We’re back with part two of our Gene Hackman double feature with a movie that goes super hard and basically laid a new foundation for modern cinema… William Friedkin’s 1971 neo-noir action thriller “The French Connection” starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, and Fernando Rey! This critically acclaimed crime movie won a bunch of awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor (for Hackman). It is one of them ones. If you haven’t seen it, we highly recommend that you watch it before the episode.

“The French Connection” is a tight, gritty, procedural, and tense look at drug enforcement centered around a $32 million heroin deal in New York. It is the fictionalized version of Robin Moore’s nonfiction book of the same name that leans into a documentary style of filmmaking and trims the fat that often came with movies in this genre at the time. The pacing, editing, cinematography, and performances are all excellent. With one of the best car chase scenes in all of cinema, Gene Hackman dressed as Santa beating on drug dealers, villainous French dudes, a daytime assassination attempt, someone commandeering a subway by force, many scenes shot on location, and more… this movie is just plain awesome. It is a slowly simmering cat-and-mouse game through the city of New York (which acts almost as a character in this movie) that builds and builds to a fever pitch without losing its gritty documentary style. The tension ramps up to an explosive crescendo and an ambiguous neo-noir ending that hits just right. Plus, Gene Hackman as an extremely driven, street-worn, yet hard-as-nails alcoholic cop? Hell yeah.

In this episode, we share what we love about the movie, give some context to the film, discuss some of our favourite sequences, unpack why the performances of Hackman and Scheider are far more complex than they seem at first glance, suggest why people who haven’t seen this movie (or any 70’s movies) should stick through the slower first half, and break down how William Friedkin was a filmmaking freak that bent the rules and pushed the envelope (and, of course, how much he loves to talk shit). Plus, a look at the clandestinely made car chase sequence that was highly illegal but changed everything, the influence of the actual cops who worked the real-life version of this case, the French drug smugglers as antagonists, the impact and legacy of the movie, the devotion to New York crime-fighting realism and the use of the city as a character, and more!

We close things out with a preview of our next episode and some updates on what we've got going on in our lives and our schedule going forward for March. It’s a good time spent talking about a great film. Tap in.

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