The French Connection (1971)

Wonderful Movie

Overrated and overhyped

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Film Review: "The French Connection" (1971)Winning "Best Picture" on April 10th 1972 over highly-provocative, in some circles favored, "A Clockwork Orange" produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) toward an overly-fortunate, due to 40 time multiplying production budget at the U.S. domestic box office alone, producer Philip D'Antoni and the righteous award for "Best Director" toward 36-year-old uprising free-creative William Friedkin in order to deliver his world-wide-audience shocking novel-adaptated screen version of "The Exorcist" (1973) two years later, when this New York City cop-drama meets suspense-beats-of-excellence delivers at that time of conception new-age action-thrills due to relentless-chasing camera operations ingnited by cinematographer Owen Roizman, pushing hands-on action beats to live-performances by a deadly triangle two cops on one criminal on foot, in cars and trains, portrayed in haunting fashions by Academy-Award-winning Gene Hackman, at age 40, in best form to maximized worldview despair of an overly-clever drug-trafficking Fernando Rey (1917-1994), when Roy Scheider (1932-2008) as also-Oscar-nominated supporting character Buddy Russo brings moral stability in an early received action-thriller motion picture for any generation to indulge on, shot on gritty urban New York State locations on constant running 35mm "technicolor" -timed film-stock finished with a 100-Minute-Cut deliverance of a young filmmaker, who like no others made the most of talented cast and independent budget given to him in comparable Academy-Award "Best Picture" wins in eighty-nine years of Oscar-history since its first reception on May 16th 1929.© 2018 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

I had never seen this much lauded movie from 1971 about New York City police detectives intercepting a heroin shipment from France. The first thing that struck me when watching the film was the grimness of 1970s New York City, its highways, streets and subway are excellently captured by the director with its sounds of street horns replacing the need for a soundtrack. The main characters are police officers Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and his slightly younger partner Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider). Hackman and Scheider both look so young when I consider there later roles in films such as Jaws (Scheider) and the Superman franchise (Hackman). Popeye (not the cartoon character!) is an overtly racist, streetwise cop whilst Russo is the calming influence in the partnership! The drug side is led by Marseilles entrepreneur Charnier (Fernando Rey), the late Spanish Rey is perhaps best known for his work on some of Luis Buñuel films and has a filmography as big as anyone! Tony Lo Bianco who I only watched last week in the cult classic The Honeymoon Killers also has a role. The grime of New York is contrasted with the opulence of Marseilles and a brief scene in Washington DC. A chase sequence featuring a gas guzzling car of the era against an overhead Subway train is memorable for its editing and realism. The film won Best Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor (Hackman) and editing Oscars. Whilst good I don't actually rate it as good as Dirty Harry starring Clint Eastwood. Again perhaps its is the grime of a cold, winter New York versus the relative sunshine of San Francisco? Also the film ends pretty downbeat with drugs being smuggled into New York via a Lincoln car, Charnier escaping the law and a ruined building scene.

Gene Hackman really put his acting chops into good use. "The French Connection" is a intriguing, high octane crime story. Hackman plays Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, a hard-boiled New York police detective whose actions can get him into heat with his superiors. While doing his duty to bust drug runners in New York, overseas in Marseilles France, a drug smuggler is being used to smuggle in heroin in Lincoln Continental Mark III. Following the testing of the drugs, the the gang would make the move on distribution. The French team also went to auto auctions to find repos, so they can get their drugs into the open. Back in the precinct, there is animosity between Doyle and another officer. And Doyle and his partner Russo (Roy Schieder) go after the leader. My favorite part of the movie is the chase. One of the smugglers gets on the subway metro and tries to elude Doyle. The guy kills a train cop and a brave passenger. While Doyle was hot on his trail, he avoids every danger the best way he can. After the metro is wrecked, and the car Doyle drives in done in, both men make the move. But Doyle gets the guy in one shot. Detectives are tenacious on finding something, when they have the Lincoln stripped down, the others couldn't find any drugs. But when Russo asked about the weight of the car, they missed a spot. After finding out where the drugs are hidden, the two accomplices would find the car and get back into the business. When the French hit man finds out there was more than what he was bargaining for, he went back to France, wanting out of the deal. Then the shootout ensures. Very epic. This is before I was even born, and it was a hit. I'm a New York native, and my father worked with the NYPD. This is a keeper for a very, very long time. Enjoy The French Connection! 5 Stars! Gene Hackman plays it best!

I thought I would see an intelligent movie with great actors about a dense scheme that deeply concerned the authorities, considering the score and fame here in IMDb. 5 Oscars? That was a little too much. Well, it is just a badly directed movie from start to end with poor ideas... And the scenes are poorly edited as well. Lousy. Completely lousy.They could have made a complex and brilliant movie about the scheme as a whole, featuring dense characters. However, they chose to make a tom & jerry kinda of movie with a simplistic approach - dumb cops chasing even dumber criminals. I only gave score 2 because I enjoyed Fernando Rey's performance even though his character was completely shallow. I don't recommend you to read what was the real scheme or you will get even more frustrated due to the fact that it wasn't just a French crime boss walking around as a lone wolf desperately trying to sell 60 Kg of cocaine in less than a week. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Connection