If you’re just joining us, I’ve been watching every film on the AFI Top 100 list starting at 100 and working my way up to #1.  Today’s film is #93 – William Friedkin’s The French Connection.

TCM.com gives this synopsis:

Two New York narcotics cops set out to bust a French drug smuggling ring.

The French Connection was based on a true story.  The film stars Roy Scheider (who would go on to play the Sheriff in Jaws) and Gene Hackman (who I only see as Lex Luthor in the Superman films.)  The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards  and won 5 awards – including Best Picture, Best Actor (Hackman), and Best Director.

Friedkin is an interesting fellow.  He didn’t go to college.  He started out working for a TV station and worked his way up to director (and some sources say by the age of 18.)  He went from directing TV movies and documentaries to directing art house features.  In 1971, he made The French Connection – his first big Hollywood film.

From there Friedkin went on to direct what some call the scariest movie ever made, The Exorcist.  I wouldn’t know.  The clips I’ve seen on TV are too scary – I’ve never seen the entire film.  So I’d have to agree based solely on the clips.

After that, he made several flops and never regained the prestige he had between 1971 to 1973.  He’s still alive and directing.  IMDB lists his most recent credit as CSI – back in TV where he started.  I hope I’m still directing at 75 years old.  That’s impressive.

Friedkin used handheld camera angles most if not all of the time on The French Connection, shooting it with a gritty, documentary style.  I can’t help but point out the similarities between Friedkin and some of the French New Wave filmmakers I’ve been studying.  Not only his use of the hand held camera but also his background as a documentarian.  One source I read mentioned that he was a film critic at one point before he made the jump to features – just like Truffaut and his buddies at the Cahiers du Cinema.

As with some French New Wave films, The French Connection had an open ending – not really resolving whether or not the cops caught the bad guy.  This left room for the sequel but at the time, I think it was more of a stylistic choice as well as wanting to be true to life since at the time, the real cops hadn’t caught the bad guy.  And like in French New Wave films, there wasn’t much effort made for us to identify with the protagonists.  We know very little about them at the beginning of the movie and it stays that way throughout.  It’s just a couple of tough guys trying to break a case.

The French Connection is gritty and raw: not polished like movies you see today.  There is something refreshing about that.  But the story didn’t wow me.

One scene I must point out is in a bar.  The two cops just got off work.  They go in the bar to relax.  A female group is singing on a stage.  Gene Hackman’s character notices some shady business in one of the corner booths.  He spends a few minutes observing what is going on.  During that entire scene, we only hear the music and singing coming from the female group on stage.  The story was told through the visuals.  Watch for this scene.

The best and most memorable scene though is the car chase sequence in which Gene Hackman races to catch a subway train.  I have embedded the video of this scene below.  No doubt you’ve seen clips of it.

What did you think of The French Connection?