[Movie] The French Connection
And, starting off the New Hollywood reviews with The French Connection, a movie by William Friedkin starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider. Spoilers follow, but with a 33 years old movie, this shouldn't really matter.
Basically The French Connection is a straightforward crime movie telling the story of two cops in New York's narcotics department who stumble upon a $ 32 million heroin deal between a French syndicate and New York dealers. The story is based on a real life case, which was solved by the two most famous cops the narcotics department had back then. Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso were the basis for Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Scheider).
Friedkin shot the movie entirely on location, not a single set piece was used. He went for something he called a "faux documentary style" inspired by French films from the mid 60ies. Many shots were made using hand cameras or driving the cameraman around in a wheelchair instead of mounting the camera on tracks. The lighting is largely natural, so the overall feeling of the film is rather dark, gritty and realistic.
Doyle is basically the bad cop with Russo as his (more or less) good counterpart. The plot is rather straightforward, the cops stake out the bad guys and finally center them in an abandoned warehouse. What makes this one special is the execution. The scenes feel real, the famous scene where Doyle chases a train through New York was partly done without the other drivers on the road knowing about the movie being shot. Some of the cuts are a bit jumbled, without the commentary the scene where Doyle and Russo are taken off the case doesn't really make sense. The ending is rather strange, at first it looks as if Friedkin wanted to keep it ambigous if Doyle shot the Frenchman or the other way round, but the inserts afterwards clear up, that both of them survived. Friedkin mentions on the commentary track that the shot was meant to be Doyle frustratedly shooting in the air. But why keep it ambigous when the titles afterwards tell you exactly what happened to the characters?
Friedkin's commentary here is great. It gives insight into the creation of the film and the technical processes used in filming. Even if you normally don't watch commentary tracks, this one really is worth it.
Basically The French Connection is a straightforward crime movie telling the story of two cops in New York's narcotics department who stumble upon a $ 32 million heroin deal between a French syndicate and New York dealers. The story is based on a real life case, which was solved by the two most famous cops the narcotics department had back then. Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso were the basis for Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Scheider).
Friedkin shot the movie entirely on location, not a single set piece was used. He went for something he called a "faux documentary style" inspired by French films from the mid 60ies. Many shots were made using hand cameras or driving the cameraman around in a wheelchair instead of mounting the camera on tracks. The lighting is largely natural, so the overall feeling of the film is rather dark, gritty and realistic.
Doyle is basically the bad cop with Russo as his (more or less) good counterpart. The plot is rather straightforward, the cops stake out the bad guys and finally center them in an abandoned warehouse. What makes this one special is the execution. The scenes feel real, the famous scene where Doyle chases a train through New York was partly done without the other drivers on the road knowing about the movie being shot. Some of the cuts are a bit jumbled, without the commentary the scene where Doyle and Russo are taken off the case doesn't really make sense. The ending is rather strange, at first it looks as if Friedkin wanted to keep it ambigous if Doyle shot the Frenchman or the other way round, but the inserts afterwards clear up, that both of them survived. Friedkin mentions on the commentary track that the shot was meant to be Doyle frustratedly shooting in the air. But why keep it ambigous when the titles afterwards tell you exactly what happened to the characters?
Friedkin's commentary here is great. It gives insight into the creation of the film and the technical processes used in filming. Even if you normally don't watch commentary tracks, this one really is worth it.
posted by montag at 5:00 PM
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