Cast:
Gene Hackman (NYPD Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle), Fernando Rey (Alain "Frog One" Charnier), Bernard Fresson (Inspector Henri Barthélémy), Philippe Léotard (Jacques), Ed Lauter (General William Brian), Charles Millot (Miletto), Jean-Pierre Castaldi (Raoul Diron), Cathleen Nesbitt (Old Lady), and André Penvern (André) Directed by John Frankenheimer (#559 - Grand Prix, #985 - The Manchurian Candidate)
Review:
"I like the script, I like the characters, I like the Hackman character in France and not speaking a word of French. It's a very difficult film because we want in no way to rip off the first one, which is one of the best films I've ever seen. I want to make a movie that stands on its own as a movie"
Sure, why not do a sequel to The French Connection (1971)? To reiterate, the film took influence in atmosphere and style from films such as Le Samouraï (1967) and Z (1969). You probably remember that the film had a handful of characters based on real-life people in terms of distribution of heroin, which was turned into books such, as, well, The French Connection in 1969 (as written by Robin Moore) that detailed Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso trying to figure out the drug ring (oddly enough, there was another film based on the exploits of Egan in Badge 373 [1973], with Robert Duvall as the star). One of those people was based on Jean Jehan, who really never did get extradited from France and apparently did die peacefully in old age. But hey, screw reality, right? Sometimes you really want to make some money and sometimes audiences will want to watch a sequel that gives you more of what you think you want, so screw it, French Connection II, complete with only Hackman and Rey returning from the first film. Friedkin had no interest in doing the second film and apparently never watched it. The story was written by Robert and Laurie Dillon, who worked on the screenplay with Alexander Jacobs (in his penultimate film credit as a writer), although apparently Pete Hamill provided an uncredited remake for nearly all of the dialogue shortly before production started (apparently Hackman had "nothing to act" with the lack of Roy Scheider in the cast*). John Frankenheimer signed on to direct the movie because he wanted to do a movie that audiences would see. Made on a budget of over $4 million, the movie made nearly three times its budget back (for comparison, the first film made over $70 million).
Admittedly, a movie that features the lead character getting addicted to heroin - he gets kidnapped about 40 minutes into the film, gets injected with heroin not long after, gets dumped back to the cops and eventually gets through the cold turkey treatment by about the 80-minute mark so he can torch a place (and call the cops and no I'm not joking about any of that). It surely is a curious one. Doyle isn't nearly as abrasive as he was in the first film because this time around, he spends more time trying to understand (miserably) the French people around him in one of those "fish out of water" scenarios. Hackman was appreciative for the role of Doyle but he also went on record for stating he never actually re-watched the first film after 1971. He is still pretty offbeat and still pretty entertaining in that certain type of gritty rage that could only come from someone like Hackman. He just has the knack in making a guy like Doyle seem more than just a blowhard or one that could vanish into thin air in the action. Fresson makes for a quality counterpart in capturing the restrained nature of authority that probably fares best in the sequences when having to confront Hackman trying to go cold turkey. Rey is the same type of elusive presence as before, mainly because he doesn't really have to do much besides slide in and slide out of the background that is mostly convincing in nebulous drug dealing*. Regardless of its fictional nature in following up such a hard-nosed first film, there is a worthy sense of danger and entertainment that comes through for engagement that at least makes you care about most of the 119-minute runtime, even with the amusement that arises in straight up fading to black right after the pivotal moment of the whole thing. You get a nice foot chase and even a burning building sequence to see havoc, some sequels don't even try to give you that even when they aspire to top the original. As a whole, French Connection II doesn't do anything particularly great when compared to the long shadow cast by the first film, but it is a solid enough film in its general execution of thrills to go along with enough from Hackman and company to make the trip at least seem like one worth going through once.
Overall, I give it 7 out of 10 stars.
*Hackman and Rey had interesting paths to being cast in the first film, by the way. Rey was cast because Friedkin had wanted the small performance of a Spanish actor that had been in Belle de Jour (1967)...which was Francisco Rabal. Hackman on the other hand came about because they couldn't get the people Hackman or the studio envisioned for Doyle: Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason, Peter Boyle, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, James Caan, Robert Mitchum, Rod Taylor, and...Jimmy Breslin!
*Hey, fuck drugs. Sure, you can try weed, but in general, well, fuck heroin. Hell, cigarettes give you cancer, fuck them too. Don't even get me started on alcohol or vaping.
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