Product: French Connection [VHS] (1971)
Rating: 3.0
High-earning kiddy stuff
The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971, 104')American dramatic thriller. Stars Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey and Roy Scheider. Adapted and fictionalized by Ernest Tidyman from non-fiction book by Robin Moore. Tells the story of New York Police Department detectives "Popeye" Doyle and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo, whose real-life counterparts were Narcotics Detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. Egan and Grosso also appear in the film, but as characters other than themselves.The film revolves around the smuggling of narcotics between Marseilles and New York City. In Marseilles a policeman is staking out Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), a heroin smuggler. The policeman is killed by Pierre Nicoli, Charnier's henchman (Marcel Bozzuffi). In New York, detectives James "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider) are conducting an undercover stakeout in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn.Charnier soon "makes" Doyle and realizes he has been observed since his arrival in New York. Nicoli offers to kill Doyle; Charnier objects - killing one policeman will not amount to anything, he argues, but Nicoli says they will be in France well before they can be detained. Nicoli botches the killing of Doyle and ends up hijacking an elevated train.In one of the greatest car chase sequences in movie history, Popeye grabs a civilian's car (a 1971 Pontiac LeMans) and frantically chases that elevated train. The scene was filmed in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn roughly running under the BMT West End Line (currently the D train, then the B train) which runs on an elevated track in Brooklyn, with the chase ending just north of the 62nd Street station after the train crashed into another train up ahead. Popeye finally catches up with and manages to shoot Nicole.It was the first R-rated movie to win the Academy Award for Best Picture since the introduction of the MPAA film rating system. It also won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ernest Tidyman). Best Cinematography and Best Sound. Tidyman also received a Golden Globe Award, a Writers Guild of America Award and an Edgar Award for his screenplay.Title cards before the closing credits note that Joel Weinstock and Angie Boca got away without prison time while Lou Boca got a reduced sentence and Devereaux served four years. Charnier was never caught. Both Doyle and Russo were transferred out of the narcotics division. Just as if anybody really cared.Despite all the praise and prizes heaped on it, nothing is as right as the film's accounts: from a budget of $m2 to box office revenue of $m52! Not too bad for mostly kiddy stuff - acting, driving and otherwise. R-rating would hardly still be needed today; all looks quite tame.156us The French Connection (William Friedkin, 1971, 104') - 12/9/2012