The French Connection - DVDfever.co.uk

T he French Connection is based on a true story, following Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, a maverick New York City narcotics detective who, along with his partner Buddy “Cloudy” Russo and FBI nemesis Mulderig, relentlessly pursues a French drug dealer named Alain Charnier and a multi-million dollar consignment of heroin being shipped from Marseilles to New York.

One Christmas, Popeye and Cloudy are on an undercover assignment to bust a two-bit drug dealer. They quickly discover that an anxiously-awaited consignment of drugs has been delayed – and when the dealers learn of Popeye’s identity, he becomes a prime target for assassination. This sets the stage for one of the most memorable scenes in film history, a ten-minute high-speed car chase through the streets of New York City, which was hailed by critics worldwide as one of the most exciting ever staged and which has been parodied in more films than I care to remember including The Blues Brothers.

The French Connection won five Oscars: Best Picture, Best Actor for Gene Hackman, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Film Editing (Jerry Greenbury); and was followed by a sequel, The French Connection II in 1975 and a TV movie, Popeye Doyle in 1986, the latter of which starred Ed O’Neill as the eponymous hero.

It’s easy to see why Gene Hackman won his Oscar, but a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Roy Scheider wouldn’t have gone amiss either as he always puts in a good performance whether it’s battling against evil in Jaws, battling against the odds in 2010, or battling against the plain weird things in life in Naked Lunch.

Although I haven’t seen the Popeye Doyle TV Movie, I couldn’t really see the man who plays Married… with Children‘s Al Bundy as a tough, no-nonsense detective, but nothing in life is impossible.

The picture quality is mostly very good save for some scenes which have the same soft tones as other films from the early 1970’s and an occasional slight jump in the picture which look as if they were prevalent on the master copy. These anomolies are certainly no cause for concern though.

The widescreen ratio is very close to the 1.85:1 stated on the sleeve, looking more like 1.78:1 (16:9), so perhaps Fox are mastering a number of 1.85:1 films in 16:9 in case they sign up for DVD, since many such discs are cropped to 16:9 when they’re put out as “16:9 enhanced” to produce a better quality picture on widescreen televisions.

The sound is mono and comes across fairly clearly most of the time although there is some sound break-up during the brief conversation between Doyle and Russo after going through th toll-bridge. Other than dialogue, there’s not much to get excited about on the whole, save for the scenes featuring The Three Degrees when come their music bursts out of the screen.

The disc contains 23 chapters which are well spread out throughout the film, plus the original theatrical trailer as a bonus on side two.

Overall, this is a first-rate action thriller with two of Hollywood’s best in the lead roles and at a penny under twenty quid, it’s a release that’s hard to ignore. Now, here’s hoping The French Connection II isn’t far behind. FILM : ***** PICTURE QUALITY: **** SOUND QUALITY: *** EXTRAS: * ——————————- OVERALL: ***

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Dom Robinson

Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.

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