Review of The French Connection (1971) by Meritcoba — 01 Mar 2016

For a movie based on real events and purported to have a documentary style it is curious that it contains such flights of fancy as the car chase that made the French Connection iconic. Actually the movie has two chases of note, both equally nonsensical, one in which Popeye Doyle, played superbly by Gene Hackman, an unconventional narcotics detective, shadows a French drugs dealer, played by Fernando Rey, an Spanish actor who never got the credits he deserves for all laurels go to Hackman and Scheider.

Perhaps it is illustrative that the makers didn't much care for finding a real French actor to play the part of the French villain and chose a Spanish one instead. His French was deemed under par. So they finally had to dub over the voice of Rey by someone who was able to speak proper French. At least you got to give credit for trying to make him speak French, for nowadays French in an American movie is just American English with a funny accent, just like the entire rest of world nowadays speaks American with a funny accent, even the neighbors.

Gene Hackman was probably the best choice for Popeye as he is good at playing the almost thuggish violent impulsive detective who works more with his guts than with his sense. This perhaps explains why he and his pal Russo is said to have been taken of narcotics four years later in the movie. In fact the movie gives the feel that he was mostly good at arresting (and beating up) the street dealers and junkies and this big bust was more the odd one out.

The other chase is the famous car chase which involves Hackman chasing a bumbling assassin who aims for Hackman but hits a woman with a baby instead, keeps on missing because he is badly positioned on a rooftop from which he can only hit his target if he hangs over the side. Hackman ascends the stairs of the building only to find the hitman gone. Hackman looks over the side and then sees a shadowy figure run down the street. Hackman teleports to the street and runs after the man who tries to make his escape via an elevated railway car. Hackman commandeers a private car and races after the railway car through the oncoming traffic of New York, crashing into various other cars, but finally making it in time as the train too crashes, into another train, because the driver got an heart attack and apparently trains in this movie didn't have dead man's switches that makes them stop. The hitman is finally confronted by Hackman who shoots this witness dead, totally messing up any police investigation and making the whole chase pointless.

I will not discuss that other chase, as equally unproductive as the other in which Hackman tries to shadow someone by wearing a hat that makes him stick out so obvious Rey must have been blind not to notice. How stupid can you be?

The movie is gritty and leaves virtual no room for anything but the chases and the police work and it is done with such fervor that it awes. Also laudable is that they tried to make the bay guy at least human and do not give him all the nasty attributes that movies feel villains should have. In fact we get more of an impression of the man than we do of Doyle who we almost never see outside the context of his police work. The movie also ends in an unconventional way. There is no closure. This leaves room for the sequel.. but this doesn't seem intended. This movie also ends with a handful of lines telling us what happened.. which is a weakness in any movie. A movie should show or end. We don't need an epilogue thank you.

All in all, probably an impressive movie at the time and with it's gritty feel and superb acting a must see, but I think it can't really stand story wise on an equal level to movies as Serpico or Fort Apache, the Bronx. The problem is simply that almost no time is spend on character development and to be honest, none of the cops actually endear. They seem often to be the most abusive and thus most abject as their are supposed to serve and protect, not kick and beat up people just because that badge shields them.

Therefore, after long pondering I have decided to revise my scoring mechanism to make an 8 from the 9's I give.

An 8 therefore, but a weak one.