. It helps that this film is based on real drug bust from the early sixties. Gene Hackman, who plays Popeye Doyle, is a tough, unrefined, but effective cop in pursuit of an international drug dealer played by Fernando Ray (called frog 1). In the entire film the French drug kingpin is elusive. The two leads play a cat and mouse game through various location in New York, including the subway.No effective cop film with be without a decent car chase scene, and the French Connection has the best ever filmed. Arguments can be made that Peter Yate's Bullets is the best, but it lacks the believability of Friedkin's car chase. For example, the French Connection car case is filmed under a train bridge populated with cars and pedestrians. In the Bullet car chase scene, the streets seem to a little absent of traffic and it looks more staged. In the French Connection car chase, Popeye Doyle is constantly dodging cars and people as he pursues the train above. The director here masterfully edits between the car and the hijacked train. The use of sound is also effectively used here, and the car engine roar adds to the dramatic tension.The last scene of the film is shot in an abandoned warehouse where Popeye finally corners his nemesis(frog 1). We hear an eerie sound track as the desperate cop walks through the dank corridors. Unfortunately, Popeye ends up shooting another cop, and the bad guy disappears into darkness.There is no poetic justice in this film.