4.5/10
Hello! Sorry for the break in posting--school just started and is very overwhelming so I have been busy. But, here I am! I watched The French Connection with my mom because she’s in love with Gene Hackman and also Roy Scheider. I’ll admit that for the first 30 minutes of the film I was only paying half-attention, as I had a large art assignment to complete while I watched. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea, because I was a little confused for the next 30 minutes as to what was going on. It seemed to me that a lot of this movie was stakeouts, walking down the street, and driving around in cars. It reminded me a lot of Marathon Man (1976), which came later. Both have that screechy intense music, but I liked Marathon Man much better.
This movie is about two detectives who are hunting down a drug dealer from France. Other than some stuff about cars and trains, that’s pretty much all it’s about, unfortunately. I feel like there isn’t much to the story, though the performances from Hackman and Scheider are good. Overall, I just feel, meh. And the ending, without spoilers, is not entirely satisfactory. Oh well! I may also have some resistance considering all of the tension with police in America today. I think it’s funny how in every cop movie ever, the federal agents are the bad guys. I wonder if that’s how it is in real life… (or are they all bad guys? hmm…)
Anyway, this movie didn’t draw me in, but there are some notable moments like the car/train chase scene which were exciting. It was fun to see so many parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan in the 1970s, and my mom and I kept pausing to read street signs and check if stores were still in business (they mostly weren’t). Overall, I wouldn’t put this movie on my top 100 list, but it wasn’t nearly the worst hour and 45 minutes of my life :)
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