So, inspired by the obituaries, my wife and I watched The French Connection for the first time last night. We have questions.
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The police took the French car apart into very small pieces before discovering the heroin. Then, in the next sequence they gave the car back to the two Frenchmen who drove away with it. Does this imply the guys in the garage reassembled the car? That seems very silly given how they wrecked it.
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Why was this film important? It was striking, with much use of silence and shots of nearly-empty New York streets. Further it had no clear ending. Certainly the Good Guys were portrayed as not-so-nice. Is this what was new in the 1970s?
Your thoughts?
The chase scene was certainly memorable.
We enjoyed seeing all the old cars. We learned to drive in those things.
The film was based on a true story and is notable for several reasons. The car chase is phenomenal of course, but this was also an early entry in the New Hollywood, which meant the end of the studio system and an entry into “gritty,” “dark,” and “realistic” films (Bonnie and Clyde [also with Hackman] is considered the first of the New Hollywood films).
The ending was ambiguous because that was the way the story really ended (see the direct sequel, “French Connection II” and the unofficial sequel, “The Seven Ups”).
To your point #1, as I remember, the cops didn’t want the crooks to know they’d seized the car and searched it. So they put it back together to avoid suspicion.
Back to your second point, yes, that was new in the 70s – see Dirty Harry for example. The New Hollywood was a revolution against the studio system. Something like Bonnie and Clyde would never have been made in the same way in the 1940s.
I’ll add a follow-up to #1: when they’re searching the car, they’re about to give up on finding the stash when one of the techs says “I’ve ripped everything out of there except the rocker panels!” So they pry off the rocker panels, and sure enough, there’s the stash.
How does this make sense? It’s like saying “I’ve searched the whole house, except the attic!”
For what it’s worth, Wikipedia says “they remove the rocker panels and find packages of heroin. Because the original car was destroyed during the search, the police substitute a lookalike and return it to Devereaux, who delivers it to Charnier.”
See, this is why I shouldn’t’ rely on my memory!
I always liked Police Squad’s version of that scene: the cops manage to reassemble the car within minutes and give it back to the owners, but it’s a completely different make and model. (And of course that’s after they realize the drugs were in the unlocked glove compartment the whole time.)
It’s been a long time but I remember this being a classic example of a really influential classic film actually seeming pretty boring and predictable to a modern viewer. Thats because the whole “cop tracking down evil international drug dealers” trope was invented by that movie. It’s been redone and built on so many times in the intervening decades that the original seems boring.
We rented and watched it, too. I hadn’t seen it in years. Thanks for a better explanation of how an undestroyed car was returned to Devereaux!
My question: was that a hooker that Popeye picked up? It seems unlikely that a random bicycling girl would jump into bed with an almost middle aged strange guy and go right to a bit of BDSM.
Trivia: the annoying cop assigned to work with our two guys is the same actor who drove the mob’s getaway car in Bullitt.
And also was the main hitman/driver in The Seven Ups (specifically the chase where Roy Scheider rams into the back of a trailer (sans Mansfield bar)). Spoiler: the car (a Pontiac Ventura) is almost completely decapitated. To me, this is the best chase scene in cinema history (The French Connection is 2nd, followed by Bullitt).
I was confused by the car search too. There’s no way to reassemble a car that quickly.
But, also where would the cops find an identical make and model replacement?
I watched The French Connection again a few nights ago. It holds up pretty well. The movie is a time capsule of how people dressed and lived in that period. It’s gritty and even disturbing by design.
Movie makers were turning away from the polished approach with satisfying endings.
I found the ending notes about the real cops very interesting. They were all reassigned and I got the impression the case hurt their careers as police officers.
The movie ending was far different from how the case played out in reality.
For me, the ending of the movie was a significant weakness. It felt like an attempt at an arty finish that was flubbed.
The movie overall had a little extra significance for me, because I went to high school in Manhattan around the same time and places that the action occurred in real life. Same sense of recognition for Marathon Man’s scenes in the diamond district.
LOL Having replaced a few rocker panels the idea that they can be “pried off” in the first place, then smooshed back together is laughable. They would be a twisted mess of bent metal.
The rocker panel bit was what lost the movie for me. I wasn’t that enthused up to then (the car chase was ok, but not overwhelming), but when the guy says, “we searched everything but the rocker panels” 
There were other plot holes that made no sense, too.
I ended up seeing it three times. When I started dating a different woman, they had never seen it, so they wanted to go.
Despite its reputation, I find the movie really poorly made, and forgettable. Literally. Every once in a while I think “You know, everyone says The French Connection is really good, I should watch it.” only to find “Oh I watched this already!”
It has nothing to do with “modern audiences”. I’m a big enough fan of old TV and movies I have no trouble adjusting my expectations. I just think TFC is a weak movie in any time.
That was Bill Hickman, better known as a stunt driver than an actor. His work in Bullitt led directly to being tapped for both The French Connection and The Seven-ups.