A cop flick unlike any other

Last evening, CineVerse took a trip through the wayback machine to 1971, a time when the streets of New York were infested with filth, graffiti and heroin-peddling Frenchmen. Here's a roundup of what our discussion of "The French Connection":

HOW WOULD THIS FILM HAVE BEEN UNIQUE, INNOVATIVE OR CONTROVERSIAL IN 1971?

·       The main character is a vigilante, amoral anti-hero who is a questionable cop; he’s not necessarily motivated by the quest for law, order and justice but by obsession, anger and selfish determination. Popeye Doyle is a bigot, a rogue, a violent intimidator. We root for him because he’s the protagonist of the story and we’re intrigued by his mission to stop these criminals, but his actions are morally troubling.

·       We see the very ugly, dirty, gritty realism of urban decay, New York warts and all circa early 1970s. The landscape is hellish, dark, gray and cold.

·       The film employs a realistic style via handheld cameras, location shooting in New York and France, and a you-are-there verite sensibility that makes us feel as if we’re watching a documentary.

·       The car chase scene tops any one previously filmed, including Bullitt, in terms of action, tension, stunts, realism, and danger. It’s a riveting centerpiece of the film, but arguably given too much significance in the grand scheme of the movie. However, as Roger Ebert said, “in a sense, the whole movie is a chase,” which makes this scene perhaps the pièce de résistance.

·       By contrast, much of the earlier segments of the picture are slowly paced, appropriate given that these men are on tedious stakeout detail. The car chase helps release some of that bottled up tension and accelerate the rhythm and pace.

·       The casting of Gene Hackman is curious for the time, in that he wasn’t yet an established star; this film put him on that trajectory.

·       The ending is decidedly bleak and nihilistic, much like many of the films of this era, including Chinatown, Klute, Midnight Cowboy, A Clockwork Orange, The Godfather, etc.

·       Note that this was the first R-rated film to garner the Best Picture Academy Award.

HOW IS POPEYE DOYLE SUCH AN INTERESTING, ATYPICAL COP HERO, ESPEICLALY FOR A POLICE PROCEDURAL MOVIE LIKE THE FRENCH CONNECTION?

·       He’s not given any backstory, and we’re not shown any flashbacks or given much in terms of explanatory exposition; we do know that his hunches once got a good copy killed, but it’s never explained. We’re never told how he got his “Popeye” nickname.

·       He’s not given any love interest, means by which to relieve his tensions, reward or recognition for his hard work.

·       Today, even antihero characters are allowed a chance at redemption by the end of the film. Popeye is given no redemption, nor are viewers given much to sympathize or understand him.

·       He demonstrates palpable racism and uses the “N” word; in today’s cinema, a white cop would get his comeuppance for this. Popeye doesn’t.

·       This film helped usher in the era of the vigilante, streetwise cop character, made further famous by Dirty Harry, Charles Bronson and 1970s police shows like Baretta, Starsky and Hutch, and others.

WHAT THEMES ARE AT WORK IN THE FRENCH CONNECTION?

·       Doyle is a man of his times: a dirty, ugly, crime-ridden city needs a dirty, ugly copy who’s not afraid to break the law himself.

·       Good doesn’t always triumph over evil, and innocent people often pay the price for the pursuit of justice. Consider that most of the criminals get away without being punished, and that innocent citizens are often put in harm’s way by Doyle and his determination to catch the bad guy.

·       Doubles and doppelgangers are a motif in this movie: For example, consider how Doyle is contrasted with the villains around him, including the French who savor their seven-course meal while Popeye has to eat cold pizza outside, or how Doyle collapses next to the villain he shoots in the back.

OTHER FILMS THAT REMIND YOU OF THE FRENCH CONNECTION

·       Bullitt

·       Dirty Harry, Madigan, and The Line Up (all directed by Don Siegel)

·       Z

·       Serpico

·       The Taking of Pelham 1, 2, 3

·       Taxi Driver and Mean Streets (both directed by Martin Scorsese)

OTHER MOVIES DIRECTED BY WILLIAM FRIEDKIN

·       The Exorcist

·       Sorcerer

·       To Live and Die in L.A.