The French Connection (film)
"The French Connection" is a 1971 American crime thriller film directed by William Friedkin, based on Robin Moore's book chronicling a significant drug investigation by two New York City narcotics detectives, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso. The film portrays the intense efforts of Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, played by Gene Hackman, as he navigates the dangerous underbelly of heroin trafficking, showcasing a gritty and realistic depiction of police work in 1970s New York City.
The film is notable for its innovative use of handheld cameras and a semi-documentary style, which adds to the authenticity of the narrative. A standout feature is its thrilling subway chase sequence, which diverges from typical car chases seen in earlier films. "The French Connection" received critical acclaim, winning five Academy Awards, including Best Actor for Hackman. It is often credited with influencing the genre of suspense drama, depicting a flawed yet determined protagonist who operates on the fringes of legality.
The film also inspired a sequel, "French Connection II," released in 1975, where Hackman's character continues his pursuit of a drug lord in France. Overall, "The French Connection" remains a landmark in cinema for its raw portrayal of crime and law enforcement.
The French Connection (film)
Identification Motion picture
The French Connection, which chronicles a famous 1962 narcotics bust in New York City, made a star out of its forty-one-year-old leading actor, Gene Hackman, and set the standard by which subsequent suspense films would be judged.
Date Released in 1971
Director William Friedkin
Key Figures
William Friedkin (1935- ), film director
In 1962, two New York City narcotics detectives stationed in Harlem, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, made history with the largest heroin seizure by U.S. law enforcement officials up until that time. A few years later, author Robin Moore, with uncredited help from Edward M. Keyes, chronicled the story in The French Connection: The World’s Most Crucial Narcotics Investigation (1969).
Following the success of his influential 1968 film Bullitt, Hollywood producer Phillip D’Antoni turned his efforts to the screen adaptation of Moore’s book. Propelled by Ernest Tidyman’s screenplay and William Friedkin’s direction, the film succeeded in capturing the nature of police work, as well as the complexity of the story’s characters.
With Bullitt, D’Antoni had defined the genre of suspense drama in which the main character is a police officer who bucks authority, often skirts the law himself, and, in the end, gets the bad guys. In Egan, D’Antoni had the real-life equivalent: a fast-talking, tough, and streetwise police officer whose disregard for suspects’ rights produced results. Bullitt, moreover, featured a prominent car chase that electrified audiences and revolutionized the film industry. D’Antoni recognized that his next film would have to build on his success and not repeat what was fast becoming a cliché. Friedkin thus turned to filming on New York’s streets and adopted a semi-documentary style for much of the film with the use of handheld cameras and with an emphasis on the seedier aspects of life in the city. D’Antoni avoided a repeat of his earlier film’s car chase by substituting a subway train for one of the cars and filming underneath the city’s elevated tracks. The result was a gripping, tense sequence that included a real crash when a car backed onto the street. Throughout production, Friedkin and the crew benefited from the presence of Egan himself, who ensured police cooperation and lent authenticity to the film.
Initially, D’Antoni and Friedkin contemplated other actors for the role of Egan, who was renamed Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle for the film, before deciding on Gene Hackman. Even Hackman expressed doubts about his portrayal of Egan, whose abusive behavior he found disturbing. However, when filming the opening sequence in which Popeye and the Grosso character, renamed Buddy “Cloudy” Russo, chase down a suspect, Hackman seemed to become Egan.
Impact
Although Egan and Grosso had cameo appearances in the film, Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, who played Russo, became linked inextricably to their characters. At the 1972 Academy Awards, they were rewarded with Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nominations. Hackman won one of the five Academy Awards won by the film, which enjoyed critical and popular success. In 1975, Hackman would reprise the Popeye role for John Frankenheimer’s French Connection II, which saw him travel to France to track down his nemesis who had eluded the police in the earlier film.
Bibliography
Leuci, Robert. All the Centurions: A New York City Cop Remembers His Years on the Street, 1961-1981. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
Moore, Robin, and Milt Machlin. The Set Up: The Shocking Aftermath to “The French Connection.” Guilford, Conn.: Lyons Press, 2004.
Whalen, John, and Jonathan Vankin. Based on a True Story: Fact and Fantasy in One Hundred Favorite Movies. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 2005.