The French Connection
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I don’t know what I expected going into this movie. I knew it was old, so I expected a relatively slow pace and a sort of James Bond-esque film look. On the other hand, I had heard so many things about the cinematography and chase scenes that I was pretty excited.
Maybe my expectations were just set too high. I ended up being really disappointed. I thought it was not only slow moving (especially in the beginning), which I expected given the time that it was made, but also shallow. The characters were extremely under-developed, and despite Gene Hackman’s excellent acting (the only realr redeeming quality, in my opinion), there were a lot of character-related elements that didn’t make a lot of sense. For example – Popeye’s fondness for alcohol – how did that play into the story? It wasn’t really beneficial for the audience to factor that into his character, and it’s inclusion didn’t make sense to me. Also, there was simply no sense of real urgency about the drug bust. I guess I’m spoiled by more recent films, but there was simply nothing that made me care as a viewer whether the drug dealer got caught or got away – what did it matter? I felt only one thing in regards t the plot of the film: apathy.
"But what about the chase scenes?" Meh. They didn’t do anything for me. Even the subway car chase was relative simple. There was no variety. It was simply a car underneath a subway track going against the flow of traffic. Big deal. The once scene I did like was when Popeye chased the Frenchman onto the subway car and back again. I thought it was clever and very well shot. But it was the only impressive element in the film other than Hackman.
Finally, I thought the ending was horrible. I guess the point was to show that Popeye had been consumed by his desire to catch the bad guy, no matter the cost. Whatever. I was just glad it was over.
Maybe I’m being too hard on the film. Maybe I’m too young to appreciate it. But I know if a movie like this won Best Picture these days, I’d die. For what it’s worth.
My totally biased and wholly useless star-rating:
The French Connection at IMDB
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