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Amazon.co.uk Review
A milestone film from 1971 and winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor, The French Connection transformed the crime thriller with its gritty, authentic story about New York City police detectives on the trail of a large shipment of heroin. Based on an actual police case and the illustrious career of New York cop Eddie Egan, the film stars Gene Hackman as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, whose unorthodox methods of crime fighting are anything but diplomatic. With his partner (Roy Scheider), Popeye investigates the international shipment of heroin masterminded by the suave Frenchman (Fernando Rey) who eludes Popeye throughout an escalating series of pursuits. The obsessive tension of Doyle's investigation reaches peak intensity during the film's breathtaking car chase, in which Doyle races under New York's elevated train tracks in a borrowed sedan--a sequence that earned an Oscar for editing and was instantly hailed as one of the greatest chase scenes ever filmed. Produced on location, The French Connection had an immediate influence on dozens of movies and TV shows to follow, virtually redefining the crime thriller with its combination of brutal realism and high-octane craftsmanship. Boosted by the film's phenomenal success, director William Friedkin gained even more attention with his follow-up film, The Exorcist. --Jeff Shannon
Amazon.co.uk Review
A milestone film from 1971 and winner of five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor, The French Connection transformed the crime thriller with its gritty, authentic story about New York City police detectives on the trail of a large shipment of heroin.
Based on an actual police case and the illustrious career of New York cop Eddie Egan, the film stars Gene Hackman as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, whose unorthodox methods of crime fighting are anything but diplomatic. With his partner (Roy Scheider), Popeye investigates the international shipment of heroin masterminded by the suave Frenchman (Fernando Rey) who eludes Popeye throughout an escalating series of pursuits. The obsessive tension of Doyle's investigation reaches peak intensity during the film's breathtaking car chase, in which Doyle races under New York's elevated train tracks in a borrowed sedan--a sequence that earned an Oscar for editing and was instantly hailed as one of the greatest chase scenes ever filmed.
Produced on location, The French Connection had an immediate influence on dozens of movies and TV shows to follow, virtually redefining the crime thriller with its combination of brutal realism and high-octane craftsmanship. Boosted by the film's phenomenal success, director William Friedkin took his attention towards redefining the horror genre with his next film The Exorcist.--Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Following on from the original four years later, French Connection II takes "Popeye" Doyle to Marsailles to hunt down Alain Charnier, the "daddy" of the smuggling ring. Gene Hackman returns to revive his role as Doyle the brutal and uncompromising narcotics detective, and turns in an equally hard hitting performance to that offered in the original.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
..."Too" Real For Blu Ray...,
By Mark Barry, Reckless Records, London (UK) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE) (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER) (TOP 50 REVIEWER)
This review is from: French Connection [Blu-ray] [1971] (Blu-ray)
I'm afraid I have to agree with other reviewers of this Blu Ray version of William Friedkin's masterpiece. It looks awful a large part of the time, which completely ruins the other times when it shines.
Ironically, the problem lies in the film's strength - its gritty portrayal of New York and the drug culture taking a grip of it in the early Seventies. The Director wanted realism - not just in his actor's performances, but literally how their New York playground looked - so he went for that. Movements are blurry, alleyways are hazy, characters are observed from an out-of-focus distance (aping what Popeye Doyle sees) - everything's grimy and washed out - matching the film's down and dirty feel. Unfortunately when you get outside of the sunny Marseilles sequences and into the seedy bars and restaurants of the Big Apple - the Blu Ray picture resembles worn out videotape - it's really awful. Which is such a shame, because as you watch it again - but this time on the big screen - you realize what a blindingly fabulous film "The French Connection" is - and how it deserved so much better than this (the superb sequel is squeaky clean on Blu Ray - a joy to look at). In fairness to Fox, the opening credits are squeaky clean - no lines, no scuffs, nothing - no print remains that clean after 38 years, so some restoration has to have been done - unfortunately when you get to the street action - instead of enhancing the watch - the Blu Ray only makes the deliberately grainy effect look even worse. Half way through it - I couldn't stand to look at it anymore - I turned it off... Unless you absolutely must own this, rent it first before wasting your hard-earned on yet another dog on this increasingly frustrating format... What a disappointment.
18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic movie but horrible picture quality,
By
This review is from: French Connection [Blu-ray] [1971] (Blu-ray)
This is without a doubt the most horrible picture I have seen on a Blu-ray movie. I already have the Five Star Collection region 1 DVD and the picture quality on that DVD is far superior to this Blu-ray.
First I start with the contrast of the picture. The contrast level is so high that everything has so much blooming effect that the it is hard to watch the movie without squinting. For the record I have calibrated by Sony 40 inch full HD TV using the Video Essentials Blu-ray. I tried to watch the movie using my new Sony BDP-S550 and my PS3, and both showed the same horrible picture. The DVD has the contrast in check and much lower without the loss of picture detail. Second are the colours. All colours bleed like hell. You can clearly see this in the scene at the villain's mansion when he meets his wife. The red colour in his wife's red hat bleeds all over the wall behind her at 9:38. The DVD's colours are so much better. They don't bleed and the same scene at 9:38 has the red colour of the wife's hat totally in check and no bleeding at all. This bleeding can be seen at all times in the entire movie on the Blu-ray. Third is the level of film grain. I can accept film grain from old movies, but the picture on this Blu-ray contains such high levels of film grain it almost seems to be a, at least, 5th generation duplicate, perhaps even more. So with the extreme high contrast, colour bleeding and such high levels of film grain, I have to just warn all people that is even considering buying this Blu-ray to stay clear away. In the introduction to the movie the director of the movie, William Friedkin, says that this Blu-ray shows the movie as close to his original vision as any release ever has. I just don't know what to think about this. All I keep thinking "Has he seen the movie on the Blu-ray at all?", and if this picture is what he envisioned originally I cannot help but be even more complexed and confused because of the fact that it looks truly horrible. It is so frustrating that the picture was so bad since I truly think that this movie is one of the best crime movies ever made. I will be returning my copy and wait to see if Fox will issue it again with the picture quality that the movie deserves.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film, not ideally suited to Blu Ray,
By
This review is from: French Connection [Blu-ray] [1971] (Blu-ray)
I agree, with reservations, with the last reviewers comments: this is a great film (one of the very best of the '70s), but perhaps one not ever best suited to Blu Ray technology certainly when compared to newer films. Having said that, this film is over 37 years old now and was originally filmed in a grainy, washed-out semi-documentary style which suits the film perfectly and is indeed integral to its overall impact. The problem is partly that this look coupled with the age of the film itself doesn't transcend well to the high definition medium. This is by no means a restoration of this classic like say The Godfather films before it; as I understand it, its simply being cleaned-up for transfer to Blu Ray disc and the improvements over the previous releases on DVD are negligible at best. I've given this five stars purely because, as a film, its an absolute classic, featuring Gene Hackman at his very best and one of the pivotal moments on '70s American cinema. A essential purchase, but only if you don't already have it on DVD.
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