The French Connection – For movie buffs, not a trivia question?

I recently watched the 1971 film The French Connection for the first time. While I very much enjoyed it, I could not understand why it was so highly acclaimed at the time — it won Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Editing along with being nominated in other categories; especially when it was up against some very top-notch films (A Clockwork Orange, Fiddler on the Roof).

I think it WAS considered groundbreaking at the time…the subject matter and how it was presented had not been done in the mainstream by a director of note, nor had any “big” actors engaged in such projects before.

Also, it was the dawn of the era of the anti-hero, and so that too broke ground, with Hackman’s Popeye Doyle rather a contrast to the usual screen hero of the day.

The action sequences (car chase, etc.) were also different and came from the cinema verite style that had begun to arrive in Hollywood from Europe.

Clockwork Orange was a bit too abstract for the mainstream American public at that time, for it to be Oscar material – although the critics loved it and it was very well received in large metro markets.

Fiddler is a good example of how musicals are often snubbed or given short shrift by the Oscar pundits.

In retrospect, French Connection IS not that special a movie by today’s standards, but by the standards of the day, it was. Another element of retrospection allows us to see how many horrible mistakes have been made in Oscar choices over the years, in days past.

The French Connection (1971) Trailer

The French Connection $6.58 FRENCH CONNECTION - DVD Movie...

The French Connection $2.99 ...

The French Connection (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) $10.15 FRENCH CONNECTION COLLECTOR'S EDITION - DVD Movie...

1970s Action Films, including: Enter The Dragon, Shaft (1971 Film), The French Connection (film), Diamonds Are Forever (film), Mad Max, Dirty Harry, ... Hole, Drunken Master, Westworld, Dolemite $43.54 Hephaestus Books represents a new publishing paradigm, allowing disparate content sources to be curated into cohesive, relevant, and informative books. To date, this content has been curated from Wikipedia articles and images under Creative Commons licensing, although as Hephaestus Books continues to increase in scope and dimension, more licensed and public domain content is being added. We belie...

The French Connection I/French Connection II [3 Discs] $22.32 The two-movie, three-disc box set for The French Connection I and II is another feather in the Fox DVD cap. The first film, the big Oscar-winner from 1971, is just about as good as it gets. The image, at 1.85:1 and anamorphic, is outstanding. If there's any complaint, the disc shows the inherent inconsistencies of the documentary look that director William Friedkin was trying to achieve. DVD simply makes those "flaws" (though here they are intended) all the more obvious. The sound, a new 5.1 English track, is powerful but can only be remastered so much from the original source material. Still, all the nuances of gritty New York are there. The disc with the movie also has a number of features, including a commentary track from Friedkin and another from stars Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider. In addition, it has the trailer for the first movie. If that wasn't enough, the first French Connection has an additional second disc loaded with some fine supplements. The main two are documentaries, one from the BBC, about an hour long, covering the making of the film, while the other is an in-depth look at the "untold stories" of this historic case as seen by detective Sonny Grosso. In addition to this are seven deleted scenes that can be watched by themselves or in a separate section hosted by Friedkin. Finally, there is a decent photo gallery (though only one poster is included) and two trailers, once again for this film and for The French Connection II. As for the second movie in this set, The French Connection II is almost as well put together. The 1.85:1 anamorphic transfer is equal in quality to the first movie with strong contrast and excellent saturation of colors. This film is not as gritty as the first, and the general look of the film is more "cinematic." The sound though is a major letdown with only a stereo track that makes little use of the sound field. Extras, on the other hand, are rather plentiful, especially for a film that was not so well-received. Of great interest, just like the first disc, are two audio commentary tracks, this time from director John Frankenheimer and the other from Hackman and producer Robert Rosen. While Frankenheimer is quite vocal in his comments, the other two leave significant gaps without discussion. Finally, along with the trailer in three different languages, there is a photo gallery covering the costumes and storyboards for specific scenes. All in all, this is a set that should not be passed up. ~ Trent Fordham, Rovi

The French Connection/Ronin [2 Discs] $14.19 The French Connection/Ronin [2 Discs]

The French Connection [Collector's Edition] $14.64 This gritty, fast-paced, and innovative police drama earned five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (written by Ernest Tidyman), and Best Actor (Gene Hackman). Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and his partner, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), are New York City police detectives on narcotics detail, trying to track down the source of heroin from Europe into the United States. Suave Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) is the French drug kingpin who provides a large percentage of New York City's dope, and Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi) is a hired killer and Charnier's right-hand man. Acting on a hunch, Popeye and Buddy start tailing Sal Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his wife, Angie (Arlene Faber), who live pretty high for a couple whose corner store brings in about 7,000 dollars a year. It turns out Popeye's suspicions are right -- Sal and Angie are the New York agents for Charnier, who will be smuggling 32 million dollars' worth of heroin into the city in a car shipped over from France. The French Connection broke plenty of new ground for screen thrillers; Popeye Doyle was a highly unusual "hero," an often violent, racist, and mean-spirited cop whose dedication to his job fell just short of dangerous obsession. The film's high point, a high-speed car chase with Popeye tailing an elevated train, was one of the most viscerally exciting screen moments of its day and set the stage for dozens of action sequences to follow. And the film's grimy realism (and downbeat ending) was a big change from the buff-and-shine gloss and good-guys-always-win heroics of most police dramas that preceded it. The French Connection was inspired by a true story, and Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, Popeye and Buddy's real life counterparts, both have small roles in the film. A sequel followed four years later. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The French Connection [WS] [Blu-ray] $21.08 This gritty, fast-paced, and innovative police drama earned five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (written by Ernest Tidyman), and Best Actor (Gene Hackman). Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and his partner, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), are New York City police detectives on narcotics detail, trying to track down the source of heroin from Europe into the United States. Suave Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) is the French drug kingpin who provides a large percentage of New York City's dope, and Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi) is a hired killer and Charnier's right-hand man. Acting on a hunch, Popeye and Buddy start tailing Sal Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his wife, Angie (Arlene Faber), who live pretty high for a couple whose corner store brings in about 7,000 dollars a year. It turns out Popeye's suspicions are right -- Sal and Angie are the New York agents for Charnier, who will be smuggling 32 million dollars' worth of heroin into the city in a car shipped over from France. The French Connection broke plenty of new ground for screen thrillers; Popeye Doyle was a highly unusual "hero," an often violent, racist, and mean-spirited cop whose dedication to his job fell just short of dangerous obsession. The film's high point, a high-speed car chase with Popeye tailing an elevated train, was one of the most viscerally exciting screen moments of its day and set the stage for dozens of action sequences to follow. And the film's grimy realism (and downbeat ending) was a big change from the buff-and-shine gloss and good-guys-always-win heroics of most police dramas that preceded it. The French Connection was inspired by a true story, and Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, Popeye and Buddy's real life counterparts, both have small roles in the film. A sequel followed four years later. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

French Connection II [WS] [Blu-ray] $10.58 This sequel to the Oscar-winning The French Connection picks up almost exactly where the earlier film leaves off. Still on the trail of drug kingpin Frog One (Fernando Rey), narcotics officer "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) leaves his Manhattan stomping grounds and heads for Marseilles. There, Popeye is captured by Frog One's minions, who pump him full of drugs in hopes of turning the cop into a hopeless junkie. After a grueling "cold turkey" treatment, Popeye is up and about and chasing after the villains, determined to mete out justice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Taking Off (1971) (Blu-Ray) $33.62 French only Blu-Ray/Region All pressing. When Milos Forman set out to make his first American movie, he moved into a house on Leroy Street for more than a year. The door was always open, and Forman spent most of his time talking to anyone who stopped by. Frustrated after producer Carlo Ponti rejected, of all things, an adaptation of Kafka's "Amerika", Forman instead made 1971's Taking Off. Even taking into account the ambitious biographical sweep of later projects like The People Vs. Larry Flynt and Man On The Moon, it remains his best film in and about America - an engaging, episodic, wonderfully fair-minded satire about runaway children and anxious adults... * Please note the artwork has printed 'Region B' but it has been tested and confirmed as Region All. Please also note the supplemental features on this Blu-ray disc are encoded in 1080/50i. Therefore, you must have a Region-Free player capable of converting 1080/50i to 1080/60i, or a native Region-B player and a TV set capable of displaying 1080/50i content, in order to view them in North America.

Urban Connection $4.18 Urban Connection

Gong French TV 1971-73 $17.68 The material on the DVD features two distinct periods of the band's history with the earliest footage coming from an in-the-studio performance filmed in 1971 for French television. This is a rare outing and a rare line up of the band which during this session featured Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Didier Malherbe, Christian Tritsch and Laurie Allen. The material featured on this DVD also includes further footage from 1972 and 1973. In fact, there is good news for fans of the Angel's Egg period as there is over 20 minutes of footage featured on the DVD. None of this rare footage has ever been made available commercially making this release a real treat for fans of Gong.

Classic Archive: The French Piano School $14.51 This classical music performance release showcases the French piano school with films of several performances representative of that movement. The first set is by concert pianist Vlado Perlemuter, with pieces by Ravel (a 1966 rendition of Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and a 1964 performance of Le Tombeau de Couperin: Toccata) and Chopin (June 1964 performances of Etude in A Minor Op. 25 No. 11 and Mazurka in A Minor, Op. 17 No. 4). The second features a performance by Yvonne Lefebure filmed in April 1963, of Beethoven's Piano No. 31 in A Flat Major, Op. 110. The third selection is an extremely rare performance by Robert Casadesus shot at his private home in 1971, of excerpts Faure's Theme et variations, Op. 73. As an added bonus, the release includes filmed performances by concert pianists Dino Ciani and Hephzibah Menuhin. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Gene Hackman Triple Feature [3 Discs] $14.61 This set includes Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning, and French Connection.