The French Connection-A Meticulous, Subversive Cop Film
The French Connection is a cop film that, for so much of its runtime, is less focused on the action-packed car chases and shoot-outs the subgenre is known for and more on the meticulous investigating and stakeouts. So much of the film is watching the two leads, Popeye and his partner, Buddy, as they follow and tail suspects from a distance via car or on foot. It makes the film into a brilliant subversion of the cop film, making the viewer expect an action-packed movie, only to have them watch a slow, methodical investigation made up of characters tailing and following other characters that's still incredibly intense. It also provides an immense impact once the film ratchets up into a fierce, violent action scene you expect in the film's third act. The third act contains an action set piece that continues to build and build, going from an on-foot chase to a car/train chase, culminating in one visceral moment of violence after another.
It's in the characters that the film also brilliantly subverts your expectations of the cop genre. Most cop films portray their protagonists as righteous people willing to do what's right no matter the cost. Some cop films may create a corrupt portrait of the policing system so that the cop protagonist can rise above the corrupt system to save the day. The protagonists of The French Connection aren't at all like this. They're blatantly racist, intolerant people who are prone to violence at any moment. But as terrible of people as they are, the meticulous quality they take in their jobs combined with the sheer charisma and hotheaded energy of Gene Hackman and Roy Sheider's performances makes it so you can't keep your eyes off them. It all makes for an incredibly subversive portrayal, showing its protagonists as angry, hotheaded, morally dubious individuals compared to the calm, collected, overly righteous protagonists of most cop films.
William Friedkin's guerilla filmmaking style works incredibly well. Friedkin always puts the camera on ground level, watching the characters from the streets, through cars, or windows. Friedkin doesn't capture the chase sequences with the clean, sweeping camerawork and long takes of most action films of the time. Instead, Friedkin uses an abundance of shakey-cam and a more rhythmic editing style to make the moments of action throughout the film all the more invigorating. That guerilla filmmaking style is at its best during the car chase in the third act, with the camera placed in up-close and personal positions to make each moment even more visceral.
The film's meticulous quality doesn't always work. It led to some slow, less engaging sections, particularly early on. The film also chooses to make its core mystery purposefully vague. While this does allow you to be placed in the characters' shoes, being just as confused as the characters as they attempt to solve this mystery, I also found that it made so much of the narrative needlessly convoluted.
Despite a slow, overly convoluted story, there's still so much to The French Connection that works incredibly well. It's a brilliant, subversive cop film, showing a grittier, more realistic side to these characters and their world compared to similar films, especially of its time. It's all captured with William Friedken's guerilla, on-the-ground directing style, which makes so much of the film feel all the more tense and captivating.
Now Streaming on Max in the U.S.
