Rightly remembered for a pivotal car chase—built on suspenseful cross cutting and parallel movement, as Gene Hackman’s narcotics cop races beneath elevated tracks in pursuit of the trainbound suspect above—The French Connection boasts plenty of other standout sequences. Hackman’s Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle—as obsessed with making arrests as his junkies are for another hit—has a more elegant, if no less suspenseful, game of cat and mouse at a subway stop with another suspect, who slickly times the closing of the doors to escape. Overall, director William Friedkin and cinematographer Owen Roizman employ a surveillance camera style, giving the many stakeout scenes a heightened sense of tension. If it seems like these cops, including Roy Scheider as Doyle’s partner, are fumbling their investigation of a massive drug-smuggling operation, Don Ellis’ dissonant jazz score suggests you might be correct. The movie, based on an actual case, is bleak, especially about Doyle’s tactics, but that didn’t keep it from scoring at the Oscars, with wins for Friedkin, Hackman, Ernest Tidyman (Adapted Screenplay), and Gerald B. Greenberg (Editing), as well as Best Picture.
(5/22/2025)
