Cover: The French Connection Collection Box Set (1 & 2) Rating: 0
20 Feb 2013

Details

Director:John Frankenheimer William Friedkin
Writer:Robert Dillon, Alexander Jacobs
Theatrical:1975
Studio:20th Century Fox
Genre:Action & Adventure John Frankenheimer Boxed Sets
Duration:223
Awards:Nominated for Golden Globe, Another 2 nominations
Languages:English (Original Language), French (Original Language), English (Subtitled)
Subtitles:Label
Sound:Label
Aspect Ratio:16:9
Discs:1
Region:1

Features

Anamorphic Box set Closed-captioned Color Dolby Subtitled Widescreen NTSC 2.35:1

Summary

William Friedkin's classic policierwas 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 based upon an actual investigation that led to what was then the biggest heroin seizure in U.S. history, the picture traces the efforts of Doyle and his partner (Roy Scheider) to close the pipeline pumping Middle Eastern smack into the States through the French port of Marseilles. (The actual French Connection cops, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, make cameo appearances.) It was widely recognized at the time that Friedkin had lifted a lot of his high-strung technique from the Costa-Gavras thrillers The Sleeping Car Murdersand Z--he even imported one of Costa-Gavras's favorite thugs, Marcel Bozzuffi, to play the Euro-trash hit man plugged by Doyle in an elevated train station. There was an impressive official sequel in 1975, French Connection II, directed by John Frankenheimer, which took Popeye to the south of France and got him hooked on horse. A couple of semiofficial spinoffs followed, The Seven-Ups, which elevated Scheider to the leading role, and Badge 373, with Robert Duvall stepping in as the pugnacious flatfoot. --David Chute