The French Connection - Hello, Hello!

 

Hello

The French Connection is the movie that put Gene Hackman on the map. He had already impressed with supporting roles in movies like 'Bonnie and Clyde' but this film was the big break that launched his career. Despite being made in 1971, it remains a classic and still better than any cop thriller that Hollywood has produced since. The movie was the first of its kind to present police work as gritty and real. Predecessors like 'Bullitt' and 'Madigan' presented a bleaker view of the city but nothing was quite as realistic as The French Connection.

A lot of the credit goes to director William Friedkin for the movie's effectiveness. He was a documentarian at heart and applied documentary techniques to this picture. He used close-ups and long takes to heighten the sense of realism. He also filmed the movie in grainy black and white, to add to the sense of gritty realism. He even opted for no audible dialogue for large stretches of the movie. This was an attempt to make the movie more authentic, and it worked.

The story of the movie was based on the real-life French Connection heroin bust. The movie follows a truculent cop named Popeye Doyle (Hackman) and his slightly kinder partner Buddy Russo on their quest to take down a heroin ring of French origin. It is a cat and mouse game that ends in the famous car chase scene that is as thrilling today as it was at the time.

It is the performances of the two leads that really sells the movie though. Hackman and Roy Scheider are both terrific. They make the characters so believable that it is easy to believe these are the people you would want on your side if you were going after some bad guys.

There are also some other great performances in the movie from the rest of the cast. The movie isn't all about the car chase and the acting is just as good as the action.

One other thing that makes this a classic is the soundtrack by composer Don Ellis. He was not a well-known jazz musician at the time but he had some great work on this soundtrack. The soundtrack has been released on CD and it is a must for any fan of this movie. This is the first time that the soundtrack has been conceived and recorded in its entirety. It includes 20 minutes of deleted material that has never been heard before. The CD also has a great booklet with interviews and pictures of the film. This is a great way to experience The French Connection. It is one of the best crime movies of all time and it will always be better than any modern cop thriller.