The French Connection & French Connection II [Blu-ray] [1971]

There is one inescapable fact that the apologists for the poor Blu Ray transfer of 'The French Connection' seem determined to ignore. While The Blu Ray of 'The French Connection II' is superior to the DVD release, the Blu Ray of the first movie is noticeably inferior to the DVD release. You's have to be blind not to notice this.

Friedkin has overly tinkered with the transfer resulting in a distinct change to the colour timing, an overabundance of digital noise and a wiping out of fine detail due to ham-fisted application of Digital Noise Reduction.

A prime example of the latter is a long focus shot down a New York street showing the skyline and apartment building rooftops at the rear of the shot. Far more fine detail is visible in the DVD - in the Blu Ray there has been so much DNR applied that the television aerials have disappeared from the rooftops whereas they are clearly visible on the DVD. I thought one of the ideas behind Blu Ray was greater detail and resolution, not less?

This is not the first back catalogue title that Fox has managed to screw up for Blu Ray, several of which are so bad they are to be replaced with newly remastered versions. Moaning that people are being picky or overly technical is simply not good enough - your moaning should be directed at the studios producing sub-standard product. We also had this debate with the Blu Ray release of 'Gladiator', another DNR disaster, with apologists saying "Stop moaning it's fine!". In the end enough people complained and Universal withdrew the original discs and replaced the release with a brand new transfer that showed the original release up for the botch job that it was.

I'll leave the last word on the 'French Connection' Blu Ray transfer with the man who actually shot the film, cinematographer Owen Roizman...

"Billy [Friedkin] for some reason decided to do this on his own. I wasn't consulted. I was appalled by it. I don't know what Billy was thinking. It's not the film that I shot, and I certainly want to to wash my hands of having had anything to do with this transfer, which I feel is atrocious."

He later called it an "emasculated" and "horrifying" transfer, and said "it would be a travesty to see The Exorcist [which Roizman also shot] transferred in this fashion."

Following this controversy, Warner Brothers removed supervision of the Blu Ray transfer of "The Exorcist" from Friedkin's control and handed the reins over to Roizman.

Be patient - the controversy over this title has really hit sales in the USA. Fox will eventually replace it with a new release as they are in the process of doing with other problematic Blu Ray transfers.

Until this The French Connection was released the maximum amount of insight the average joe had into police procedure were the straight-laced, no-nonsense cop shows such as Dragnet. Cops were heroes, the robbers were villains. The French Connection blurred the line, and set a standard for police drama that influenced a generation of imitators that has lasted until this very day with whatever latest incarnation of Law & Order.

Gene Hackman (who had mostly been a second banana until this film) plays Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle, an otherwise good cop who's relentless pursuit of the bad guys inevitably ends in disaster. His wildly unorthodox methods have left him alienated among his peers with only his partner Buddy Russo (that would be Roy Scheider) remaining loyal to him. He happens upon a conspiracy involving small-time local hoods making drug-dealing connections with a French crime boss but virtually no one believes that the deal is going down, and soon.

William Friedkin really captures the filthy, grotty, ugly front of the old New York. Before the clean-up of the streets in the 80s it was certainly a grim, hostile place and the French Connection doesn't play it down one iota. Set during Xmas (though far from being an Xmas film), Friedkin draws an unfair line between Doyle freezing in the street, watching Charnier ('Frog 1') dining in the finest restaurants. Charnier even lives in a lovely waterfront mansion in Marseilles while Doyle is stuck living in the Marlborough Projects. It surprises me little that so many cops were on the take back in the day. But Doyle is honest, believing that dedicating himself to the pursuit of villains will make a difference.

That's where he's wrong!

It's bleak, it's a downer, but there is plenty of intrigue and a brilliant car chase (done back in the days when everything was REAL before the camera and not CGI) that is edited to perfection. The film won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture and is a fine example of the gritty 70s edge that modern equivalents are the worse without.

In the vastly underrated sequel (the first true Hollywood '2') Popeye travels to (more like discarded to) Marseilles after his crushing defeat at the end of the first film. The recovered heroin was stolen right out of the police evidence and made it to the street regardless, lining the pockets of Popeye's crooked colleagues. That's the price you pay for being honest.

The French don't want him and make no attempts to hide their discourteousness as Popeye hits the streets, desperately looking for the elusive 'Frog 1'. His tough-guy schtick may have worked in the Big Apple but in France he's hopelessly incompetent and way out of his depth. Calling him a fish out of water is to put it lightly.

Instead of being a carbon copy of the original, FCII takes a radical turn in the second act as Charnier captures Popeye and turns him into a junkie, the thing he hates even more than criminals. Near-death, and humiliated by Charnier even further, Popeye undergoes a harrowing withdrawal, going cold turkey in a French police cell while his partner looks after him (there ain't no gratitude though). Barely waiting two seconds to regain his strength, the hunt is back on to finally get revenge on Charnier.

John Frankenheimer's take on the story is much slower and drama-orientated than the quick, raw energy of the first. Going deeper into Popeye Doyle's unstable, edgy personality makes it more of a character study and a bit of an epic when compared to what William Friedkin gave us.

The ending may be as abrupt as the first, but it wastes no time in winding down the story. FCII might have the best, sudden climax of any movie ever made.

Don't misjudge it as a 'same again' sequel, it's very different and is brave enough to take the character and story is a bold direction. Frankenheimer's career was full of underrated efforts, but FCII is the best of them.

There has been a lot of controversy over the picture quality of the Blu Ray release. Friedkin has apparently changed the color-timing of the first movie in order to make it look warmer, claiming 'it's how I always wanted it to look'. The cinematographer called this transfer 'an abomination' and fans of the film have been vocal in their disappointment. There are rumors that Friedkin remastered the film and screened it digitally WITHOUT the changes and only when it hit BD did Fox tamper with it without his knowledge. Either way, it has not been corrected. As a result, Frankenheimer's FCII is the best-looking of the two. Both movies are in 1080p 1.85:1 with DTS HD-MA 5.1 and have plenty of extras. Despite the controversy, it's a BD package worth buying.

The transfer to Blu-ray of this otherwise excellent movie, is spoilt by the woeful quality in the transfer. I already had both movies on DVD, bought when they were first released. The DVD transfer is vastly superior in quality to the Blue-ray version. Take my advice and buy the films on DVD instead.

J A Sellin, Port Kembla, New South Wales