The French Connection (1971) 20th Century Fox 📢 Director: William Friedkin 💰 Producer: Philip D'Antoni 👫 Cast: Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel Bozzuffi. 🏆 Awards ceremony: -44th Academy Awards: April 10, 1972. Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles, California. 🎭 Other films nominated for Best Picture this year: -A Clockwork Orange. -Fiddler On The Roof. -The Last Picture Show. -Nicholas And Alexandra. 📕 Plot summary: Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle (GENE HACKMAN) and his partner Buddy Russo (ROY SCHEIDER) are members of NYPD's narcotics squad who are assigned to smash a drugs-smuggling gang operating out of Marseille in France. When a shipment of heroin makes its way over to the streets of New York it's up to the two cops to apprehend the dealers, which proves more difficult than they had anticipated. 💥 Standout scene: The cat & mouse scene at Grand Central involving Popeye Doyle and Alain was memorable and enjoyable. Later on when the cops are stripping down the dirty car looking for evidence was another great scene. But nothing - and I do mean NOTHING beats that car vs train chase with Gene Hackman nicking some poor guy's car and racing through the streets at speed to keep up with the train overhead. It's non-stop action, expertly directed and I laughed my ass off when Hackman finally gets out of the car and we see the condition it was in! What an utterly fantastic sequence that was. 🔑 Facts: -The 44th Academy Awards. -Nominated for 8 Academy Awards, it won 5: Best Picture, Director, Actor (Gene Hackman), Screenplay (adapted), Editing. -This was Gene Hackman's first Best Picture appearance (his second would be Unforgiven). 🙂 Personal opinion: A classic 1970s pot-boiler of a movie. One of the things that really stood out for me were the shaky hand-held camera shots on the streets of New York. This gave the film its character and a gritty look and lends a real feeling of authenticity. The visual image of seeing a guy dressed in a Santa Claus suit chasing the black guy down the street near the beginning of the movie is a sight worth seeing! The arrogant white train conductor chewing gum and then confronting the hijacker ending up getting exactly what we all expected... shot dead! (and rightly so!!) The ambiguous ending was a great way to wrap up the tense storyline too. Highly recommended. A sequel followed in 1975. Roy Scheider did not co-star because he was off filming some other film involving a big fish.... *A note about the Blu-Ray picture quality: it really needs an upgrade! Did it deserve the Oscar? ✅YES. Dirty Harry was probably equal to this film in many ways and looked more professional, but The French Connection looked more real. ⭐️8/10

Review date: 19 March 2025