The French Connection (1971): Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey. Directed by William Friedkin, Screenplay by Ernest Tidyman based on Robin Moore's book.

One of my favorite films, and a film that I watch again nearly every year, is the film that elevated director William Friedkin to the level that Warner Brothers would entrust him with another literary treatment, a horror story called "The Exorcist". But that's jumping ahead. In October, 1971, the film version of a best-selling non-fiction book (yes, studios used to go to books for ideas, rather than just remaking old films, imagine that) called "The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy" by Robin Moore splashed across screens around the world and introduced the world to Popeye Doyle, a hard-nosed detective who wouldn't stop just because it was time to clock out.

"The French Connection" epitomizes, for me, what filmmaking in the 70's was all about. It's gritty and harsh, but you can still identify (and laugh with) the main characters. Gene Hackman plays Popeye Doyle, in a performance you'd have a hard time finding an equal to in his long career, and is joined by Roy Scheider as his partner, "Cloudy" Russo. The film was shot entirely on location on the streets of New York, and often, shot on-the-fly with an Arriflex, without shooting permits, wherever and whenever they could get shots, at one point even causing a traffic jam to fit a plot point.

This is what true filmmaking is all about. Friedkin has admitted many times that he was greatly influenced by the European school of filmmaking, particularly Costa Gavras, especially "Z". "The French Connection" carries the theme of the frantic opening credits as its benchmark for the rest of the story. Even if the subject matter is a bunch of guys sitting around in cars watching other guys, you can feel the relentless push of the narrative, and, likewise, the push within Popeye Doyle to catch "Frog One" at his own game. How does Friedkin accomplish this? Often, characters in conversation scenes (especially in cars) are shot from behind, facing forward, or, in the case o the scene where Popeye and Cloudy hassle drug dealers in a bar, Friedkin has Hackman in constant motion, away from the camera, toward the camera, then our view flips around and he is moving away from the camera again. Constant motion. A jarring leap from the static scenes in the police station and bar at the beginning of the film, before the moment when Cloudy tosses the straw hat (a signal that they are on duty undercover) in the back seat, signalling the start of the case. From that point, the film doesn't let up until the gunshot at the end.

I think absolutely everyone involved with this production brought their A-game to the set each day and it shows with every frame of the film. I can't find anything wrong with this film, even after repeated viewings. The amazing tension of Doyle and Russo tailing "Frog One" (Fernando Rey) through the streets, having Popeye meet him face to face in the subway, then "Frog One's" retaliation, climaxing with the dizzying chase through the streets of Brooklyn.

For this chase, Friedkin was bound and determined it would best the famous sequence in "Bullitt", and, even though I hold a special place in my heart for the Steve McQueen film, I find the subway chase scene here, far, far superior. As with the rest of the film, most of the footage captured during this chase scene was real, with stunt driver Bill Hickman tear-assing through the streets of Brooklyn in a speeding camera-mounted car. In a way, how the film was shot was a direct reflection of the lead character in the story: no-nonsense, uncompromising, getting the job done any way he can.

The film's poster sums it up perfectly, "Doyle is bad news, but a good cop", paired with Hackman at the bottom of a subway platform shooting a bad guy in the back. Some of the cops involved with the production of the film objected to this image, but Eddie Egan, on whom Popeye Doyle was based, approved.

If you haven't seen "The French Connection" and you like cop fiction (or just good old fashioned guerrilla filmmaking), you owe it to yourself to rent or pick yourself up a copy. It was followed by one sequel (and two very loose tie-in movies), the appropriately titled "French Connection II" (directed by John Frankenheimer), which is okay if it's on late one night and you can't sleep, but pales in comparison to the first.