Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54913 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-09-25
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English, French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 223 minutes

Amazon.com
William Friedkin's classic policier was propelled to box-office glory, and a fistful of Oscars, in 1972 by its pedal-to-the-metal filmmaking and fashionably cynical attitude toward law enforcement. Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle, a brutally pushy New York City narcotics detective, is a dauntless crime fighter and Vietnam-era "pig," a reckless vulgarian whose antics get innocent people killed. Loosely based upon an actual investigation that led to what was then the biggest heroin seizure in U.S. history, the picture traces the efforts of Doyle and his partner (Roy Scheider) to close the pipeline pumping Middle Eastern smack into the States through the French port of Marseilles. (The actual French Connection cops, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, make cameo appearances.) It was widely recognized at the time that Friedkin had lifted a lot of his high-strung technique from the Costa-Gavras thrillers The Sleeping Car Murders and Z--he even imported one of Costa-Gavras's favorite thugs, Marcel Bozzuffi, to play the Euro-trash hit man plugged by Doyle in an elevated train station. There was an impressive official sequel in 1975, French Connection II, directed by John Frankenheimer, which took Popeye to the south of France and got him hooked on horse. A couple of semiofficial spinoffs followed, The Seven-Ups, which elevated Scheider to the leading role, and Badge 373, with Robert Duvall stepping in as the pugnacious flatfoot. --David Chute

Customer Reviews

How 2 directors differently handled the same series...
This package includes both The French Connection and its sequel, and movies don't get any better than this. Here, you get to see two great directors handle the character of Popeye Doyle and the cinematic presentation of the film(s) in two completely different ways.

Friedkin created more of an off-beat cop thriller that made people think. Instead of the shoot-em-up approach that the second one made, the original takes a more logical step to the action. Some of the action isn't even shooting; it's mainly verbal. Friedkin's setting for the movie is dark, gritty, and perfect for the movie. There are no lush sets; only the cold and pain of the city, which creates an unbeatable realistic tone for the whole film. The movie grabbed 5 oscars, most notably best actor for Gene Hackman. His performance is legendary, testing the difference between cop and crook and how much it takes to cross the line. His partner, acted out by Roy Scheider, is great, too. He plays more of the cautionary cop, holding back Doyle when he's about to explode.

The sequel, I thought, is even better. Gene Hackman's performance is stepped up considerably, and Marseille is just as good as a setting as New York was in the original. The set pieces fit in perfectly, creating many memorable scenes. In one scene, Doyle is randomly pooring gasoline all over an urban apartment building, yelling "The exterminator is here!" He soon sets it on fire, killing two of his many enemies. Other great scenes consist of Doyle relentlessly trying to make commuication wih the french and him trying to get hooked off of heroin. The action is this movie is a lot less subtle than the first; director Frankenheimer creates grisly shootouts in shipyards and heroin processing plants, all of which add as much to the film as the chase did in the first.

Make no mistake, both of these films are winners. Buy this as watch how two greatly talented directors handled a great character and series.

French Connection: 1971; 104 minutes; Rated R for strong language and a few scenes of violence.

French Connection 2: 1975; 119 minutes; Rated R for strong language, a few scenes of violence, and drug use.

Stop Picking Your Feet and Buy This!!!
Billy Friedkin's film is the most influential crime thriller since film noir. Look at the cop shows on TV today. Bocchco and Wolf would be lost without this as a model. It set the tone for Hollywood in the 70's and stands up today with it's great acting, terrific dialogue, and charcter driven action. On a personal level I saw this movie at the ripe age of 9 at a drive-in with my parents. This film was the movie that made me fall in love with movies. For that I am forever grateful to Friedkin, D'Antoini, Hackman and Company.
The bonuses on this DVD package are terrific. Mark Kermode's BBC documentary is as good as the one he did on "The Exorcist" and Friedkin's commentary on the film itself is informative and entertaining. The lost scenes are interesting if you're a fan of the film and a fan of Friedkin the director.It is instructive to watch an extended scene, such as the one in the hotel lobby, that lasts 2 or 3 minutes on film in the outtake last only a few seconds in the finished film, yet all the information that is communicated in the longer scene is in the finished product without stopping the pacing and it allows the audience to fill in the blanks. Even while being pushed along on a viseral high the audience is using their heads. I always felt this was Friedkin's strentgh as a filmmaker, telling a lot of information visually and quickly, even if the audience doesn't catch on at first.
This package also contains John Frankenheimers underrated sequel that isn't based on fact put is purely a fictional account of Popeye Doyle in France. Frankenheimers commentary is also worth listening to as he speaks of his admiration for the first film and desire to stay loyal to the style Friedkin developed(what urban crime film of the 70s didn't?). It also contains Hackman extending his performance of Doyle brillantly and it finds a way to end the film in a way that rivals the ambiguous descent into madness that ended "The FRENCH CONNETION" only it goes in the opposite direction, shocking, startling and definite.
A great package, one masterpiece and one four-star underrated gem. And at a great price

An Often Overlooked Classic
The French Connection has never seemed to generate as much buzz as other Best Picture Winners, and is likely to be overlooked yet again in its DVD release, coming so close to the Godfather Trilogy and Citizen Kane. The exception is the chase, of course, long celebrated as perhaps the best ever captured on film. In addition to the action elements, however, there are other reasons to add this to your collection, including Gene Hackman's fine, Oscar-winning turn as Popeye Doyle and William Friedkin's energetic direction. French Connection II suffers somewhat by comparison - Hackman is still great, but the movie seems to lack cohesion, as if the writers patched the story together scene by scene, rather than knowing their destination. It is not a bad movie by any means, but certainly not the classic its predecessor is. The bonus materials are nicely presented and pretty interesting, for the most part - a solid, if not particularly spectacular, package.