Shandor reacts to THE FRENCH CONNECTION (1971) - FIRST TIME WATCHING!!!

[@Patti-sg1fv]

OMG what a nice surprise! This was a family favorite back in the day. My mother and I especially adored Gene Hackman and followed his movie career forever. It's so cool to react to an oldie but a goodie like this. Thank you so much 🎉😊👏👏👍

[@dudermcdudeface3674]

The grittiness of 1970s New York is totally unique and irreplaceable. Films like this are masterpieces partly because they capture it down to a deep level, almost like you can smell the air. They make the visual into something tangible.

[@billolsen4360]

I spent a lot of time there in 1978 and this film caught it 100%

[@MLJ7956]

Great reaction Shandor to this Academy Award winning classic...a lot of people might not realize that this movie is actually based on two real life New York City police narcotics detectives, Eddie Egan & Sonny Grisso, who were both responsible for breaking up a big French heroin drug ring, their dealers, distributors & their importers/smugglers. They managed to seize over 246 lb (111.6 kg) of heroin (making that the largest heroin bust by police at that time back in 1968). ✌️

[@perrymalcolm3802]

I loved the 70s era for its gritty realism. FC was very influential n innovative, especially the car chase sequence n its editing. There hv been pieces done about it. BTW, the cop in the hat who angrily told him he’s off the case is the real Popeye Doyle!

[@chefskiss6179]

What a time in cinema history, moving away from filming on the backlot studios and onto the 'real' environments. And what environments. I always go back to Scorsese's Mean Streets. Great watching this with you. Another great selection.

[@RenfrewPrume]

Not a noir, but a legendary police procedural that made Hackman a star. Loved your comments on the cinematography and about the composer. Yes, the chases were incredible. The foot chases are still the best ever filmed, I think.

[@rubenestrada8763]

Don Ellis was really into exploring new ways of creating music. Besides the unusual time signatures he was into using quarter tones with his trumpet playing. In College in the early seventies we had a Jazz competition featuring local high school and other California Colleges, our featured performer was Don Ellis. It was practically unanimous when we voted who to invite for our main performer. This happened in Visalia, CA at College of the Sequoias. I was 2nd Tenor in our Jazz Ensemble. What a great weekend.

[@danielkelegian5306]

Check out Marathon Man and The Day of the Jackal. You will love those movies also.

[@glennwisniewski9536]

Bill Hickman, who plays agent Bill, is also the world class stunt driver who drives the car in the famous chase scene here. Hickman is also a stunt driver/actor in Steve McQueen's Bullitt and in the Roy Scheider-starrer The Seven-Ups.

[@philmakris8507]

Hey Shandor, the 70's were a great era for action movies huh. You would probably enjoy McQ, BRANNIGAN with John Wayne. THUNDERBOLT AND LIGHTFOOT, THE EIGER SANCTION with Clint Eastwood THE HUNTER, THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR with Steve McQueen.

[@thomasalbrecht5914]

If you watch the making-ofs here on KZbin, you’ll be even more amazed and passionate about this movie. They don’t make them like this anymore. Health and safety and stuff.

[@riffmondo9733]

Fantastic film!

[@inSaxony]

Hi Shandor, I've been listening to some of your comments about soundtracks, in this film and others (for example, the Rozsa score for Double Indemnity). I myself, as a musician, categorise my personal movies collection mostly by soundtrack composer. Therefore I'd first like to suggest you watch "Rozsa" films, if you haven't yet seen them: Thief of Bagdad, Four Feathers, Jungle Book, Lost Weekend, Spellbound, Strange Love of Martha Evers, and of course the "epics" - Quo Vadis, Ivanhoe, Julius Caesar, Knights of the Round Table, Lust for Life, Ben-Hur, King of Kings, El Cid.... and many more! Also the "Herrmann" films you haven't watched (you already know the great Hitchcock ones - unless you missed The Trouble with Harry and/or Marnie) - for instance his Fantasy scores (7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, Mysterious Island, 3 Worlds of Gulliver, Journey to the Center of the Earth) or his noir scores (On Dangerous Ground, Five Fingers, Cape Fear) or his sci-fi (Day the Earth Stood Still, various Twilight Zone episodes) etc. - As an aside: my paternal grandparents emigrated to Ohio from Budapest in 1919. Cheers, m.

[@banyarling]

O hell yeah.. amazing car chase. The sequel is worth watching if only for its ludicrous ending. I also find it hilarious every time how Doyle shoots the unarmed assassin IN THE BACK against every poilice protocol, then we hard cut to another scene as if nothing happened.

[@billolsen4360]

9:50 Your reactions are great, you don't have to shut up, you have a lot to offer! 😅 The man playing Gene Hackman's supervisor is the real Popeye Doyle. The people in the bars that Hackman and Scheider bust were real NYPD officers, and the NYPD garage mechanic is also a garage mechanic for the NYPD.

[@filmkid541]

I live just a couple of blocks from Sal and Angies store - now a Mexican restaurant. Lots of it was shot in Bushwick.

[@cwdkidman2266]

7. Hat in the back means undercover cop on duty. 8. Pick your feet line was designed to rattle suspects. A cop would ask it angrily, like your life depended on the right answer. The other cop would ask the real questions, questions a suspect could answer. And he WOULD answer them just to keep that other maniac off him.

[@davidhuggan6315]

Great movie!

[@hannejeppesen1809]

Supposedly the car chase scene was filmed without permission, or some it, the women with the baby carriage was real. This car chase scene and the one with Steve McQueen from the movie "Bullit" are famous. Bullit scene was filmed on the streets and hiils of San Francisco.

[@uconnapharm]

The director William Friedkin always said that the best movie he ever made was Sorcerer . You must see it ! Sorcerer failed at the movie theaters in 1977 because it opend the same Summer as the original Star Wars movie and the title "Sorcerer" was a huge mistake. Friedkin had just come off directing The Exorcist , and Sorcerer had nothing to do with sorcery or otherwordly events . Sorcerer is an action-adventure movie set in the jungles of South America and stars Roy Scheider from The French Connection . It is very possible that after seeing Sorcerer you may rate it better than the French Connection. btw The French Connection won 5 Oscars : Best Movie , Best Lead Actor , Best Supporting Actor , Best Director and Best Screenplay . PLEASE SEE Sorcerer !!!

[@cwdkidman2266]

1. Black people LOVED this movie because it showed cops as they really were/are: racist and no use for the rules. And it showed them really going after the white gangsters who bring the dope in from the poppy fields. 2. These guys aren't cops, they're narcs. At one point cops and narcotics separated, on the city, state, and Federal level. New York City Narcotics Bureau, New York State Bureau of Narcotics, Federal Bureau of Narcotics. They used police facilities but weren't under police control. At the end of the film, Doyle and Russo were reassigned because narcs were cowboys with no use for due process or any other legal niceties. So narcotics merged back into the police department where the cops could try and keep the narcs under control. But I'll call them cops to avoid confusion. 3. The cops didn't care if the criminals knew they were being followed. In fact, they wanted the bad guys to feel pressured so they might feel rushed and make a mistake. 4. The New York City Police Garage was nearly 8 blocks long and over a block wide. It had every kind of paint and upholstery fabric there was in the BIG 3 (FORD, GM, & CHRYSLER) of automakers. This story was set in the 1960s when no one drove a foreign car. That's why the cops could tear that Lincoln up and return it without a scratch - they rebuilt it. 5. The light sentences reflect how evidence was obtained, without thought of due process. BUT .... NOW they were known. Now we found out who some of the movers And players in illegal drugs were. And we'd stopped the biggest shipment of pure heroin from entering the country. 6. Doyle and Russo got famous. So much so they couldn't work undercover anymore. They were "reassigned" from the old Narcotics Bureau into the NYPD proper. They got rich from book sales and businesses they started. So nothing bad happened to them. They were as I said famous heroes.

[@pablosilva6988]

❤

[@Fzane-mn8fh]

And did you watch the Disney censored version which Disney did without telling anybody or the uncut version?

[@jiveturkey8263]

Since you liked this so much you really must watch Bullitt with Steve McQueen ASAP.

[@shandoratthecinema4098]

Now it's on my list!

[@HT-io1eg]

And The Taking of Pelham 123, the original one!

[@clarencewalker3925]

Sorry, Shandor that this movie gets boring in certain scenes. But this movie was based on fact and this is typical of police procedure. Also, the man playing Gene Hackman's boss is Eddie Egan, formely of the NYPD and the real Popeye who smashed this case. And since you're a fan of Roy Scheider's, I suggest "The Seven-Ups."