Gene Hackman

100 Movie Challenge: #93 The French Connection

Richard Mattox 3 Comments

C

The French Connection 1971
The French Connection 1971

Woof. Our walk through film history hit a significant bump with William Friedkin’s 1971 thriller, The French Connection. I was so indifferent about our #93 film that the article is coming a day late. (Actually, I’ve been traveling; but the sentiment is still the same). To be brutally honest, I fell asleep during my first attempt at watching it and had to restart.

The crime-thriller stars Gene Hackman as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, a New York City detective assigned to interrupt a multi-million dollar heroin movement. The case unfolds through a series of investigations, shootouts, and some “riveting” undercover stakeouts. The film is based on the , that tells the story of real life narcotics officers Sonny Grosso and Eddie Egan. The two NYC cops famously busted a record-setting 112 pounds of heroin in 1961. The subsequent book, and especially the 1971 film, have since been heralded as masterpieces of crime-thriller storytelling. The French Connection enjoyed acclaim from its contemporaries (winning 5 of 8 Oscar nominations) as well as today (being deemed “culturally or aesthetically significant by the Library of Congress and cracking our list at #93).

But to me, it just doesn’t stand up. The hell-bent, loose-cannon, case-obsessed cop story is one that no longer phases audiences. The same conventions have been used and re-used since Cagney and G-Men. So while Doyle’s obsessively driven character is well developed, it fails to jump off the screen as highly original (and I feel as though the case would have been the same in ’71). The plot is difficult to follow, the pacing is a little bi-polar, and the film is mostly lacking when it comes to the great bits of dialogue we’ve come to expect from films on this list (although, admittedly, some of the lines in the office are superb).

 

Gene Hackman in his Oscar-Winning role as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle
Gene Hackman in his Oscar-Winning role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle

 

I felt like I was missing something. Even other films that have received a low score, like The Last Picture Show, demonstrated certain feats that brought credibility to its critical acclaim. For me, those elements were almost no where to be found. There are, however, two saving graces:

  1. The Car Chase – Anyone who talks about The French Connection will talk about the ground-breaking car chase that occupies about 15 minutes near the end of the film. Turner Classic Movies lists the chase as one of the primary reasons for the film’s ability to withstand the test of time, describing it as “breathtakingly innovative.” It’s true. The rest of the film aside, I was on the edge of my seat for the chase. I know it seems strange for an action sequence to be so good that it draws this kind of attention and acclaim, but you have to see it to understand.
  2. “Everybody Gets to Go to the Moon” by The Three Degrees – I watched an early scene in which Doyle goes to a nightclub over and over, not because I needed to retrace the dialogue or because I was enthralled by the drama, but because the scene includes a great tune by the Supreme-like Three Degrees. The upbeat motown song immediately made it onto one of my spotify playlists and I’ve been listening to it on repeat. A pleasant surprise hidden within this movie, though for some reason, “Everybody Gets to Go to the Moon” was not nominated for Best Song.

However, neither the epic car chase nor The Three Degrees’ nightclub jam could save The French Connection for me, which is why it earned a lowly C. However, any film that has a protagonist this focused on maintaining justice (despite how selfish his motivations may be) ranks high on the Liberty Scale, with The French Connection coming in at 7.5 out of 10. All in all, if you’re looking for a crime thriller about a major narcotics move, ditch on The French Connection and watch The Usual Suspects instead. You get all the action plus more compelling characters and some fantastic dialogue.

Back-to-back-to-back crime thrillers? Yes indeed. Next week its the notable gangster flick Goodfellas.

  • 100. Ben-Hur
  • 99. Toy Story
  • 98. Yankee Doodle Dandy
  • 97. Blade Runner
  • 96. Do the Right Thing
  • 95. The Last Picture Show
  • 94. Pulp Fiction
  • 93. The French Connection
  • 92. Goodfellas

Who among you thinks I’m tragically misinformed when it comes to The French Connection? Or does everyone share my apathy? Let us know!

To see the rest of the list click here.

“Liar Liar” and the Liberty Lab

Andrew Leigh 1 Comment

 

No, our pants are not on fire.  Instead, we’re thrilled to announce that Paul Guay, who conceived and wrote one of Jim Carrey’s greatest hits, Liar Liar, will serve as a mentor in this summer’s .

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Paul’s movies have grossed more than half a billion dollars.  Liar Liar was Carrey’s second-biggest hit without the word Batman or Grinch in the title (number one was Bruce Almighty, in which Carrey played God — how do you compete with that?).

At the time of its release Liar Liar was the sixth-highest-grossing comedy in history.  The screenplay received an Honorable Mention (along with Fargo, Million Dollar Baby, The Full Monty and Catch Me If You Can) in Scr(i)pt magazine’s list of the Best Scripts of the Past 10 Years.

Paul has been involved in numerous other projects.  He co-wrote the feature film version of The Little Rascals, Universal’s second-highest-grossing movie of the year, and co-wrote Heartbreakers, starring Sigourney Weaver, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Gene Hackman, which opened #1 at the box office, and the rights to which he co-licensed to MGM for production as a stage musical.

Paul is a much sought-after script consultant.  But you can get his feedback for free if you are accepted into the program.  Apply soon; the final deadline is May 15th.

The Rear View – Unforgiven (1992) – The 20th Century’s Final Film Masterpiece?

Matt Edwards 4 Comments

(Author’s note:  I am a film buff.  I am a history buff.  With The Rear View I invite you along with me to revisit important films in movie history. – Matt Edwards)

“It’s a helluva thing killing a man. You take away all he’s got… all he’s ever gonna have.” – William Munny

Out of the countless films I’ve watched more than once, this western tale of revenge, redemption and rampage ranks among the greatest stories ever filmed.  I know I’m not making some avant-garde claim that this mainstream Hollywood film is a masterpiece.  Unforgiven won almost every best picture award of the season from film academies, film critic circles, guilds and magazine polls.

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Clint Eastwood cleaned up in the director accolades.  David Webb Peoples was singled out multiple times for his brilliant screenplay.  Gene Hackman seemed to win every supporting actor award.  (In my view he was simply the spokesman for accepting the awards for his the entire supporting acting team of Richard Harris, Morgan Freeman and Frances Fisher.)

Clint’s longtime cinematographer, Jack N. Green, photographed the most beautiful of America’s big sky west.  (Personally, the fact that Jack Green also DP’d Serenity completes me.)  Oscar-winning editor Joel Cox has been with Eastwood every step of the way in Eastwood’s filmmaking career and the mood he and his sound designers create is unparalleled.  Eastwood even wrote the theme for the score of the film which quite hauntingly reverbs from every distant mountain, rain cloud and field of grass which grace the screen.  In short, Eastwood’s team in front of and behind the camera deserve every bit of praise.

unforgivenI want to single out the editing and sound design for a moment.  Two things that rarely get their due recognition outside of those awkward moments when Scarlett Johansson hands some guy who’s been locked up in a sound booth for 16 hours a day an Oscar.  When a sound mix is done right, you don’t notice it one bit.  It’s not until repeated viewings that you start to look around with your ears.  The use of the thunderstorm in films can, has been, and will always be, overused in movies.  However, if you ever want to know how to use it correctly, I can’t stress enough how perfectly it’s used this film.  It’s a theme that makes absolute sense.  The thunderstorm is the Greek chorus of the story and is accompanied by chilled winds, creaking floorboards, and… perfectly timed silence.

With all that Hollywood offers us today, this film from 22 years ago manages to do something that very few films do.  In the context of the Hollywood western film genre, Unforgiven is the grand finale of the first century of Hollywood filmmaking, if you will.  From Charlie Chaplin to Hitchcock, John Ford to Spielberg, Howard Hawks to John Hughes, American Film of the twentieth century was the age of discovery in the art of storytelling with moving pictures.  In a vacuum, Unforgiven is able to stand as a great film.  But this film does not live in vacuum and neither do we.  Unforgiven was made at the perfect time — a time after so much film history had been laid out.

Let’s look at some of the events that had to occur in that history leading up to filming Unforgiven in order for this film to have as large an impact on audiences as it did and will continue to do so, if we preserve and revisit film history: click to continue reading…