Watched a couple the other day.
'71 which I've seen before and is a great action film set during the troubles over here in Belfast.
The French Connection. Never seen it before to my own amazement when I realised and a great movie. Tight running time and great story with Gene Hackman superb as Popeye Doyle.
Only thing for me was I was a little bit underwhelmed with the car chase scene, possibly because it's build up so much but for me there has definitely been better.
Hmm, that's fascinating. I first saw The French Connection over lockdown and have probably seen it 4 times since then. I love it instantly and it's become probably one of my top 10 films.
Interesting what you say about the car chase scene. I wasn't so aware of the hype surrounding the car chase, in fact I probably wasn't aware there was one in this film before I watched it so it was always something of a bonus to me anyhow. I can't quite put my finger on why I love it so much. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider are fantastic but it's probably the overall aesthetic of it all that amazes me. It really shows New York and Brooklyn at a time when it was quite a rough city so there's that social history side to it that is great to look back on. You do see glimpses of it's future though, particularly with the construction of the Twin Towers in the background of the dockyard scene with the French actor arriving.
As you say, overall it's just a wonderfully taut, well paced thriller that I'm sure I'll revisit sometime very soon!
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