The French Connection (1971): Shira's Take

First and foremost it must be said that the first half of this movie is not good. It is totally uninteresting, and the details of the smuggling plot are hard to follow. Second, there is not much character development, which is typically the most important thing to me in any narrative-based art-form. Disclaimers aside...The French Connection is great. I don't miss the character development when Gene Hackman is just so totally awesome. And the second half really makes up for the first. The moment the movie gets interesting is when Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) desperately tries repeatedly to get on the same subway train as Frog #1, Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey). That scene is followed soon after by the classic car/subway chase scene, which is just so incredible in every way. That fifteen minutes (or so) of no dialogue develops Popeye's lust for the job more than hours of dialogue in any modern cop movie (Michael Mann's Heat for example). Add to that, of course, the fact that he absolutely does not care a bit when he kills Mulderig at the end. Priceless.

Really, the car chase scene on its own is the perfect movie, edited flawlessly. Nearing forty years later, and they're still making video games that attempt to be as cool. This endless determination, never looking back (except for when you almost run over a baby carriage), running into everything in your way, smashing up the car like crazy -- it is the ultimate cop movie scene. So yes, I will be giving this movie a 9/10, in spite of its awful first 45 minutes.