The French Connection / The French Connection II

Like Dirty Harry, The French Connection gave the police action genre a massive kickstart by having a hard-nosed, uncompromising detective as its main protagonist. Gene Hackman became a major Hollywood star with the hugely popular role of Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, an NYC narcotics squad officer who masterminded the raid on a drug smuggling ring led by mysterious Frenchman Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey). The movie is famous for its frantic car chase under an elevated railway line and for its time, it was praised for its portrayal of the sleazy, grimy and gritty side of The Big Apple.

French Connection II was a highly underrated sequel which notched up a few gears after Doyle's forced heroin addiction at the hands of Charnier's gang. From then on, it's fast action all the way as Doyle teams up with the police in Marseilles to finally take Charnier down as well as his consignment of heroin. This doesn't have a blistering car chase like the first one, but there are some exciting foot pursuits, brilliantly staged gun battles and a very powerful, violent ending. Caught some of this on Film4 last week but I already have it on DVD.

I'm one of the rare, happy few who prefer the sequel to the original. It's mostly down to Frankenheimer.

I've heard people like you exist.

I've not seen TFCII in a number of years. I recall it being a little... stale. It had some good sequences, though. But it didn't seem to me to have the vivacity of the first film.

I dunno which I'd take, TFCII or THE SEVEN-UPS. The only thing I really liked about TSU, aside from Roy, was the car chase.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I've heard people like you exist. :lol:

I've not seen TFCII in a number of years. I recall it being a little... stale. It had some good sequences, though. But it didn't seem to me to have the vivacity of the first film.

I prefer the original but I find TFCII is highly undervalued.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I've heard people like you exist.

I've not seen TFCII in a number of years. I recall it being a little... stale. It had some good sequences, though. But it didn't seem to me to have the vivacity of the first film.

I dunno which I'd take, TFCII or THE SEVEN-UPS. The only thing I really liked about TSU, aside from Roy, was the car chase.

That was by far the best moment from the movie. Even longer than the TFC one and more ferocious than the Bullitt chase because of lots of metal being trashed whereas there was only a bit of it towards the end of the Bullitt chase. The Seven-Ups was gripping in places, but felt more like a TV movie, although the main villains were solid enough.

John Frankenheimer (RIP) did a tremendous job with the sequel. In his DVD chat track, he said that in the first part of the movie, he wanted to capture the hand-held camera feel of the first movie so that you could feel up close and personal with the main characters, especially Popeye Doyle who had a lot of drama in store for himself as the picture progressed. This was also the first ever motion picture to show its main hero being force-fed heroin and turned into a junkie, but an episode of Starsky & Hutch called The Fix did this slightly better because David Soul's face had quite a few scars on it and his eyes were bloodshot. He almost looked like a zombie whereas Hackman looked better in comparison.

Frankenheimer also said that he had filmed some more scenes between Doyle and the girl he was chatting up on the beach, but they were left on the cutting room floor.

The influence of these movies is obvious in a classic UK police series like The Sweeney. Regan and Carter were basically a British version of Doyle & Russo, hard, violent and foul-mouthed lawmen cutting a swathe through the streets and derelict wastelands of their city to bring vicious criminals to justice. Their boss was also quite unappreciative of their methods yet still let them do what they had to.

bondfan06 wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

I've heard people like you exist.

I've not seen TFCII in a number of years. I recall it being a little... stale. It had some good sequences, though. But it didn't seem to me to have the vivacity of the first film.

I prefer the original but I find TFCII is highly undervalued.

In recent years, it's got quite a rep for itself. I remember Mark Kermode doing an introduction to it in 2000 when BBC2 showed FCII on a Saturday night. He said that even though it lacked William Friedkin's presence, it was still a fine sequel that would have worked just as well as a standalone movie and that Hackman's Doyle was a multi-faceted character as opposed to what he was in TFC. He said that rather than just being a tough cop, he was also a comedian, a drug addict, an invalid, an avenger and in general, a much more sympathetic and emotionally interesting man than he was in the first film and that it was all down to Frankenheimer.

'Lacking William Friedkin's presence' is a badge of honour in my book.

I have yet to see the second. Honestly though I am not that interested.

Makeshift Python wrote:

I have yet to see the second. Honestly though I am not that interested.

Have you seen THE SEVEN-UPS?



That's all you really need to see of it.

I have The Seven-Ups on DVD and it includes a 'making of' feature which shows how they went about creating that car chase and how they felt it should end which was pretty heart-wrenching stuff (the look on Roy Scheider's face is priceless before his car comes to a crashing halt). The finale is typical of hard-boiled cop movies (the baddies get rounded up before their main boss is cornered) but it is highly satisfying.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Makeshift Python wrote:

I have yet to see the second. Honestly though I am not that interested.

Have you seen THE SEVEN-UPS?



That's all you really need to see of it.

No way would he survive that. That's how lobsters-up-her-bum was killed.

Yeah, but he ducked.

Roy had ultra-quick reflexes there and had a few cuts on his face for his troubles. After that car chase, the film dropped drastically in terms of pace although the final shootout is compelling enough as well as Roy's angry epitaph to Tony LoBianco.

I read on imdb that there was a French Connection III planned in the late 1970s. David Shaber (The Warriors) had written a screenplay and it was going to be set in New York once more, but Hackman wasn't interested in it. Later, Universal bought the rights to it from 20th Century Fox and it was changed considerably to become the Sylvester Stallone thriller Nighthawks which was about a terrorist causing havoc in the Big Apple. Maybe TFCIII was going to be a revenge story with a relative of Charnier's coming to NYC to kill Doyle (that was the basis for the third Die Hard movie).

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Yeah, but he ducked.

But still. The sheer force of the roof and chassis being smashed down on him, would be bone crushing.

Sharky wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Yeah, but he ducked.

But still. The sheer force of the roof and chassis being smashed down on him, would be bone crushing.

That's right. He could have suffered a broken neck.

Or the force of such an abrupt stop alone could have killed him.

I nearly got into a wreck like that, six years ago. I was on the 101 in LA, and I glanced over for literally a second, and when I turned back forward the traffic was at a dead stop. I slammed on my breaks so hard the tires were squealing and I literally yelled. I stopped inches from the back of a Chevy Avalance.

Helluva night.

JohnDrake wrote:

Sharky wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Yeah, but he ducked.

But still. The sheer force of the roof and chassis being smashed down on him, would be bone crushing.

That's right. He could have suffered a broken neck.

Pretty much. That's similar what killed Jane Mansfield. There's an urban myth that she was decapitated by the back of a lorry, when it was just a cervical fracture (broken neck).

Sharky wrote:

JohnDrake wrote:

Sharky wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Yeah, but he ducked.

But still. The sheer force of the roof and chassis being smashed down on him, would be bone crushing.

That's right. He could have suffered a broken neck.

Pretty much. That's similar what killed Jane Mansfield. There's an urban myth that she was decapitated by the back of a lorry, when it was just a cervical fracture (broken neck).

Dead pics (warning): http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/m/Mansfield/dead%20jayne.htm

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Or the force of such an abrupt stop alone could have killed him.

Broken neck, or whiplash. The later can be very nasty, because one can survive for years. My mum had a friend who got whiplash for a car accident, and later died from cancer of the cervical vertebrae.

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Sharky wrote:

JohnDrake wrote:

Sharky wrote:

The White Tuxedo wrote:

Yeah, but he ducked.

But still. The sheer force of the roof and chassis being smashed down on him, would be bone crushing.

That's right. He could have suffered a broken neck.

Pretty much. That's similar what killed Jane Mansfield. There's an urban myth that she was decapitated by the back of a lorry, when it was just a cervical fracture (broken neck).

Dead pics (warning): http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/m/Mansfield/dead%20jayne.htm

www.findadeath.com .

Gotta love the internets.

That's basically my favorite site.