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Category:    Home > Reviews > Thriller > Crime > Drama > Drugs > Action > The French Connection + French Connection II (1971 & 1975/Fox Blu-ray)

The French Connection + French Connection II (1971 & 1975/Fox Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B/B-     Sound: B-     Extras: B/B-     Films: B/B-

 

 

Though playing the real-life detective Popeye Doyle put him on the map and won him a Best Actor Academy Award, Gene Hackman had trouble pulling off the role for William Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971) and actually walked out on the film before legal contractual action brought him back.  The landmark crime drama was a huge critical and commercial success for 20th Century Fox, also winning Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay and (classic) Editing.

 

The true-life tale of how Doyle and his partner (Roy Scheider, who would repeat his character in The Seven-Ups) landed up exposing drug distribution that reached all the way to… France!  At a time when the Vietnam fiasco was known to be taken over by the U.S. form France, you can see where one particular international conflict was perpetuated, but this is not a political film.  It is a true police thriller classic.

 

Besides being quite politically incorrect when that that kind of label did not exist and negated too many cases where “realism” would be the proper word, it was an impressive breakthrough at a time when so many great TV crime dramas were being made and TV news was becoming more realistic before their infotainment slide into gaudiness a few decades later.  The screenplay by Ernest Tidyman (a detective fiction writer himself adapting from Robin Moore’s book) blew the lid off of everything from police crossing the line to criminals crossing the line to a new view of how tough the streets could be in a way Hollywood had not shown before.  It is also way interesting to me that this film this just as the urban Blaxploitation cycle beings, both defining the urban 1970s.

 

Hackman really shines, though Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco and Fernando Rey also have very memorable turns here and the combination of action and suspense is almost unseen today and is still highly influential to the few director’s today who can actually direct.  At the time, the film followed Bullitt (reviewed elsewhere on this site) in this trend and holds up very well today.  A classic of the genre, Friedkin suddenly found himself on the Hollywood A-list and for good reason.  The film was tight and exciting at 104 minutes and will surprise first-time viewers who are not use to such intensity.

 

Though they were less common at the time as Hollywood of then in its last Golden Age believed in risks and originality, Fox decided to do a sequel and with Friedkin having an even bigger hit with The Exorcist (1973) and more interested in his big production of Sorcerer (1977), the equally capable John Frankenheimer was hired to helm French Connection II (1975) and did an interesting job.  Instead of trying to duplicate and offer more of the same as the first film, the new picture has Hackman back as Doyle, kidnapped and brought to Marseilles as an act of revenge.  Rey is also back and it is an interesting film, but it never gains the traction of the first, despite its ambitions.  Still, it is seriously done and Frankenheimer makes the material work as well as it can.  You should see the first film first, but it is not a bad sequel.

 

Both discs at this time are sold separately.

 

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 AVC (@ 34.5 MBPS on the first film, 26 on the second) digital High Definition image are not bad for their age and the type of shoots they are.  The first film was shot by Owen Roizman, who also lensed The Exorcist, the original Stepford Wives, Network and original Taking Of Pelham 1-2-3 pushed the film stocks as far as he could to show the urban area, even when the dark shots were grainy.  This was not an easy shoot and is a one-of-a-kind looking film as a result.  Except for some detail-weak shots here and there, this is an impressive transfer.  The sequel was lensed by Claude Renoir of the famous art family of Renoirs (starting with legendary painter Auguste and moving on to director Jean) has been a cameraman since the mid 1930s and at this point, was shooting the occasional Hollywood project (Barbarella, The Adventurers, The Horsemen and later, the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me) in what is his grittiest work outside of his French Cinema filmography.  This print looks a little softer and more faded than the first, four-years-older film, but has some good shots here and there just the same.  Both have color by DeLuxe that can fade, but there are good color moments in both, especially the first film.

 

The DTS HD Master Audio (MA) lossless 5.1 mixes on both films can only spread around and redirectionalize the original monophonic sound from both films, but they also both sport music scores by Don Ellis and those tracks are the sonic highlight of both Blu-rays.  Those with D-BOX capacities will enjoy a much-needed further soundtrack boost and enhancement.  The music (save a few tracks from the first film) is actually in stereo, which helps the mix out and the music tracks are also available in isolated form as one of the soundtrack options.

 

Luckily, we were able to review the soundtracks when they were produced as a limited edition CD soundtrack from the FSM label of Film Score Monthly Magazine.  You can read more about that release and the music at this link:

 

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/1193/French+Connection+1+&+2+(Limited

 

 

Beside the isolated scores that are on par with the CD, other extras include Hackman interviews on both films, director audio commentary on both films, the first has a second audio commentary by Hackman and Scheider and both also have the already noted D-BOX enhancement.  The first film (on two Blu-rays!) adds an introduction by Friedkin, trivia track, deleted scenes, Anatomy Of A Chase featurette, Friedkin and advisor/former police detective/actor Sonny Grosso discussing the film, Scene OF the Crime featurette, Color Timing featurette about fixing the film, Cop Jazz: The Music Of Don Ellis featurette, Rogue Cop: The Noir Connection featurette, the BBC Documentary The Poughkeepsie Shuffle and featurette Making The Connection: The Untold Stories Of…  The sequel also adds a stills gallery.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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