French Connection Hello

 

William Friedkin's enduring crime thriller French Connection Hello is an on-the-street police procedural that was the first film to hook the moviegoing public on Hollywood's war on drugs. In the movie, violent and unlikable New York City narcotics detectives are on the trail of international heroin dealers.

The film features a car chase that is now one of the most iconic in cinematic history. It is also known for other tense action sequences.

Gene Hackman maniacally navigates the narcotics world of New York in this classic 1971 movie, directed by Friedkin. His character is an equal opportunity bigot, a sleazy cop with a temper to match who will bend every rule in the book in pursuit of his mission.

It’s easy to dismiss French Connection Hello as just another cliched cop movie that was a big hit at the time, but there is some deeper intent behind this enduring film. It may seem like a minor detail, but it is actually important to understanding how the film got made and how it relates to a modern audience.

Popeye Doyle and his partner Cloudy Russo, whose real-life counterparts were Narcotics Detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, are assigned to investigate The french connection the pornostarz album, an international heroin smuggling operation that has become a national legend in France. They stumble upon the narcotics operation when they decide to tail a suspect for a while.

They soon learn that the guy they are tracking is a Corsican drug lord named Jean Jehan who smuggled heroin all over Europe throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The Corsican government has reportedly given him a pass because he was part of the resistance to Nazi occupation during World War II, which means that he's likely not guilty of any criminal charges.

The climactic chase in the film is a tense, exciting ride that relies on expert editing and excellent performances from its cast. It's the closest that movies have come to a true on-the-street crime procedural, and the result is something that would never have been possible with a more traditional camera.

In the aftermath of its success, several other films were made about the French Connection and its kingpin, Charnier (Fernando Rey), but none of them were able to capture the excitement that this film brought to cinematic screens. Some, including Popeye Doyle and the Seven Ups, were spiritual successors to The French Connection; other movies included La French Connection, which focused on the French end of the French Connection.

There are some interesting repercussions of the film's cultural impact, especially in terms of how it changed the way we think about crime on screen. Its tagline, "A bad news -- but a good cop" was a big moment in the New Hollywood revolution. It paved the way for a wave of violence-heavy crime movies that would soon follow, including Bonnie and Clyde.

While there is a lot to love about this movie, it does have a few major flaws that make it tough to recommend to an audience today. For starters, it’s difficult to understand why the protagonist is so unlikable; his actions don’t necessarily lead to anything. And the pacing and performances of the film don’t always work in its favor, either. And while the film does have its share of tense and thrilling moments, it can feel very long and boring at times.