8mm Forum: THE FRENCH CONNECTION!! FEATURE

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Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 08, 2007, 09:16 PM:

Okay guys ...

There are action films, and then there are ACTION FILMS. There are action hero wanna be's (Segal, Van Damme, Arnold), and then there are REALISTIC ACTION HEROS ... WITH BALLS!

Among the top ... POPEYE DOYLE

The French Connection is one of the all time classic action films. Winner of 5 academy awards, including BEST PICTURE as well as BEST ACTOR, (Gene hackman as Popeye Doyle).

The story is as follows.

Popeye Doyle and his hard hitting partner, (played by the ever reliable Roy Schieder), are detectives. On a lark they decide to go to a bar, where they see an ex-con throwing around money like no tommorow. they are suspicious.

They get a wire tap and soon get the goods to start an official investigation going, much to the mis-giving of an older beat cop, who's partner was killed on one of Popeye's earlier investigations. Meanwhile a French drug smuggler enlists the aid of a French actor to smuggle his drugs into america.

Popeye Doyle and his crew are soon following the bad guys all around, sometimes on foot, sometimes by car. At one point Popeye almost catches the head guy, (in a memorable in and out of a subway. Upon getting away, the leader of the French smugglers puts a hitman on Popeye.

He misses, hitting a woman instead of Popeye and this then begins one of the greatest chase sequences ever put on film. Upon losing the hitman on a subway/maxx train, he enlists a car, and chases from below the maxx train, which the hitman is holding hostage at gunpoint. Popeye goes madly racing down below, totalling his car and almost hitting a woman and her stroller.

The Maxx train crashes. the dazed hitman stumbles out, only to be gunned by the near illegal Popeye at this point.

They are back on the case. Bad guys are quickly losing thier life. They finally track down the "dirty car". After realizing that the car weighed more upon entry to the country, finally check the last thing they haven't taken apart on the car, the sideboards, where they find a large stsh of 95% pure cocaine. They let the car back out, simply follow it to the buy, and arrest them all.

Well almost all.

Popeye hunts down the head French guy, but he ends up shooting the cop who hated him, (who's partner was killed in an earlier investigation. The film ends tragically, as many of the those caught serve little or no sentences.

It's a film where after all the work put into the investigation, the results are bitter sweet.

This was one of the seminal action/police dramas of the 70's, and i was so happy to actually find this on Super 8mm as a feature.

Now, onto the print ...

This was manufactured on Kodak SP. This print is slightly hit or miss. two thirds of the film has perfect blacks, while other parts of the film are just slightly over-exposed and the blacks are a little brownish, but this is common with features as various reels can come from various sources. the colours are there perfectly, (except where there is a slight brownishness). The print is extremely sharp. There is one point in which there are very small numbers for the elevator that Popeye doyle looks at and I was amazed that i could read them very clearly without squinting. Excellent shaprness to this print.

The sound does have one problem. While it is a good loud mono, all through the film there is a "bump" which is a part of the original track. Sometime in the future, i will re-record the soundtrack from the DVD or laserdisc.

Another curious and delightful aspect to this print, is that it changes from letterboxing to full screen (flat) aspect ratio. I have always liked this kind of thing, which also lends to the truth that this wasn't originally a scope film, and that the 35MM master was merely letterboxed for the theaters, which makes it fun to see this without the masking, seeing more than most will on thier precious little DVD's.

I don't know who manufactured this print. If anyone can let me know, please continue with that thought on this post.

An excellent feature for your collection. If you don't have it, get it, and finally own a feature with some reel balls!

Posted by Douglas Meltzer (Member # 28) on November 08, 2007, 11:45 PM:

Osi,

Ken Films released "French Connection" as a full length feature.

Doug

Posted by Dave Cragg (Member # 401) on November 09, 2007, 07:24 AM:

Great review Osi.
Was French Connection 2 released as a full feature?

Dave

Posted by Mark Williams (Member # 794) on November 09, 2007, 08:07 AM:

Yes I believe French Connection 2 was released as a full feature by Ken too.

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on November 09, 2007, 10:11 AM:

Doug, How many features did Ken films release?

AND

Why didn't they release STAR WARS as a feature? They had rights to it!! My Gawd, it would have been they're besteller!

It appears that Ken films put more effort into thier feature releases than they're digests, as I've never seen any of thier digests, (even STAR WARS) that was as pin sharp as this print of French Connection.

Posted by Sam James (Member # 477) on November 09, 2007, 12:19 PM:

Anyone got one for sale?

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