{"id":28849,"date":"2022-01-24T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=28849"},"modified":"2022-01-24T09:09:24","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T14:09:24","slug":"the-french-connection-z-view","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/?p=28849","title":{"rendered":"“The French Connection” \/ Z-View"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The French Connection<\/strong><\/em> (1971)<\/p>\n

Director: William Friedkin<\/strong><\/p>\n

Screenplay:\u00a0 Ernest Tidyman<\/strong> (based on the book by Robin Moore<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

Starring:\u00a0 Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Ray <\/strong>and Tony Lo Bianco<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Tagline:\u00a0 The time is just right for an out and out thriller like this.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Overview:\u00a0 Beware of Spoilers\u2026<\/p>\n

Let me say from the start most folks like The French Connection<\/em> much more than me.\u00a0 The French Connection<\/em> was nominated for eight Academy Awards<\/em> and won five (Best Picture, Best Actor<\/em> – Hackman; Best Director, Best Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium<\/em> and Best Film Editing<\/em> – Gerald B. Greenberg).\u00a0 When a movie gets that many awards, is the number three box office champ for the year and a reviewer only gives it 3 of 5 stars, your mileage will probably differ.<\/p>\n

My biggest problem with The French Connection<\/em> is the lead characters.\u00a0 Detective Buddy Russo (Scheider) isn’t given much to do other than be Detective Jimmy “Popeye”<\/em> Doyle’s reluctant sidekick.\u00a0 ‘Popeye’<\/em> Doyle (Hackman) is a loud, unlikeable screw-up.<\/p>\n

Let me count some of the ways Doyle irritates me.\u00a0 When following the drug importing mastermind, Popeye<\/em> gets made and played on the subway.\u00a0 Doyle “commandeers” a citizen’s car to chase a sniper making a getaway on an El-train.\u00a0 During the chase he causes multiple wrecks, nearly runs over a lady pushing a baby carriage, and destroys the car he “borrowed”.\u00a0 When Doyle gets into a footrace with the sniper he ends up shooting the guy in the back.\u00a0 The movie culminates with Doyle accidentally shooting an FBI agent and the drug importing mastermind getting away.<\/p>\n

Despite the nits I picked, The French Connection<\/em> has its moments.\u00a0 It features one of the most popular car chases in movie history.\u00a0 Friedkin’s documentary feel influenced filmmakers and it is an excellent example of 70s films (anti-heroes, gritty city settings, good guys don’t always win).<\/p>\n

The French Connection<\/em> rates 3 of 5 stars (but again I stress, your mileage may vary!).<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The French Connection (1971) Director: William Friedkin Screenplay:\u00a0 Ernest Tidyman (based on the book by Robin Moore) Starring:\u00a0 Gene Hackman,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":912,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[17,51,54,74],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-celebs","category-crime","category-movies","category-z-view"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/912"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28849"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28864,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28849\/revisions\/28864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/craigzablo.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}