Review of The French Connection (1971) by Jack W — 15 Jul 2009

An absorbing cop movie that deeply benefits from the style of movie making embraced in the 70s. It gets inside the tedious nature of things like stakeouts and tailing someone, sticking with the characters long enough to really drive home a sense of realism. Watching Hackman stand across the street from a restaurant, intently staring at the man he's following who's eating inside - for minutes and minutes and minutes on end, provides plenty of time for an audience to absorb what this feverish dedication and obsessive focus means about his character. The same can be said for countless other moments in the film. It's a quick-moving thriller, but each scene is given plenty of space to breathe and really live. There's a tension and an energy in how slow some of it can move.

The legendary chase scene has held up decently over time but won't feel as electric today to viewers inundated with recent years of special effect action fests. The sense that it's a highly realistic look into the lives of police will be felt less so by people who've seen modern works like The Wire. But despite these things it still remains a very gritty and captivating piece of cat and mousing that very much deserves the 'classic' status it's been given.