Week 6

The French Connection (1971) & Network (1976)

Wow. I was going for a seventies theme last week. Didn’t think about both films being such downers. Makes me glad I was born right after this decade.

The French Connection opens dramatically with loud music and simple white credits on a black screen. Then we follow a shady-looking character for several minutes—until he’s abruptly shot and killed. This sets the stage pretty well for the sort of startling, abrupt film that’s to follow. I like a lot of the filming techniques, and I suspect several of them were pretty pioneering, considering this film was released in 1971. There’s a lot of handheld cam, which further intensifies action and chase sequences. And to some it might not seem like much, but I remember a scene in a restaurant where the “bad guys” are dining, and through the window, way in the background (across the street even), we can seen Hackman’s “Popeye” character watching them, drinking a cup of coffee and eating a slice of pizza, out in the cold. I love 1) how all this action is framed in the same shot, and 2) how simply and clearly we’re given a contrast between these two worlds: warm, wealthy, European dining in a French restaurant and cold, cheap, Chicago street cuisine. 

The film also has two stellar chase sequences. The first is a chase on foot, where we see a pretty athletic Hackman (or excellent stunt double) in a clever cat and mouse pursuit. The second is one of the best “car” chase scenes I’ve ever seen in film (I’ve yet to see one that tops McQueen’s in Bullitt, though). After French “muscle” opens fire on him sniper-style in a courtyard, Popeye chases the assailant to an L-Train station. The guy hops on the train, and Popeye can’t, so Popeye commandeers a vehicle and rushes along (and underneath) the tracks, trying to beat the train to the next stop. I won’t go into any further detail about what happens, but it is pretty exciting.

Another aspect of the film I like is how natural it feels—both in the casual (if raunchy) banter between Hackman’s and Scheider’s characters and also in their (mostly) silent stakeouts.

The ending is abrupt but appropriate, given Popeye’s growing obsession throughout the film. It’s very modern in its hazy morality. The “bad guys” are certainly bad, but what about the “good guys?” An interesting thing that I read about this film is that it was too violent for Hackman’s taste, and he (for the most part) stayed away from violent and/or gritty film roles for most of the rest of his career.

Less hazy in its morality is Network, which serves as a pretty uncompromising indictment of the television industry (and multinational corporations in general). I like this film for a lot of reasons. It does melodrama well. It’s got a great, sort of hokey narration. And the characterizations (especially of the executives) is fantastic. Because now, in retrospect, it doesn’t so much feel like the filmmakers were “heightening” the ridiculousness of it all (even though that was likely their aim at the time); now it just feels like it was pretty darn prescient—especially Ned Beatty’s “The World is a business” speech, about how there are no nations, only corporations. I suspect this is one of Bernie Sanders favorite films.

It’s an even bigger downer than The French Connection—again, I’m sorry! But it’s fascinating. In the middle of the “big picture” is the smaller story of Max and Diana (William Holden and Faye Dunaway). It’s melodrama, but it’s very self-aware. The characters themselves even analyze the ascent and decline of their affair in terms of a television script.

Any one else seen these? Thoughts?