The French Connection

Directed by William Friedkin. Written by Ernest Tidyman (screenplay), Robin Moore (book), Starring Gene Hackman (Jimmy Doyle), Roy Scheider (Det. Buddy Russo) and Fernando Rey (Alain Charnier)

Bottom Line: The French Connection wonderful, gritty, dark crime movie.
4/4


The French Connection is about a pair of NYC Narcotics Cops who stumble upon the makings of a massive cocaine deal. It begins with a guy (a cop, maybe) watching two business men. The guy then walks through some dense French streets, picking up some bread on the way back to his apartment. He stops to get his mail. Looking up, someone has been waiting for him, gun drawn, in the shadows. The guy is brutally murdered and the scene ends.

Cut over to Brooklyn. A hot dog vendor and a man dressed as Santa One stand outside a bar. I expected another sort of murder but the two are our protagonists, Russo (Scheider) and Doyle (Hackman). They try to apprehend a bar patron but the he runs away. A foot chase ensues. The two police officers catch their target in a vacant lot. Doyle tackles him and starts hitting him. Russo cries out, "Don't kill him! Don't kill him!" The man gives them information which leads to them uncovering a big cocaine deal.

These darkness and brutality of The French Connection is revealed in these two scene. Everything in this world is cold. The film has a matter-of-fact tone about crime. It isn't so much as we are watching a drama but that we are watching a slice of society's seedy underbelly that is and was and will be. Normally from a crime movie, I expect the drugs and violence to be glamorized, if only to show how tempting crime can be (only to give the guilty parties their comeuppance, like in Scarface). In The French Connection, drugs and violence are just there.

The introduction is filmed with a handheld camera. It's like we're running with them, yeah, right, we've see that a million times. But I love it how in the big moment, where they catch the guy, the camera hangs back by the street. Hackman tackles the guy a barren wasteland and nearly beats him to death but the camera distances us from that. It is almost as if we can't emotionally keep up with them or we realize (or the camera forces us to realize) that this isn't our world so we just stay out of it.

The feeling that we don't really belong continues with French actor, Henri Devereaux (Pasquale). He is hired by the French drug dealers because he has the ability to easily travel between America and France, thanks to his status. About midway through the plan, he tries to run and leave the job because, even though he needs money, he is afraid of this criminal world; he can't deal with it but he can't escape. The fact that he is an actor plays with the idea of film and the audience.

So, if we are kinda like the actor. We are still there even though we don't belong. That can explain the ending. There are two main shots of which I am thinking. The first is when Hackman and Scheider are approaching the room which has "Frog 1". The camera slowly zooms into the room. It doesn't move into the room on its own but, rather, stays in the back and gazes in. The second and more powerful shot closes the movie. Hackman runs through the basement and the camera remains still with no zooming or panning. The camera hangs back almost painfully so just to make it clear that we cannot be a part of that world. The movie cuts with a jarring gun shot. We can only speculate who made the shot.

The epilogue cards finalize the dark world that Friedkin has created. They reminded me of the closing Night of the Living Dead(1968) stills in all their bleakness.

The acting in The French Connection does the style justice. Hackman isn't just playing a cop strung out on disappointment and alcohol, he is a cop strung out on disappointment and alcohol. Roy Schneider complements Hackman in that he is a more responsible officer but not to the point of alienation; everyone in this world is, in a sense, jaded in some capacity.

Fernando Rey was very successful in his portrayal of the cold experienced drug dealer, Alain Charnier. I mentioned earlier that a lesser movie would glamorize the drugs and violence and the same would be going here with the villain. Whether or not they want to admit it, everyone wants to be kinda like the villain; you don't really hate the villain because he is too cool to hate. In a lot of movies like that, I find myself rooting for the villain more than the protagonist/s. In The French Connection, I hated the villain. He had a great sense of style but his character can be illustrated by a simple well executed, pompous smirk. There is a scene where Charnier is being followed by Doyle. Charnier knows he is being followed so he toys with the officer. Entering a subway car, he waits until the doors are about to close and he exits. Doyle has to follow so he scrambles off the car. He doesn’t know Charnier realizes he is being tailed so he remains nonchalant. Just as the doors are about to close, Charnier enters the train and Doyle follows. Charnier again exits followed by Doyle. Unbeknownst to Doyle, Charnier, for a second time gets on the train. Doyle looks up to see the smirk of Charnier pass by as the train departs. The scene is a brilliant flood of frustration.
I don’t mean that you will feel upset or frustrated by the movie, or anything, I just mean to illustrate how The French Connection is able to tell its story effectively. It is a complete, cohesive package of camerawork, story and acting which I highly recommend.