The French Connection Reviews

No es una película que brille mucho por su premisa (Que es una simple historia de ladrones y policías) sino por como es contada. El ritmo es lento, pero es por construir poco a poco la persecución de los traficantes y esta genial, ya que todo termina en un tercer acto frenético y atrapante que incluso al día de hoy ha sido difícil de superar por otras producciones policiacas gracias a esa excelente persecución y posterior redada final. El protagonista no es un personaje muy profundo pero tiene su encanto por alejarse del modelo de policía badass tipo Dirty Harry que era tan popular en esos años, resultando en alguien algo patético pero que lo compensa de cierta manera con sus habilidades como detective y compromiso con la labor (Incluso si esto termina con resultados desastrosos). En general una cinta importantísima y que después de 52 años no hace más que brillar más.

A film that opens with a Santa Claus and a white man giving chase to a black man deserves to be given credit. That aside, French Connection is a monumental achievement, regarding the realistic characters and the realism in the nature of the surroundings. It's a starkly tough film, harsh, and brutal. Most of the early 70's films emphasized on the realism, and this film is no different. All the crashes, the punches, the against-the-walls, the shouts, the inhaling of the cigarette, the pointing of a finger; all felt natural, all too real, almost a semi-documentary in itself.

The story is this that a French criminal is smuggling narcotics from France to the USA, and two cops, Popeye and Cloudy, must stop him from doing so, or catch him red-handed. The plot is nothing original, but the way the film snakes around it is energetic, angry, powerful, and top of all, impressive right down to boot. True, the film does take time to come to its pace, but it's only natural. Given how modern dramatic-action films tend to go off like an atom bomb right from the first minute, and how every cast - even the villains - are incredibly handsome looking, The French Connection plays out like a slow-defusing dynamite, and has characters that very well could be the cinematic equivalent of Marcus Fenix and his company; damn ugly, but damn professional - no shadow of a smile, no sly smirk to the camera. Check out Bill Hickman: aquiline professionalism that cannot be matched, especially by modern standards, no matter how hard they try. He also co-ordinated the legendary car chase. Check out his other works - Bullitt and The Seven-Ups.

From the performances, Gene Hackman was the top dog. What impressed me the most was his hand gestures. Strong, dominant, full of power. This one performance is strong proof of a dominating, angry screen presence. Roy Schneider, on the side as Cloudy, was akin to a medicine tablet to a sugar patient. Slow, subtle, but effective. Fernando Rey was equally amazing as Alain Charnier, as was Bill Hickman, who plays Bill Mulderig. But Hackman and Schneider had such a strong grip on their characters and on the film as a whole that no other actor, no matter how skilled, could come to their level.

In conclusion, The French Connection is solid brick of a film, as hard-hitting as a boxing glove filled with pebbles, as mighty as Duke's Mighty Boot!

9.5/10

The film revolves around the smuggling of narcotics between Marseille, France and New York City, USA. In Marseille a policeman is staking out Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), a French criminal who is smuggling heroin from France to the United States. The policeman is assassinated by Charnier's henchman, Pierre Nicoli.

In New York, detectives James "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider) are conducting an undercover stakeout in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. After seeing a drug transaction take place in a bar, Russo goes in to make an arrest and the suspect makes a break for it. After catching up with their suspect and delivering a severe beating after the suspect cuts Russo on the arm with a knife, the detectives aggressively interrogate the man, forcing him to reveal where his connection is based.

After Russo's injury is treated, Doyle convinces him to go out for a drink. At the Copacabana, Doyle becomes interested in Salvatore "Sal" Boca and his young wife, Angie, who are entertaining Mob members involved in narcotics. Doyle persuades his partner to tail the couple; although the Bocas run a modest newsstand luncheonette, they have criminal records: Sal is said to have held up Tiffany and also killed "a guy named DeMarco" while Angie drew a suspended sentence for shoplifting and Sal's brother Lou served jail time for assault and robbery. They make nearly nightly trips to several nightclubs, as well as drive several new cars, which indicate they may be involved in criminal activity. A link is established between the Bocas and lawyer Joel Weinstock, who is rumored to have connections in the narcotics underworld; Doyle and Russo allude to a drug shipment from Mexico bankrolled by Weinstock.

Doyle and Russo roust a bar in their precinct, where the majority of the black patrons are in possession of marijuana and other minor drugs. The rousting is a stunt for Doyle to find an undercover policeman, whom he questions about an apparent shortage of hard drugs on the street; Doyle is told that a major shipment of heroin is on its way. The detectives convince their supervisor, Walt Simonson, to wiretap the Bocas' phones and use several ruses to try to obtain more information.

The film centers on three main points: the criminals' efforts to smuggle drugs into the United States, which is made easier when Charnier dupes his friend, a French actor named Henri Devereaux, into importing an automobile (unbeknownst to Devereaux, the drugs are concealed within the vehicle) and the sale of the drugs to Weinstock and Sal Boca; the efforts of Doyle and Russo to shadow Boca and Charnier; and the conflicts the detectives have with Simonson and a federal agent named Mulderig, assigned to the case due to the wiretap. Doyle and Mulderig dislike each other; Russo and Doyle feel they can handle the bust without the government's help, and Mulderig criticizes Doyle on items ranging from trivialities like Doyle's appearance to an incident where a policeman was killed and Mulderig holds Doyle responsible. Doyle comes to blows with Mulderig.

Weinstock's chemist tests a sample of the heroin and declares it the purest he has ever seen, establishing that the shipment could make as much as $32 million on a half-million dollar investment. Boca is impatient to make the purchase (reflecting Charnier's desire to return to France as soon as possible), while Weinstock, with more experience in smuggling, urges patience, knowing Boca's phone is tapped and that they are being investigated.

Charnier soon "makes" Doyle and realizes he has been observed since his arrival in New York. Nicoli offers to kill Doyle; Charnier objects, knowing killing one policeman will not amount to anything, but Nicoli says they will be in France before they can be detained. Nicoli attempts to assassinate Doyle, but botches the job, leading to a car chase scene that culminates with Nicoli's hijacking an elevated train.

Nicoli, after killing a policeman who was pursuing him, holds the driver at gunpoint. Near the end of the line Nicoli is confronted by passengers and the conductor passes out. The train reaches the end of the line and is halted by a safety mechanism on the tracks. Nicoli escapes the train and Doyle shoots him when he attempts to escape. The car containing the drugs is impounded when some thieves try to strip it of its valuables. Doyle and Russo take the car apart searching for drugs. When Russo notes the vehicle is 120 pounds over its listed weight, they realize the drugs must still be in the car. The mechanic tells them he did not remove the car's rocker panels; when he does, the drugs are discovered. The police put the car back together and return it to Devereaux.

It seems as though the drug deal has been a major success; Weinstock's chemist tests one of the bags and confirms its quality. Using a car that Sal Boca's brother Lou picked out, the criminals conceal the money. The car is to be imported into France, where Charnier will retrieve the money. Charnier and Sal Boca drive off, but run into a roadblock consisting of a large force of police led by Doyle. The police chase Charnier and Sal Boca to an old factory. Sal is killed during a shootout with the police and almost all of the others surrender.

Charnier escapes into the warehouse and Doyle hunts for him. Russo joins in the search. Doyle, trigger-happy and high on adrenaline, sees a shadowy figure in the distance and empties his revolver at it a split-second after shouting a warning. The man Doyle kills is not Charnier, but Mulderig. Doyle seems unfazed and vows to capture Charnier, reloading his gun and running into another room. The last sound heard in the film is a single gunshot. (In the TV version that ran in the late 1970s, Doyle says of getting Charnier, I'm going to get that son of a bitch if it takes me the rest of my life!!)

Title cards before the closing credits note that Joel Weinstock and Angie Boca got away without prison time while Lou Boca got a reduced sentence and Devereaux served four years. Charnier was never caught. Both Doyle and Russo were transferred out of the narcotics division

My expectations of The French Connection were pretty high because not only did it win Best Picture but it even beat A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick. It is a very good film that I did really enjoy but it did feel a little bit slow to start off with. I personally think it took about half an hour to get into 'Popeye' Doyle and 'Cloudy' Russo. 1971 was a great year in cinema and did feature a lot of famous films that are part of many genres. I think it had some similarities to Dirty Harry (not just the film itself but the characters too). I think the main key parts of the film when I was stuck to the screen were during the action scenes especially the train and car-chase scene and the scene where Popeye would be chasing after a suspect or fugitive.


Gene Hackman delivers an absolutely brilliant performance as Jimmy 'Popeye' Boyle. He is based on detective Eddie Egan who actually appeared as Boyle's detective supervisor like the real Sonny Grosso is another detective supervisor and Roy Scheider's character Det. Buddy Russo is based on him which does make it a true story. Actors such as James Caan, Robert Mitchum and Peter Boyle declined the role of Popeye Boyle and perhaps that was good because it doesn't seem likely that they would've done a better job than Gene Hackman seeing as he won the Best Leading Actor Oscar in 1972. 4 years before Steven Spielberg's breakthrough masterpiece Jaws, Roy Scheider stars in The French Connection in a role that perhaps led him to star in the lead role in Jaws seeing both characters he plays in both films are police officers.


William Friedkin is a director who has received a lot of credit from the Academy for making great films but unfortunately directors like Hitchcock, Kubrick, Bergman, Kurosawa and Fellini never did. Friedkin did do an incredible job directing this especially in the train chase scene where he'd have to cause a lot of traffic because they're shooting the film and that was just beautifully made for its time and I'd even say that it either sums up exactly to how awesome car chase scenes in films are like today or maybe even better because they're full of CGI whereas this one wasn't. It won 5 Oscars out of 8 nominations. It won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Leading Actor (Gene Hackman) and Best Film Editing. It was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Roy Scheider), Best Cinematography and Best Sound.


Overall, The French Connection is a very enjoyable classic that perhaps didn't deserve all of the credit at the Academy Awards as much as Stanley Kubrick, Malcolm McDowell and A Clockwork Orange. Brilliantly acted by Gene Hackman (but still find his performance better in Unforgiven) and well-filmed in the modern day era. It is definitely worth checking out!