Review of The French Connection (1971) by Kevin N — 01 Aug 2010

One of the few films I watch several times a year. This is a textbook example of how to make an audience feel a motion picture rather than just simply view it. I am fond of making the bold statement that William Friedkin was just as important to the cinema of the 1970s as Scorsese or Coppola, and this is the film that jump-started his impressive decade.

This is the story of a cop- a bad cop, a wrong cop, even a crazy cop, but most importantly a human cop. Friedkin chose the subject of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle specifically because he isn't a hero at all- he's only a person, and when people are pushed too hard, or fall too deeply into darkness, they become lost- as Popeye does.

This characterization is complete thanks to Gene Hackman's riveting performance, one so layered and dense that it takes several revisits just to grasp him as he should be grasped. It's the ticks, twitches, breathing and choking that make this performance so visceral.

Friedkin's camera explores the psyche of Popeye by giving us his vision through fetishes: he doesn't see a woman, he sees her boots; he can't find a man in the streets until he concentrates on the clicking his cane makes on the sidewalk.

When all is said and done the film is a deep psychological character study, and the kind of revelations one can find in Hackman's performance are shocking. But he isn't the only one who puts in a hard day's work.

The always brilliant Fernando Rey makes an excellent target for Popeye's violent surge for justice, and Roy Scheider plays Popeye's loyal but shaky partner. All of these actors constitute the character electricity that surges through the movie, but it is Friedkin's unique style that makes this film unforgettable and particularly inspirational to me.

I can only describe it as dirty, crude, violent; it takes small cues from Italian filmmakers like Roberto Rossellini, but there is also a stylized control to the chaos that is unique to Friedkin and Friedkin alone.