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The French Connection (1971) watch along
🕑 Added 2024-10-11 16:00:15 +0000 UTCWelcome back to AFI Friday! It's quickly becoming one of my favorite days of the week.
The French Connection (1971), #93 on the AFI list. From the start, I was instantly immersed in the film's mystery and gritty aesthetic. I was floored to realize I’d be watching another William Friedkin film in 24 hours, with The Exorcist coming up next—his style captivated me immediately.
I loved how raw and real the movie felt. I felt like I was there like a fly on the wall. It felt like he had go pro's spying on people, and was filming a docu-series. Having watched more films from before this era, and after, I’m starting to spot what inspired what, and it's fascinating. This dark, noir-like story played with light and shadow, especially in its portrayal of the lead anti-hero, Doyle aka "Popeye." His blurred morality left me torn—I'm still not sure if I like him or not, and that ambiguity is fine by me even after the movie ended.
Honestly, my hot take is that this movie, its sequences and tone was the lead character and the actors where the supporting cast...it's that unique.
The car chase under the train? Absolutely insane. I didn’t realize I was holding my breath until the credits rolled. It was a gripping ride, showing how obsession can blind and consume someone entirely.
I’m sure my feelings will evolve with another watch, but that’s where I stand after sleeping on it.
Let me know your thoughts below! Can’t wait to hear them!
xx
ames
Comments
Catchermag
RIP to the GOAT 😞
Amalia Wolf
Sure di
ITMacPro
You gotta see Mississippi Burning! :D
Toc
Right on Samuraibry! I feel the same way! :)
Samuraibry1
love being a part of the patreon community and discord, interacting and talking film and t.v. with y'all and Ames so many great films I would never had watched, so it's film school for me too; all the details in films that I previously saw and missed to classics that I woul dnever have any reason to watch but now I get it seeing th4e prgression of cinmema and Ames and everyone here is great, love you all...
Amalia Wolf
Cool! Love hearing this
Shawn Goforth
I'm laughing, because I'm posting this right after AstralCars. So...When we think of car chases in movies, this one seems more memorable than most others. It's easily listed in the top 3 on most lists I've seen, and the more time that passes, the more it sticks. That scene, paired with the drug raid in the bar around the 30 minute mark are the two sequences that make this movie for me. We get the grit and the abrasive nature of the law enforcement officers, which has already been mentioned, then finish up with one of the most iconic action sequences in film history in a movie I would not really characterize as an action film. I too have not returned to this one often, but the mise-en-scene, and those two perfect scenes have never left me.
Amalia Wolf
Lol!
AstralCars
I don’t get why everyone makes such a big deal of the car chase. There’s no difference between the car chase in this movie and the way I drive to work on my morning commute. 😆
Amalia Wolf
WOW great tid bits to add I had no idea!
Catchermag
Hackman won the Oscar, Golden Globe, and BAFTA for this movie. While you’re right, he’s a smaller part of a whole, his persona covers everything. Anyone else in this role would have been a supporting actor. There is a sequel to this worth watching. Some say it’s better. I don’t but it’s still good, and Hackman is in it MUCH more and able to show off is acting prowess to a greater extent.
Amalia Wolf
FRICKEN love this back ground on WF makes so much sense. I love his style tbh. I just like it.. I see this chase inspiring every movie I’ve ever seen regarding a car chase LMAO
VivendoBem
Essentially starting out as a bad cop trying to do a good thing, not because it’s a good thing, but to save his job, only to become one of the greatest movies ever made about obsession. (Though it doesn’t top Coppola’s brilliant The Conversation, three years later, also (perhaps) coincidentally staring the magnificent Gene Hackman as a very different kind of obsessed man.) I think anyone in the audience believes Popeye would absolutely run over an innocent pedestrian during the famous chase scene to keep up with the train. Very much UNLIKE The Last Picture Show—released the same year, no less—which was a character study of a whole, dying town, TFC is a character study of Popeye, and Popeye alone. By the time Friedkin had made this, he was already a veteran documentary filmmaker, and it shows in the grittiness of every shot—frankly, everything just looks bleak and gross. He’d been shooting real stuff before he got to Hollywood, he knew what the real world actually looked like. Unsurprisingly, it sounds real, too. As nauseating as it is to hear the way these cops talk, it’s hard to imagine real cops back then wouldn’t and didn’t say such things (and likely much worse). But that was the point, shades of grey: bad guys sometimes did good things and good guys sometimes did bad—this wasn’t an endorsement, just an observation, and movies in 1971 trusted their audiences to understand that. There is a lot of lore about the chase with the train. with some accounts claiming it was pretty loosey-goosey, even by 1971 standards at least in terms of permitting, but the cinematographer always claimed meticulous planning and specific lens tricks to make danger seem much closer than it actually was, but one thing is for certain, there is no CGI, a real car is chasing a real elevated train through a real city. Friedkin’s documentary ethos no doubt added to the vérité feeling of it all and, along with Bullitt and Ronin and Friedkin’s underrated To Live and Die in LA, TFC’s is on the Mount Rushmore of greatest car chases ever shot.
Amalia Wolf
Ooo I didn’t know he played LEX!
Amalia Wolf
Thanks Marcus! Yes you are so right with the feels! For sure will always be watching a variety of movies on here and I have so much to edit for YT lol. Certain ones will always have to just stay on patreon re:copyright issues
Marcus Cato
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. There was something magical and raw about so many movies in the 70s, the way they capture the feeling of life unfolding right in front of you. A few 70s movies pop up pretty frequently on reaction channels, but I thought I’d throw out a few favorites that I haven’t seen anyone react to yet: The Taking of Pelham 123 The Long Goodbye The Conversation Marathon Man Five Easy Pieces Play Misty for Me Annie Hall The Long Good Friday Barry Lyndon One of my favorites from this era is All That Jazz, but sadly musicals are so tricky for reaction channels. I love that you are digging into less popular art house movies. Keep up the great work!
David Crabtree
Really looking forward to this! Love Gene Hackman. Other favorite Gene Hackman movies: Crimson Tide (1995), Behind Enemy Lines (2001), Hoosiers (1986), The Replacements (2000), Poseiden Adventure (1972), and his role as Lex Luther in the Superman movies is iconic!
Randolph Tirazona
Yay! 😺
