On DVD at home with Lucía on 21 May 2008 at around 21:45.
I was a bit disappointed with The French Connection. I’m not quite sure what I was expecting, but what I got was a pretty good early-70s thriller. The film was fairly cliché, with an impulsive cop with strong hunches, little trust from his superiors, and a tendency to leave a trail of wreckage behind him (this is all implied/described—in the film, we never see anything other than the case he’s following). The story is compelling enough that I was able to forgive a fair number of what I felt at the time were implausible plot and character developments. While I’m not sure how many similar films might have come before, I can certainly see that most of Hollywood’s reckless cop thrillers since The French Connection seem to be made of the same mold. Most recently American Gangster feels like something of an homage.
Would it be fair to consider The French Connection a post-noir film? Same flawed characters, same gritty town, but with mostly honest cops, no sense of the which way is up? morality, and a strong sense of vindication.
Anyways, I enjoyed The Conversation more, with its ambiguous morality and ambiguous ending.
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