Review of The French Connection (1971) by Matt P — 02 Nov 2010

The French Connection is basically about two gritty cops who bust a French tycoon in what is said to be a true story. And it tries hard to make it seem true. It really does. What ends up happening is instead of a well-written, well directed, well performed movie, is a sloppy, random little crime film trying to be like a documentary.

It just fails on so many levels. For starters, the story was slow and hard to follow(I don't know what the hell they mean by calling it "fast-paced"), and continually intertwined the life of a Frenchman and an angry cop.

Ok, do you ever really know who these people are? A Frenchman? An angry cop? Actually, that about sums it up. An angry one sided cop who can get away with just about anything, except a pleasing performance for the audience.

The Frenchman is just plain boring. As far as the craft went, it fell right down the drain. I guess when they say innovative, they mean this was one of the first films to get lazy and not use a tripod.

Especially for some shaky close-ups., believe me it shows. So for a movie in the 70's, it certainly wasn't ahead of anything. Yeah there was blood and grit, but no substance behind it! There's too many killings and no passion.

Sure the chase scene influenced numerous films to come, but when you look at that scene as a whole as opposed to the entire movie, you can see how that IS the only good scene worth watching. Like I said, Hackman's character is one sided.

All we see of him is grumpy and annoyed, which eventually got me grumpy and annoyed because his character Popeye shows little emotion, let alone care for what he is doing, and never seemed to get punished for the cruel injustice he inflicted on his victims.

So maybe that's the point-that we're supposed to understand just how bad police brutality is, but is there any justice to THAT? The only time we see him get scolded for it is in the end, and even then it's just title cards.

As if we're truly expected to care what happened to these characters. The French Connection relminds me of a better, more profound police crime drama, Dirty Harry. Aside from the fact that they came out the same year, they're similar in story, but not in style.

Dirty Harry HAD a convincing "hero." Sure he was''t realistic, but he was what the audience wanted to see. Popeye is typical, preachy and overral just sounds like a 9 year old all the time, seeking some sort of lame adventure.

But I guess The French Connection isn't about 'Popeye.'. Which makes me ponder how or why Hackman won the Oscar. But enough about the characters, more of the film itself. Well, the cinematography was lazy and bland.

The score was terrible to the ear, it made me want to shut the movie off. I mean how hard is it to compose a decent score for a mediocre movie? It was annoying with it's random strings and chords all playing in a sick "tune.

" And then at the end of the movie the composer gets the first credit. Like we're actually expected to think it was any good...No. The French Connection is a cheap crime movie(much like the ones it inspired), with no style or even substance with a rushed ending and a lead that hardly did anything but run and cuss.

I cringe knowing this won Oscars. It STOLE five of them for Christ's sake.