93. The French Connection

"You put a shiv in my partner. You know what that means? Goddammit! All winter long I got to listen to him gripe about his bowling scores. Now I'm gonna bust your ass for those three bags and I'm gonna nail you for picking your feet in Poughkeepsie" - Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle.

ACTION ACTION ACTION ACTION ACTION ACTIONATOIANASOIASDOINOINSDFJNHDSF

That sort of sums up my thought process while watching The French Connection. Let's get the plot ball rolling here...

It is the semi-true story of two undercover cops who work in narcotics and bust pill poppers on a daily basis. For fun one night, they trail a guy who has connections to drug dealers and ultimately leads them to his FRENCH CONNECTION (haha! get it? The dealer is from France and he is their connection and.....yea). The movie then follows them as they follow the small fish and ends following the main French fish.


I feel pretty guilty for not enjoying it more... and it was only after Wikipedia-ing for a while did I get to understand just what made it stand out, and that was the car chase.



That exact car chase. The song is called "Black Magic Woman" and it didn't play in the film. But this was the song the entire chase was edited in time with it. Again, it didn't play in the film, so it was like WATCHING the song. (For anyone not really familiar with movies in the 70's, they rarely used music. Coincidentally, this time period has been deemed as the greatest era of film mainly because of these huge periods of silence. I think I discussed this in an earlier post, but when you think about it, compared to modern film, we need something happening nonstop but all sound is taken away when something is emphasized or important, it helps concentration... coincidence? I think not.)

In any case, this chase set a higher standard for action films because it is still good to this day. It may even look familiar as Christopher Nolan based a good majority of his chase scenes in the new Batman series on this one scene. You can find tons of fun facts about it too, because who doesn't eat them up?

- They did not have permission
- They hit one or two civilian cars but paid for the damage.
- An actor in the film actually performed the stunts in the car surrounded by mattresses
- Traffic was NOT under control, hence the wrecks which were unintentional, but left in the film

THIS is what happens when you get creative folks, and it does leave an impression for action films today. That being said, I... sort of like action movies, but not really. I probably won't watch it again but if you are an action buff, I believe this would be one of those things you're required to watch. If you do feel the need to watch, here are a few more fun facts to help ya out:

- A straw hat in the back window means undercover cops are on duty.
- The "Do you pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?" line is just...a line.
- Don't expect too big of an ending.
- Based on a true story but not TOO true.

Next movie: Goodfellas (1990)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodfellas