The French Connection (1971)

Film of 2012 #14
No Spoilers

Finally got a chance to see the William Friedkin police drama starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, I knew very little of this film going in other than it was a slow burner and was quite violent. I have to say that those comments are accurate when it comes to summing up this film, you have Hackman and Scheider on drug case where they are sure it is going to be  a bust but I think that it becomes bigger than they originally expected. You also see the French side with the master criminals dealing with the transaction and I think that there was also a level of naivety from their side based upon who they were dealing with, this brings a real sense of realism to this film. 

There are some slow scenes with Hackman staking out the suspected criminals in New York in winter and you see his dedication with the fact that it is obviously freezing and it goes on a bit to long for me but does give a sense of how much he wants the bust. There is a chase scene when Hackman "borrows" a civilians car and chases a suspect who is on an Elevated train, the whole scene reminded me of something from Grand Theft Auto and it would not surprise me if this was an influence on the game makers. There is a level of violence in the game and the 1970's cops do give the impression of shoot first ask questions later and this leads to some interesting situations. 

Overall this is an excellent film you have good performances from the main actors with Hackman stealing the show for me, he is so aggressive and obsessive it drags you along and while you do not like the character this is probably because you are not meant to like this racist and violent cop. I would recommend this film, it is quite long but very entertaining and is from a different era on New York in the 1970's a solid 3 stars from me, I can appreciate that it is not for everyone.

The Posiedon Adventure (1972)

The classic ship disaster movie with Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine is a classic of the highest order I have to say that I enjoyed re-watching this film as it is a few years since I have seen it and probably the first time since I saw the remake. You have a straight performance as the captain by Leslie Neilson, the first time I have seen him on film since his sad demise and I have to say that I think he is an a awesome actor. So you have the fact the ship ends up overturned and you get an excellent practical effect when the ship rolls and Gene Hackman playing the priest who has lost his faith in God taking control to try and save everybody.

You end up with a small group of people being lead by Gene and you have some in fighting amongst themselves with what the best option to do and the inevitable threats and danger from an overturned cruise liner. I have to say that my favourite characters are the Rosen's they are such a lovely couple and some of the lines between each other are fantastic, my favourite being, "when was the last time we said I love you to each other?", "what does it matter?" so simple and could be taken wrong in today's cynical outlook but I like to consider it as why does it matter we are here together and we have been together forever and we know we love each other.

So you have a cast of awesome actors that take an adventure story in a strange location and they have to escape from the threat, one of the best parts is that there is no real bad guy in this film it is simply a disaster which I do not think they do very well at the moment. This is 4 stars it loses a bit over time but will always be re-watchable to me and I look forward to revisiting again in the future.