|
| .. |
|
|
THE FRENCH CONNECTION
Review by Michael Jacobson
Stars:
Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel Bozzufii
Director: William Friedkin
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby
Surround
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Features: See Review
Length: 104 Minutes
Release Date: September 25, 2001
"All
right...Popeye's here!"
Endless
hours on stakeout. Scoping
suspicious individuals and following them all over the city. Watching out of the corner of your eye for a transaction that
takes less than a second. Finding
the man with the drugs, and not busting him, taking a huge risk that he’ll
lead you to the big connection, but hoping he doesn’t spot you in the
meantime.
Such
is the life of a narcotics officer, and that life is captured masterfully in
William Friedkin’s classic cop drama The French Connection.
This movie revolutionized the police film, by taking audiences into
the lives of the men who relentlessly follow the money and the drugs.
The
film is based on an actual NYPD case from 1962, in which two narcs, Eddie
“Popeye” Egan and Sonny “Cloudy” Grasso almost miraculously stumbled
onto the biggest heroin bust in the nation’s history, unraveling a scheme that
was bringing millions of dollars worth of illegal drugs into the United States
from France.
William
Friedkin, known primarily as a documentarian at that point in his career, was a
good choice to man the project of bringing their story to the screen.
His gritty sense of realism made the picture a lot different from any
police movie that came before, and indeed, helped to create a different kind of
cop for the genre. Popeye Doyle
(Hackman) is a flawed character. Though his dedication to duty and relentless pursuit of
dealers and users made him a good cop, his propensity towards racism, women, and
bad temper darkened his image. We
learn that at least one time, his hunches cost the life of another cop.
His
partner, Buddy Russo (Scheider) is equally dedicated, but a little more
grounded. As a team, the men wore
their badges 24 hours a day. They
weren’t afraid to cross imaginary lines; the only real difference was exactly
how far they were willing to go.
The
case began to take shape almost by accident, as the two partners shared an off
duty drink in a nightclub and witnessed a celebration going on a few tables
away. Recognizing several key
players in the New York drug market, they decide to follow them.
Learning that the dealers’ connections were bigger than they had
imagined, Popeye and Buddy eventually trace the source to a French godfather (Rey),
who is using a television star from his homeland and some Lincoln cars in an
ingenious way to import his product.
There
are several key sequences that have cemented the movie’s reputation over the
decades. My two favorites are both
chase scenes. The first is a foot
chase, where Popeye tails his man above ground and below ground, in and out of
the subway system, trying to keep him in sights without giving himself away.
The conclusion of it is one of the movie’s defining images.
The
second, of course, has been called the greatest car chase ever filmed, even
topping Steve McQueen’s Bullitt from a few years earlier.
The production of the sequence has become the stuff of legends…with
only one take, Friedkin and his stunt driver barreled down the streets of New
York in pursuit of an elevated train. There
was very little time for set-up or safety precautions:
some of the accidents in the scene were accidents for real. Most of the people in the shots were not hired drivers or
extras; they were actual New Yorkers who almost stumbled into the way of a
dangerous sequence! Thankfully, no
one really died, and even Friedkin himself has blamed the recklessness of the
filming on his hotheaded youth, swearing he would never try such a potentially
lethal scene for a movie again.
But
it’s that kind of reckless, almost unplanned feeling approach that help make
the film as exciting as it is. Friedkin
would often rehearse his actors and his camera crews separately so that shots
would be a little less smooth and more like watching real events unfolding.
His eye for detail brought a side of New York to the screen seldom seen
before, but often seen since. He
had a real feel for the cops in the story, even to having the real men Eddie
Egan and Sonny Grasso on set as technical advisors, and even appearing in roles
as Hackman and Scheider’s supervisors.
But
the actors deserve credit as well. Scheider
would receive a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role as the no-nonsense
Buddy, and of course, Gene Hackman’s stardom was guaranteed when he took home
the Best Actor statuette for playing Popeye.
To his credit, he endured much antagonism from director Friedkin, who
never believed that a mild mannered Midwesterner like Hackman could play a
gritty, hard edged New York cop. Fans
and critics believed otherwise.
The
French Connection is simply dynamite entertainment…one of the best movies ever made, and
arguably the greatest of all the great cop films.
Video
****
What
a thrill! The French Connection looks
gorgeous with this new anamorphic transfer from Fox. The images are clean, bright, with excellent color rendering
and sharp, crisp detail from start to finish.
The opening shot, ironically, is one of only about three problem scenes:
the camera shows a blue sky that is grungy and grainy looking, but just
like that, it’s over and the beauty of this transfer kicks in.
The other two are also brief, with a little less detail and more
haziness, but truth be told, what’s great about this presentation more than
makes up for less than 1 minute’s worth of noticeable problems…much more. This is easily one of the best looking 70s movies on DVD
I’ve ever seen…Fox did absolutely right by this classic title.
Audio
****
I
don’t always expect much from new 5.1 mixes of older titles, but Fox delivers
a quality audio track for this disc. Don
Ellis’ musical score, with its punchy bass lines, gets a superb boost from the
subwoofer. The rest of the audio is
encompassing and ambient, with the rear channels getting discreet signals to
create the environment of the busy, noisy sections of New York.
The dynamic range really comes to life during the car sequence and the
finale. Dialogue, of course, is
clear and nicely rendered throughout. A
commendable effort!
Features
****
As
with all Fox Five Star Collection titles, the extras are generous and terrific.
My favorite is the William Friedkin commentary track, which is an
enjoyable and informative listen, and for a movie like this, invaluable.
The second commentary track is scene specific, and features alternations
of Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider…not as good as I hoped, as it’s a very
sparse track that you have to kind of skip around to listen to. Both of these are on disc one, as well as the theatrical
trailer.
Disc
two rounds out the supplements with three documentaries:
the excellent BBC production “Poughkeepsie Shuffle”, detailing the
production and featuring cast and crew interviews with Friedkin, Hackman,
Scheider and more, including the real Sonny Grasso.
The second documentary, “Making the Connection”, features more
interviews and focuses more on the story of the real men behind the French
Connection bust. The third is a
deleted scene documentary hosted by Friedkin, who discusses seven scenes that
didn’t make the final cut and why (you can also opt to view the scenes
separately). Rounding it out is a
stills gallery and the trailer again, as well as one for French Connection
II.
Summary:
