Product: French Connection [VHS] (1971)
Rating: 3.0
Interesting Pseudo-Documentary That Doesn't Age Very Well!
First the good news: Fox has done a great job mastering this dvd as both the picture and sound quality are very good having been given the THX Dolby Digital 5.1 treatment. The second disc also has very interesting true documentaries about the original Doyle and Grasso, the former actually having a role in the movie. I thought the camerawork was very, very good though with excellent play with lighting especially in the late night stake out scenes. The car chase scene was also very good too. This next point can also be construed as a negative but the film tried very hard to stay true to the events as they actually happened.Now the not so good news: this film doesn't age very well as is typical with movies from the 70s the story takes a while to develop and in this case, the movie is shot like a documentary too. This means that for young movie-goers of today, this film will very likely bore you for the most part. In keeping as close to actual events as possible, the ending had to be lame with the criminal actually getting away. Overall, this is a good police movie if you have the patience to sit through the slow unfolding of it and quite frankly I cannot understand how this film won the Oscar for the Best Picture, Actor and Director when clearly another film that actually has aged a whole lot better and is certainly much more interesting that year should have won those three categories: "A Clockwork Orange." Now that was truly film that was ahead of its time and Stanley Kubrick is on another planet when it comes to directing as compared to Friedkin. Another negative point is the fact that Fox has done it yet again in trying to get you to pay more than is necessary for this by putting on two discs when they could have put on one just to get you to pay more. They did the same thing with "M*A*S*H.Entertaining? Yes, if you have the patience. Best Film of the year? Certainly not. Ages well for today's audience? Nope. Good quality sound and picture? Definitely. Now you decide if you still wanna get this.