What's the AFI Project, you ask? For more information, or if you just enjoy my bemused ramblings, read here:http://www.spout.com/blogs/pippin06/archive/2008/3/1/25756.aspx
The French Connection is on the following AFI lists:
The Original Top 100 (#70)
100 Most Heart-Pounding Movies (#8)
100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains (Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle is the #44 hero)
The Revised Top 100 (#93)
Since my priority is the AFI Project, I took a small hiatus from the regularly-scheduled Netflix queue to order up the next entry on the Original AFI list. I'm on movie #70, people! That's quite a few movies, and with this current go-round on the original list, it's probably going to be two years by the time I can finally move on to the next list of the series. Still, this project has provided me the opportunity to watch films I've heard much about but never paid much attention or given much thought to, including this rough-and-tumble cop drama. I have never seen it before because it's not the kind of film I automatically gravitate toward; I might be in trouble for saying this, but if there are "chick flicks," this always struck me as a dude's movie. I could instantly tell from what I read and learned that it was probably going to be violent, graphic even, and intense, with no obvious comic relief, like in, say, Die Hard. Now, after giving the film a whirl, I still kind of feel that way, but this film cannot be categorized so simply. The French Connection was a complex study of human nature in some ways that was both intriguing and alienating, given the sheer unlikeable veneer of the film's so-called hero.
The hero in question is Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman - Lex Luthor! And, yes, other stuff too), a hungry New York City detective on narcotics detail, looking for a big break in a case of heroin being smuggled from Europe to the United States, which, as it turns out, is being peddled by French kingpin Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey). Popeye and his partner, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider - pick your favorite character here), have been shaking down every two-bit thug in their precinct with little success. Popeye in particular has quite the reputation, as he's particularly hot-tempered, ornery, and, well, all-out racist as well as largely ineffective. Still, while on patrol after patrol and stakeout after stakeout, Popeye phones in a hunch by following a corner store owner and his wife who seem to be raking in much more money than is logical for a man in his position. Sal Boca and his wife, Angie, just so happen to be Charnier's American connections to prominent NYC mafia and an outlet for the sale of $32 million worth of heroin. Thus, Popeye and his usually rash instincts are put to the test, in turn testing the faith of his partner, his superiors, and the federal agents called in to help with the investigation.
There were some truly astounding parts of the French Connection that had me glued to the screen, encompassed by the intensity and gritty realism of it all, but there were also parts of this movie that left me cold. Apparently, the film was inspired by a true story, and Popeye and Buddy had real-life counterparts, thereby providing many morsels of thought on which to chew.
On the one hand, this was one intense film. The story is rather uninteresting and even somewhat pedestrian as cop dramas go. at least to start, but the film takes a turn for the refreshingly exciting when the unpredictable Popeye decides to undertake a high-speed car chase on his own, commandeering some poor schmuck's vehicle, and driving under a subway overpass as the train carrying a hit-man and Charnier's lieutenant careens on ahead of him. This happens to be some of the most exciting action ever committed to celluloid, given the fact that director William Friedkin chose to film some of the chase from the actual vantage point of the backseat of the very fast car as it collided into various walls, oncoming vehicles, and narrowly missed a pedestrian. If the film doesn't interest you on the story or plot alone, at least watch it for this chase scene. My heart was literally popping out of my chest, and I had goosebumps as Popeye navigated helter-skelter the underbelly of Big Apple streets, aiming for his elusive quarry, while barely surviving several collisions in the process.
The performances were largely very good. The rapport between Hackman and Scheider was clearly comfortable and well-cultivated, and their subtle mixture of buddy/partner/annoying roommate in their relationship gave the film its heart. Also, the cinematography was brilliantly rendered, moving from handheld docu-style camera angles to sweeping aerial shots, from shadowy black and white hues to pale fluorescence inside and outside various city buildings effortlessly, further ratcheting up the intensity of the film.
Also, the story itself was pretty convincing. The Spout page notes that the film did not end on a particularly happy note, but this almost makes the film more compelling, given the fact that not every case or situation ends in easily resolved, neatly wrapped up packages of happiness. The true-to-life tone and pace of the piece, consistently maintained by Friedkin, made the story a meaty one that rang true, even if it ultimately ended in ruin.
The quintessential problem with this picture is Popeye as a character. He is clearly one of the most flawed heroes to ever grace the screen, and while his deeds and tenacity may be celebrated, his apparent motivations and methods make his character both complex and awkward. He is tremendously hard to relate to as a person, particularly if the viewer doesn't share his caveman-like penchant for spouting off and pulling his gun at the slightest twitch, so it was hard to connect to him or to the importance of his quest, even as the Buddy character provided Popeye the much needed humanity to bridge the gap between the film's story and the viewer.
Still, since my day job finds me working the field of anti-discrimination and civil rights, I don't exactly see Popeye as particularly heroic. Without spoiling the film, he doesn't actually save anything, or if he does, it's via morally questionable methods amidst subtle and not-so-subtle epithets that he hurls toward anyone different than him. Some viewers will be able to look past Popeye's veneer - which is never explained or given any clear motivation or back-story, other than the lack of his professional success - and to consider his need to be right, even to be accepted in a way over these other flaws. I can't, and I think that since the film seems to follow Popeye as a character (or Eddie Egan as a man, since he is the real-life inspiration for the character) more than the actual story in which Popeye finds himself to be the primary player, the lack of a full character wash coupled with the lack of redemption Popeye experiences as a result of his ordeal sort of detracts from the film for me. The AFI kept the film on the revised list, but it dropped 23 spots, and I wonder if that's because the Popeye character is so insensitive, so alienating, even as the rest of the film is an intense, interesting, and entertaining snapshot of two cops' struggle to attain some small level of success in their chosen field.
The other element that detracted from the film was the brassy score, which all at once proved to be decidedly shrill, simultaneously accentuating and distracting from the action and dating the film more than most. More than once, I felt that a bit of Scorsese's panache at choosing rock and/or jazz soundtracks might have done wonders for the underscoring of this film, but, alas, Friedkin went a different direction. Come to think of it, the film would probably have been equally exciting without a score.
All in all, The French Connection was a good, if flawed, film. The action was superb, even if the story was ordinary and the main character an unlikeable young curmudgeon with little hope of karmic redemption, which a potential viewer will either find engrossingly complex or distractingly estranging. Since I err toward the latter category, I find myself rating The French Connection as a 7.5, between shaky/entertaining and minor flaws/very good. In the land of the test, I'm unlikely to buy this film because I don't need to see it more than once, but I recommend it for the car chase alone (the rest is just icing on the cake, if you go in for this sort of film).