NYC in the Raw, Issue 6: THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971)

Earlier this year, Gene Hackman passed away from heart disease due to complications from Alzheimer’s, a mere week after his wife, Betsy, succumbed to a rare disease as well. Their bodies weren’t found until a week later, and it was a sad and bizarre ending to one of the most prolific actors ever to grace the silver screen. I knew I wanted to tackle a film from his oeuvre to some degree. I thought about writing about a double bill of two mid-90’s flicks that truly show his range as an actor – 1996’s The Birdcage and 1995’s Crimson Tide. As I was perusing his filmography, I came across an early 70’s Hackman film that I unfortunately, and embarrassingly, had never seen before. It’s one that I was aware of being a blind spot, but for some reason or another, the moment to check it out never came to fruition. As I am halfway through my NYC series, it came to me that the moment had finally arrived to check out this seminal classic + have an intriguing early 70’s look at NYC to soak in. That’s how I arrived at the next entry of my NYC in the Raw series, 1971’s frenetic cop thriller The French Connection.

The setup is simple. A pair of NYC detectives, Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) have stumbled across a massive heroin deal that is about to go down, spearheaded by a French man Charnier (Fernando Rey), and will stop at nothing to put a stop to this and take out major players in the NY drug scene in one fell swoop. The French Connection is a bare bone, stripped down tale of cops and drug dealers. Director William Friedkin, the man behind such iconic films as The Exorcist, Sorcerer and Cruising (and one of my weird fave films of his, 2003’s The Hunted), delivers one of the tensest and thrilling movies of the 70’s, all while essentially creating the blueprint of the police procedural that has persevered across the decades since.

I’m someone who is a sucker for a great car chase sequence. Iconic films such as Vanishing Point, Bullitt and Ronin all deliver spectacular, practical and hyper intense car chase scenes that really dial up the tension and, most importantly, feel like someone could get really hurt. Over the years, I’ve noticed that I developed this weird trend of having not watched some of the most influential and classic films of all time, despite being a self-proclaimed film nerd. It’s quite embarrassing honestly. The Godfather Trilogy, Lawrence of Arabia, On the Waterfront, Raging Bull. These, among other films, are still movie experiences that have yet to grace my eyeballs. The French Connection was a part of this illustrious club until recently, and it will hopefully light a fire under me to continue to seek out the classics of cinema that I should have already witnessed. One reason The French Connection has this reputation of being a classic is mainly the centerpiece car chase that happens around the halfway point. We see Popeye, in a commandeered car, chasing down Charnier’s right-hand man Pierre (Marcel Bozzuffi), who is in an elevated train running above, through the streets of Brooklyn at extreme high speeds. This 5+ minute car chase easily stands as one of the most thrilling and dangerous looking displays of mayhem that has ever been committed to celluloid. You can feel the threat of danger on the streets of Brooklyn at any given moment. It feels raw, unfiltered and completely realistic, which brings me to what I feel about the movie itself.

The French Connection is meat and potatoes film. There is no fat to be found across the hour and 45 run time. We get a short introduction to Charnier in France and, before you can say “what the hey?”, the cat and mouse chase begins. We follow along as these two detectives slowly unravel the mystery behind who is the one selling the heroin and who are the expected buyers. Much of this movie is just watching two cops do their job. Talk to random people, trail suspects, perform stakeouts, listen in on conversations via wires. Basic, simple and, due to the direction and pacing, thrilling. Friedkin shoots this with grittiness and raw sensibility, using handheld cameras and location shooting across NYC to make you feel enveloped in the investigation. You can feel the grime on the streets and the cold in the air (this takes place around Christmas). Sandwiched in between the common police work, we even get an interesting look at the class divide that was, and still is, quite present in New York, even if it’s between two people you don’t expect. The sequence where Popeye is eating a slice of pizza with Buddy in the cold NYC streets while watching Charnier and Pierre enjoy an intensely lavish meal in an eloquent restaurant – with an insane number of courses – perfectly punctuates the class divide that exists, whether between cops and criminals or the upper- and lower-class citizens.

As for performances, we are treated with two top tier actors helming the ship. Gene Hackman delivers a multi-layered portrayal of Popeye Doyle. He is a cop who will do what it takes to take down the bad guy, even if it means shaking down minorities for kicks and blackmailing them for information. Doyle is not afraid to use the occasional ethnic slur or derogatory phrase. Hell, the many instances of vehicular mayhem he causes during the centerpiece car chase could have killed many innocent civilians. So, in other words, Doyle is not someone that should be admired. A seriously conflicting persona, Hackman brings all his energy to reflect the nuances of Popeye’s personality. His partner, Buddy Russo, is played to perfection by Roy Scheider. There is some tangible aspect of Scheider’s aura that exhibits cool, calm and ultimately a relatability factor, which allows him to be a slightly more sympathetic character. Fernando Rey brings a carefully calculated performance as Charnier. He believes himself to always be the smartest and most respected person in the room, and he happens to be right most of the time when compared to the various low-level gangsters, bankers and thugs that he interacts with throughout the movie. It’s a simple performance but one that doesn’t make him any less of a tangible threat. The train sequence where Charnier hops on and off a train stopped at the station to lose Doyle as a tail is a great example of his smarminess and general thought that he is untouchable and can get away with anything.

And then we have that ending. Since this movie is over 50 years old, and even though I JUST watched this for the first time, I feel the need to spoil it. After busting up the heroin deal and most of the buyers ending up face down in the ground, Popeye and Buddy chase Charnier into a warehouse. As they move through the building, Doyle sees someone far in the distance, and without warning or an attempt to identify who it is, he fires. He ends up killing an FBI agency working with the NYPD on the case, Mulderig (Bill Hickman). Doyle, free of emotional connections and any sort of real sympathy – add it to the fact that Mulderig didn’t think much of Doyle throughout the movie and let him know so – blows it off and is just obsessed with finding Charnier. Unfortunately, he has escaped, as the epilogue alludes to him getting away and making his way back to France. The cops don’t get their man at the end of the day, all while an innocent officer is killed by one of their own.

The French Connection is a lean, mean and efficient cop thriller, propelled by a pair of charismatic leads and a car chase that goes down as one of the most insane and adrenaline-fueled ever captured on film. It might be a film that is loaded with stakeouts, pursuit sequences and general day-to-day cop work, but Friedkin shoots it all with a realistic lean and a gritty layer of assuredness that is all comes off as highly compelling. I wasn’t sure if seeing it for the first time this year would dilute the effectiveness and impact this movie had back in 1971, but the power of this film is still very potent. Now the question is, do I venture into French Connection II? While it takes place mostly in France (and not glorious NYC), I’ve heard that this film goes REAL wild, so I think I need to finish the Hackman/Popeye Doyle journey and see where his cockiness and general disdain for humanity outside of himself ends up taking him. Hopefully sooner rather than later.