![]() I dunno, guess I’m just wondering your thoughts on it! I’m curious whether this was seen in the 70s as a way to make us dislike Popeye, or show him as super tough. I also realize this shouldn’t play into my review, but the racial stuff in this movie is truly off putting. Best picture? Best actor? The scene where the bad guy tricks him off the train with the umbrella was cool, but that was about 10 seconds long. Is this just one of those “good because it influenced others” movies? I literally don’t get it. When it actually ended, in an extremely lame final scene (big bad runs away, you hear a mysterious gunshot suggesting an ambiguous ending, then a title card just says he got away), I literally wanted to stand up and boo. ![]() I watched with my girlfriend and after the short car chase was over we were like, nah that wasn’t it, this whole movie must be building up to the big one at the end. The story was extremely generic and simple, yet confusing. I do not understand what people see in this movie. ![]() Even here, Friedkin refuses to provide much clarity: we're told that "Alain Charnier was never caught," and Popeye and Cloudy were "transferred out of the Narcotics Bureau and reassigned." The combined gritty, in-your-face drama of the film's events with this distant and chilly conclusion is the emotional equivalent of being drenched in ice cold water, a wake-up call that feels only too close to the inconclusiveness and unfairness of reality.Recently watched The French Connection for a movie club with friends, and I was absolutely shocked at what I saw. The only conclusion Friedkin allows his audience is a series of curt, cold on-screen postscripts giving a few scant details on where some of the characters ended up after the events of the film. That veracity is increased by the distinct lack of typical Hollywood elements in "The French Connection": characters don't talk about themselves but instead simply behave in front of the camera, Don Ellis' score doesn't tell the audience what to feel when it's present (which is sparingly) but instead evokes a mood, and the ending isn't wrapped in a neat bow. Trapped, Charnier, Boca, and the rest of the criminals attempt to flee or fight, as Grosso, Doyle and the rest of the force close in for the capture. The exchange goes smoothly, but as Charnier is leaving with his money and Boca's gang are preparing to leave with their heroin, Charnier's car is blocked by a phalanx of NYPD vehicles fronted by Doyle himself, who gives a knowing wave to his quarry that echoes one given to him by Charnier when the Frenchman eluded him earlier. Charnier himself travels with the car to the meet, which is held on the deserted Ward's Island. They then reassemble and return the car to Devereaux, who hands it over to Charnier, refusing to carry on with their prior plan to unload the car and its merchandise. After literally tearing the car apart in the NYPD garage, the detectives find 120 pounds of heroin hidden in the rocker panels. The big break in Popeye and Cloudy's pursuit of Charnier comes when they stakeout a car seemingly owned by one of the Frenchman's associates, a TV host named Devereaux (Frédéric de Pasquale).
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