Missed Connection

I recently decided to up my "movie cred" a small notch by watching another film that won the Oscar for Best Picture: The French Connection. (It won in 1971.) But I was hugely disappointed. A lucky few movies hold up well over the years. Many more don't age well, but have a few elements that do still play decades down the road. But in my opinion, this movie is one that can only be praised in the context of the time and climate in which it was originally released.

The French Connection is a crime movie about New York cops (Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider) trying to track down the source of drug shipments coming into the city. It was a highly influential movie, and you can see and feel that long reach as you watch it.

This was the first time that such a gritty look at police work was presented. The real revolution here was that these cops are not good guys. They harass witnesses, beat informants, shoot suspects in the back. Ultimately, they're not much better than the criminals they're trying to catch. And nearly 40 years ago? Yeah, I can imagine that must have been really something to see.

The trouble is, this is all the norm for storytelling today. Revolutionary would be finding an all good cop in a movie or TV show. You could list dozens and dozens of fantastic things since The French Connection that presented this sort of story in amazing fashion. Hell, even a few things that in my opinion weren't all that great (say, movies like Narc or Traffic) still feel to me like they're covering this ground better.

The French Connection is also particularly well-known for a car chase sequence in the final act, where Gene Hackman must run a virtual demolition derby course to beat an elevated train to its next stop. Here again, one can imagine how in 1971, nobody had ever seen anything like this. But by my modern, jaded standards, it just doesn't hold up. For a chase sequence, the pace feels a bit slow. The speeds don't feel very dangerous. There's no exhiliration. And yet, you can see in the choices of certain "gags" during the chase, and in specific camera angles shown, that this movie inspired countless others to follow, including those still made today.

Intellectually, I totally understand why this movie is considered one of the greats. I understand even more why it was honored in its time. But emotionally, as an audience watching it today, I was bored almost from beginning to end. I wanted to like it, but I just plain didn't. I rate The French Connection a D-.