Unspooled Podcast / The French Connection

Cafe Society
1

I’m going to ahead and combine two topics here.

I recently started listening to the Inspioled podcast, in which Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson each week discuss one of the AFI’s top 100 movies.

So far I’ve quite enjoyed it. They’ve done Citizen Kane, Ben Hur, The Wizard of Oz, The French Connection, Swing Time, and Titanic. Next week they’re doing 2001.

I watched The French Connection to go along with the episode. I had never seen it except for the occasional clip.

I found it to be a fascinating movie. I usually find cop stories uninteresting, but the way this film felt like it was really putting you right in 1970 New York was gripping.

When I was growing up, New York was a place of fear and violence. Now it’s a playground for the super-wealthy.

The movie really gives you a feeling of being on those streets with these dirtbag cops.

One question. In the final scene, Popeye (Gene Hackman) accidentally (or “accidentally”?) kills the federal agent he has been clashing with throughout the movie and wanders off camera into the next room where he’s sure the bad guy is.

You hear one shot off screen and then the movie ends. During the final title sequence, you learn the bad guy got away. So what was the point of hearing that final shot and going to black if it wasn’t supposed to be Popeye summarily executing the bad guy?

2

Largely unrelated, but I would recommend the French film, Connection, to anyone looking for a good Cop/Crook face-off film.

3

A) I’ve been listening to Unspooled as well, and I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it. 2) I just watched The French Connection last night. I sort of watched it a few weeks ago, but I mostly slept through it, so I refreshed it last night.

I couldn’t figure out that last scene either, accept that possibly the shot wasn’t meant to be definitive but rather more of Popeye being a loose cannon. He’s just rounding corners and shooting first all over the place.