The French Connection (1971)

User Rating:

7.9/10   

Director:

William Friedkin

Writers:

Ernest Tidyman (screenplay)
Robin Moore (book)

Release Date:

9 October 1971 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

The time is just right for an out and out thriller like this.

Plot:

A pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection.

Plot Keywords:

Heroin | Police | Drugs | French | Smuggling

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 15 wins & 8 nominations

Cast

Gene Hackman	...	Jimmy Doyle
Fernando Rey	...	Alain Charnier
Roy Scheider	...	Det. Buddy Russo
Tony Lo Bianco	...	Sal Boca
Marcel Bozzuffi	...	Pierre Nicoli
Frédéric de Pasquale	...	Devereaux (as Frederic De Pasquale)
Bill Hickman	...	Mulderig
Ann Rebbot	...	Marie Charnier
Harold Gary	...	Weinstock
Arlene Farber	...	Angie Boca
Eddie Egan	...	Simonson
André Ernotte	...	La Valle (as Andre Ernotte)
Sonny Grosso	...	Klein
Benny Marino	...	Lou Boca
Patrick McDermott	...	Chemist (as Pat McDermott)

Runtime:

104 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System) | 4-Track Stereo (Westrex Recording System)

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Brazil:14 | South Korea:18 | Canada:18A (video rating) | Philippines:R-18 | Argentina:13 (re-rating) | Peru:18 | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:18 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) (special edition) | Canada:AA (Ontario) (special edition) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Chile:18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Ireland:18 | Norway:16 (1972) | Norway:18 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (video rating) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R | West Germany:16 (bw) | Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) (original rating)

Filming Locations:

86th Street, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Schine-Moore Productions

Trivia:

Steve McQueen was offered the chance to star in this film. Having already played a cop in Bullitt (1968), he did not want to act in any more cop roles, and turned down the offer.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When the cars turn a corner during one of the car chases, we see a tape in the background closing off the street, and a policeman who is watching the shoot.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle: Merry Christmas. What's your name, little boy?
Little Boy: Eric.
Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle: Uh-huh, Eric. What do you want for Christmas Eric? Hmmm?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Life on Mars: (#1.8)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Jingle Bells

what Friedkin set out to do, he accomplished tremendously; Hackman's at a peak

Although not the very best film of 1971, The French Connection packs enough of a wallop to continue significance as a serious, but un-shamefully entertaining, thriller. William Friedkin, the director, has said about the film that he wanted to "infuse the documentary style." And in this rare time in Hollywood when the flood-gates opened, no one stopped him. This works for fascination on the technical side at the start, that all the edits in certain sequences (chases and such, not the notorious one), and particularly how they're filmed by the two significant cameramen, Owen Roizman and Enrique Bravo (the later the lighting cameramen. There were other films, mostly in Europe, that were making movies like this, but there is also this implicit urgency that Friedkin is conveying here as well; it's gritty, sometimes in the action there's so many chances of spontaneity that it can practically do no harm.

But without going into detail about the specifics of the good in the style, one only has to look at the strengths in the story. For its time it broke ground in dealing frankly with the street/drug scene and its networking, even as by now there are thousands of TV programs and movies that show similar stuff every week. Yet there is a purity in it all too, where the story is so focused upon there isn't too much time for deep character delving and such. This doesn't make a problem for the actors though, as the actors fit the type like pegs. Gene Hackman, in his first Oscar winning turn, is Popeye Doyle, a cop with recklessness and total professionalism as one of the two key cop roles (the other, of course, Dirty Harry). It may not be Hackman's best, or some might say it is (whatever 'best' means), but it is one that compliments the film, essentially down the line and not un-willing to take prisoners. Roy Scheider is also well cast as Hackman's partner, with enough to do during Hackman's 'big' scenes. The surprise success in casting is Fernando Rey of Bunuel's films, who is one of the convincing old-European elegant big-time drug dealing business man in all of the films that followed it. It's almost as if the same character from those Bunuel films wasn't in a surreal-mode.

This is just one of those 'cat & mouse' movies that clicks. For some the parts may even be greater than the whole (and they're practically on all highlights reels of clips from 70's films nowadays), and for others it may even prove more satisfying than it was for me.