The French Connection - Why It's So Memorable

 

The French Connection is one of the most influential cop movies ever made. It snagged five Academy Awards in 1971, including Best Picture and adapted screenplay, and spawned a series of sequels that continue to retell the story of Doyle’s search for Charnier and his drug ring.

The film’s authentic setting and cinematic verite style brought a sense of realism to Hollywood’s law enforcement films that had never before been seen. The action was captured with a mostly hand-held camera and the locations were rendered without any hint of glamour by cinematographer Owen Roizman.

It’s not hard to see why The French Connection is so memorable: it smacked into theaters as America was gearing up for its first big war on drugs, and director William Friedkin set out to create a movie that felt like what it was like on the streets. But he did so much more than that, too.

While it wasn’t the first movie to feature a foot chase, The french connection hello gave it its first airing in a mainstream blockbuster. It was also the first to focus on street-level surveillance, and it arguably changed the way that cop movies were depicted forever.

There are moments in the film that feel like they came from surveillance cameras – like when Popeye (Gene Hackman) and Cloudy (Roy Scheider) stake out Salan, Angie’s Place in New York. It’s as though we’re in a surveillance state, watching these guys trudge through the street, stalking their quarry, waiting for someone to pick up more kilos of white powder.

The stake-out scenes, despite their mundaneness, serve as the heart of the film. They’re where we learn the most about the detectives, their tactics, and their work ethic. The fact that they’re so close to their targets, even when they’re not chasing them, adds a certain amount of realism and tension to the proceedings.

In addition to being a classic action thriller, The French Connection is a provocative study of what it means to be a law enforcement officer in this country. It’s also one of the most honest films about the narcotics trade that Hollywood has ever made, and that makes it all the more interesting.

As a result, The French Connection remains an important piece of American history. It’s the first Hollywood crime drama to portray the drug trade as a legitimate threat to public safety, and it made the case that heroin should be treated as a national security issue.

While the first French Connection is often considered a masterpiece, the second film strays away from some of its core themes and characters, but it’s still a good watch. The plot isn’t exactly original, but the movie features some of the most famous sequences in cinema, a car-versus-train chase that’s equal parts thrilling and chilling, and the climactic shooting of Charnier.

The French Connection was directed by William Friedkin and starred Gene Hackman as NYPD detective Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle and Roy Scheider as his partner Buddy 'Cloudy' Russo. It was released in March of 1971 and has been a staple of cinematic culture ever since.