So, I'd heard a lot about the French Connection. Somehow I was under the impression that this was a spy thriller. It's not. It's a hard boiled cop movie starring Gene Hackman and the always underrated Roy Schieder as his partner. The movie follows the two cops as they try to stop a major drug deal. Hackman's Popeye Doyle is a complicated antihero who makes you love and hate him at the same time. Unlike many cinematic rogue cops who seem to operate on a steady diet of cliché flakes, Hackman creates a fully developed human being. He's arrogant and damaged, trying to prove himself after a hunch of his got another cop killed. The guilt causes his self destructive behavior and recklessness that leads to one of the most intense car chases ever put on film. His actions at the end of the chase hint at a cop who has lost part of his humanity and foreshadows a brutal moment later in the film. The movie is inspired by real events and contains a gritty realism (the real kind, not the Zach Snyder kind) I wasn't expecting. If fact, I think if I had had a better idea of what this movie was about I would have liked it even more. Still, this movie is one of the best cop movies I have ever seen and it is a masterpiece.
Best scene - The car chase
Best moment - Gene Hackman's wave to the bad guy. It's the most badass little wave in movie history.
8/10
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