Because it’s been so influential on future crime actioners, “The French Connection” (1971) at first blush is an underwhelming Best Picture winner. But when I put my mind in the space of 1971 viewers I realize how special this cops-and-criminals thriller was at the time — with not only its incredible location shooting in a New York City so decayed that even homeless people aren’t found in the spaces, but also its slyly subversive commentary on the Drug War.
Say this about Doyle: He loves his work
Some people’s picks for the best film in the stellar careers of actor Gene Hackman and director William Friedkin (“The Exorcist”), “The French Connection” is a gritty and grimy police procedural, decently scripted by Ernest Tidyman yet so raw that one gets a sense that Hackman (as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle) and Roy Scheider (as partner Buddy Russo) are riffing. It’s based on the 1969 nonfiction book by Robin Moore that details the meat-and-potatoes procedure of catching major drug dealers – including all-night stake-outs based on Doyle’s hunches.
We can tell early on – when the exhausted Buddy wants to go home but Doyle talks him into “one drink” at a bar – that Doyle is obsessed with his job. Doyle actually wants to put a tail on a suspicious character more so than having that drink. That obsession, as we find out, is what makes it at all possible to stay on the tail of the cautious Frenchmen (led by Fernando Rey’s dapper Charnier) who aim to sell their pure heroin to even more cautious Brooklyn-based dealers.
“The French Connection” (1971)
Director: William Friedkin
Writers: Ernest Tidyman (screenplay), Robin Moore (book)
Stars: Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey
(SPOILERS FOLLOW.)
The film ends in bracingly stark fashion, as Doyle accidentally kills a fellow agent, then we smash cut to “Here’s how it turned out” title cards. The nominally good: The drugs are off the streets. The neutral: The low-level operatives are caught and get minor sentences, but Charnier escapes.
The bad: Innocent people have been killed amid this operation, including Doyle shooting his colleague in that evocatively rotting and dripping former factory or warehouse, and a woman accidentally taking a sniper’s bullet meant for Doyle earlier.
Contrasting with many films that “French Connection” wrought (wherein Drug Warriors are unquestioned heroes), Friedkin makes no overt comment. But what we see unfold gets under our skin and – combined with the underwhelming “victory” for the “good guys” – we can’t help but ask if the Drug War is worth it.
(END OF SPOILERS.)
Chasing a high
A cliched yet fascinating cop who destroys his mental health for the job (the only thing he cares about doing well), Doyle – unlike the viewer – doesn’t stop to consider the costs. This is strikingly and entertainingly illustrated in the car-and-train chase sequence.
Doyle has officially been taken off the case, but the sniper doesn’t know that, so it’s now personal. Doyle commandeers a citizen’s car; the citizen asks when he’ll get it back, and I was thinking “If you get it back, it won’t be in the same condition.”
And this is just for the sake of Doyle tracking down the sniper. Logically, were he to leave the man alone, no one else would get hurt. By pursuing him, he could kill many people with his dangerous driving through a congested thoroughfare in a now-outdated layout, with posts for the elevated train amid the ground-level streets. It’s amazing that he doesn’t, but we see thrilling close calls.
Doyle’s actions aren’t admirable but they are always understandable. Noteworthy on a modern viewing, too, is the fact that the authorities – although grumpy and foul-mouthed — play by the rules of law in this movie, not speaking of warrants and suspects’ rights as barricades to be dodged, but rather as rules they must consider.
Despite being a step-by-step narrative, the film doesn’t hold a viewers’ hand (the French-language portions aren’t even subtitled!). Yet it’s as clear as it needs to be. It can be pro-Drug War or anti-Drug War, depending on the viewers’ own position; and likewise, Doyle can be a glorious hero or a tragically misguided villain. By portraying this nasty branch of crime, policing and modern society as it really is, “The French Connection’s” meanings expand along all kinds of branching paths.