Review: The French Connection

‘Popeye’ Doyle (Gene Hackman) is an ornery, loudmouth bully of a cop, who along with partner Russo (Roy Scheider) attempt to break a big, international drug smuggling operation. It seems a small-time local hood (played by Tony Lo Bianco) has connections with a dapper Frenchman named Alain Charnier (a slippery Fernando Rey), and there may be a huge heroin shipment coming in from France. Marcel Bozzuffi plays Charnier’s dangerous offsider, Alan Weeks (a Blaxploitation notable) plays a crim who gets chased down on foot by Doyle early in the film, whilst real-life cops Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso (whom Doyle and Russo are based on) have roles too, the former as Doyle and Russo’s superior officer.

 

Probably the best-ever film from director William Friedkin (“The Night They Raided Minsky’s”, “The Exorcist”), this landmark 1971 cops-and-crooks film boasts a top-notch performance from an Oscar-winning Gene Hackman as the tough, ornery, but ultimately dogged and determined ‘Popeye’ Doyle. Possibly Hackman’s best-ever performance, I bet cops at the time absolutely loved this character (supposedly based on real-life cop Eddie Egan, who plays Doyle’s superior in the film), and no matter his flaws (i.e. He’s a prick), he’s one helluva movie character. It’s the perfect marriage of actor and character, I think. Also impressive are the locations and the wonderful, elusive villainy of Fernando Rey. Roy Scheider is rock-solid too (earning an Oscar nomination), and Tony Lo Bianco is perfect casting.

 

It’s a well-directed and well-crafted film, and whilst the handheld cinematography by Owen Roizman (“The Exorcist”, “The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3”, “Network”) gets a bit too sloppy at times, it’s undeniably gritty and the film just looks and feels a bit more authentic than other 70s cop films. So you’ll accept a bit of the wobbles when the location-shooting is so important to the film. The Oscar-winning editing by Jerry Greenberg (“Apocalypse Now”, “The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3”) may be most important of all. I don’t normally like cross-cutting in a car chase, but here’s the one time where it works. Does this film contain the best car chase of all-time? I’m a bit partial to the bizarro one in “Déjà vu” myself (and the truck vs. motor bike chase in “Terminator 2: Judgement Day”, and the hilarious cop car pile-up in “The Blues Brothers”), but I don’t mind if others cite the car vs. train & traffic scene here as the best. The film also has a really exciting finale, capped off by an interestingly downbeat, cynical ending (The sequel’s underrated, too, by the way). The one downside to the film is the frankly awful music score by Don Ellis (“French Connection II”, “The Seven-Ups”), an overly loud and horribly insistent hack job that threatens to ruin every scene in which it appears.

 

One of the best of its kind, if not the best (It won the Best Picture Oscar), this is terrific entertainment, with a memorable lead character and sensational lead performance, backed up by exciting action, brilliant editing, and a good supporting cast. Shame about the music score, but you can’t have everything you want. The Oscar-winning screenplay is by Ernest Tidyman (“Shaft”, “Shaft’s Big Score”, “High Plains Drifter”, “A Force of One”), from a fact-based book by Robin Moore.

 

Rating: B+