The French Connection (1971)
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).
Was there some special quality of the film that made it standout back in 1971 that is perhaps lost to a viewer in 2007? Some groundbreaking technique or style? The legendary car/train chase does not itself warrant an Oscar.
Also, why did Hackman win Best Actor? He has little dialogue in the film and the Popeye Doyle character isn’t particularly expressive. While those things aren’t required for good acting, it’s fair to say that’s the norm for a Best Actor nod.
Is there a simpler explanation that I’m missing? Did the film just appeal to a broad audience at the time?
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 [Original Motion Picture Sounddtrack]
$19.98 ... |
|
|
French Connection [VHS]
$1.99 William Friedkin's classic policier was propelled to box-office glory, and a fistful of Oscars, in 1972 by its pedal-to-the-metal filmmaking and fashionably cynical attitude toward law enforcement. Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle, a brutally pushy New York City narcotics detective, is a dauntless crime fighter and Vietnam-era "pig," a reckless vulgarian whose antics get innocent people killed. Loosely... |
|
|
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (Full Screen Special Edition)
$3.50 Gene Wilder stars as Willy Wonka, maker of Everlasting Gobstoppers, Fizzy Lifting Drinks, Three Course Dinner Gum, and other sweet treats in this music-filled fantasy based on Roald Dahl's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory." Join five contest-winning children on a tour of Wonka's magical candy factory, staffed by the mysterious and diminutive Oompa Loompas. With Jack Albertson, Peter Ostrum. Incl... |
|
|
The French Connection
$6.37 Five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director and Actor, were copped by William Friedkin's fast-moving, fact-based cop drama. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider are the New York detectives who reluctantly work with federal agents to crack a multi-million-dollar heroin ring. The harrowing car chase scene is a film classic. With Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco. 104 min. Standard and Widescreen;... |
|
|
The French Connection
$2.99 ... |