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Tag Archives: The French Connection (1971)
Rewatching French Connection II

Can we talk for a moment about just how good John Frankenheimer’s 1975 movie French Connection IIis?
It did okay but not spectacular business on release but I feel like it has never received much love from critics and crime film fans alike, for a number of reasons.
Firstly, it is a sequel and with few exceptions, like oft citedThe Godfather II (1974), we are always pretty meh about sequels, and rightly so.
Second, is the shadow of the 1971 original, The French Connection, which won a tonne of Oscars, including best picture, best actor for Gene Hackman as Detective Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle, and best director for the then wunderkind, William Friedkin, and is one of the most famous, if not the most famous American crime film of the 1970s.
Third, is the director, John Frankenheimer, who started his career strong with The Manchurian Candidate (1962) and The Train (1964 ), but with a few exceptions – 52 Pick-Up (1986), the nasty little film he did for Canon, and The Island of Dr Moreau (1996), which I know a lot of people hate on but I love – didn’t seem to do a whole lot else of particular note. It is a filmography I have always found hard to engage with and I probably need to make more effort.… Read more
Posted in 1970s American crime films, 1980s American crime films, Gene Hackman, Neo Noir
Tagged 52 Pick Up (1986), Bernard Fresson, Black Rain (1989), crime fiction and film set in Marsaille, Fernando Rey, Gene Hackman, heroin in crime films, John Frankenheimer, The French Connection (1971), The French Connection II (1975), The Island of Dr Moreau (1996), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), The Train (1964), William Friedkin
Celluloid Apocalypse’s mini-festival of seventies Italian crime cinema
The Melbourne based purveyor of boutique VHS, Celluloid Apocalypse, is about to unleash upon the world its special VHS edition of Mike Malloy’s excellent documentary, Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Movies that Ruled the 70s. The documentary is a fascinating examination of the wave of Italian ‘poliziotteschi’ films that reached the height of its popularity in the mid-1970s, in response to the success of films like The French Connection (1971), The Godfather (1972) and the Dirty Harry films.
The films are fast past paced, ultra violent, ultra hard boiled and, at first glance, appear to yet another in the cycle of Italian rip-offs of successful American crime films, in much the same was as Spaghetti Westerns riffed off the popularity of the US Western. But while these films were cheaply made and quickly produced, for the most part they are far more interesting and sophisticated than simple knock offs.
While they utilised, and sometimes just plain copied, the standard tropes of seventies Hollywood crime film, they also interrogated uniquely Italian issues, including political dominance of organised crime, the wave of politically inspired terrorism characterised the country’s so-called ‘years of lead’, and the changing nature of society and gender relations in Italy. Another fascinating aspect is the fact that in addition to their Italian stars, many of these films boast performances by well known American and British actors who took the roles after their domestic film careers had began to decline.… Read more
Posted in 1970s American crime films, Eurocrime, Fernando Di Leo, Woody Strode
Tagged Adolfo Celi, Celluloid Apocalypse, Cyril Cusack, Eurocrime! The Italian Cop and Gangster Movies that Ruled the 70s, Fernando Di Leo, Henry Silva, Luciana Paluzzi, Mario Adorf, poliziotteschi, The French Connection (1971), The Godfather (1972), The Italian Connection, Umberto Lenzi, Violent Naples (1976), Woody Strode
Book review: The World of Shaft
You might remember the news last year that New Line pictures had acquired the rights to do yet another film remake featuring the iconic character of John Shaft. If so, you may also remember the ensuring controversy that erupted over plans to make said film a comedy, including an open letter protesting the move by award winning journalist, David F Walker.
I am not sure at what stage the proposal Shaft remake is at, but I totally agree with Walker in his introduction to Steve Aldous’s recently released guide to the character, ‘When author Ernest Tidyman’s book Shaft was first published in 1971, and director Gordon Parks’ cinematic adaption followed a year later, a new era of representation began in American pop culture.’
The World of Shaft attempts to chronicle the cultural phenomena that is the ex-juvenile delinquent, Vietnam Vet, New York private eye known as Shaft. From the character’s origins via the pen of white ex-newspaperman Tidyman to the, in my opinion, rather average 2000 cinematic remake, this is an exhaustive examination of every aspect of the character and his various manifestations.
Shaft emerged from a combination of Tidyman’s desperation to make it as a writer and, as he put it in an interview, his “awareness of both social and literary situations in a changing city.… Read more
Posted in 1970s American crime films, Blaxsploitation, Book Reviews, Pulp fiction, Pulp fiction in the 70s and 80s, Yaphet Kotto
Tagged David F Walker, Ernest Tidyman, Flower Power, Gordon Parks, John Shaft, Richard Roundtree, Shaft (1971), Shaft in Africa (1973), Shaft's Big Score (1972), Steve Aldous, The French Connection (1971), The World of Shaft, Yaphet Kotto
My 2014 Melbourne International Film Festival top ten
The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF) kicks off in few days. As usual, there’s a packed program full of cinematic goodness. If you’re wanting to check some films out but are stumped as to what to see, here’s my ten picks.
Sorcerer, 1977
The newly remastered print of Sorcerer, William Freidkin’s 1977 homage to Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1953 classic, The Wages of Fear, is up there as one of my top MIFF picks for the festival. The story is about a group of four men, each of them on the run from various sins committed in their past life, who are hired to transport a truck load of volatile dynamite across an incredibly hostile stretch of Central American jungle. Freidkin may be better known as the director of The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973) but this hard boiled slice of pure cinematic noir is, in my opinion, his best film.
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films – 2014
I really enjoyed Mark Hartley’s documentaries, Not Quite Hollywood (2008), about Australia’s Ozsploitation film scene, and Machete Maidens Unleashed (2010), his look at American film making in the Philippines in the seventies and eighties, so expectations are high for this one. Electric Boogaloo is the story of Cannon Films, the Hollywood B-studio responsible for such cinema gems as Lifeforce (1985) and the pre-Rambo, Rambo film, Missing In Action (1984).… Read more
Posted in Crime fiction and film from China, Crime fiction and film from South Korea, Crime film, Melbourne International Film Festival, True crime
Tagged 2014, A Hard Day (2014), Alejandro Jodorowsky, Black Coal, Concerning Violence (2014), Don't Think I've Forgotten (2014), Dune, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014), Frank Herbert, Jodorowsky's Dream, Mark Hartley, Not Quite Hollywood (2008), Phase IV (1974) Saul Bass, Sorcerer, The Exorcist (1973), The French Connection (1971), The Legend Maker (2014), Thin Ice (2014), Whitey: The United States of America v. James Buglar (2014), William Freidkin
Melbourne International Film Festival: progress report
A couple of weeks ago I posted on the crime movies I was going to catch at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Nearly half way through, here’s my progress report.
First, the bad news. Killer Joe, which I checked out last night. I’m very partial to cinematic tales of money, lust and murder set in the underbelly of rural small town life. Throw in a corrupt lawman who moonlights as a pimp/pusher/contract killer, whatever, and as far as I’m concerned you’re on a winning formula. No matter how many turkeys he’s made, I’ve also got a major reserve of goodwill towards the director, William Friedkin for To Live and Die in LA (1985) and The French Connection (1971).
Killer Joes has all the signposts associated with this sort of movie, down at heel locations, sleazy sex and a criminal plot that quickly spirals out of control. But none of this makes up for the poor performances and a scarcely believable story line.
A small town cop cum contract killer (Matthew McConaughey) is hired by a white trash Texan family to murder their mother for the insurance money. The key conspirator, Chis (Emile Hirsch), scarcely has the brains to tie his own shoelaces let alone instigate a murder plot. When he can’t pay his would be assassin up front as expected, Joe takes Chris’s sister, Dottie (Juno Temple) as collateral and seduces her.… Read more
Posted in Crime fiction and film from India, Crime fiction and film from Mexico, Crime fiction and film from Thailand, Crime film, Jim Thompson, Melbourne International Film Festival
Tagged Emile Hirsch, Gangs of Wasseypur, Gina Gershon, Golden Slumbers, Headshot (2011), Jim Thompson, Juno Temple, Killer Joe (2011), Matthew McConaughey, Miss Bala (2011), Nopachai Chaiyanam, Oren Moverman, Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, Rampart (2011), Stephanie Sigman, The French Connection (1971), The Messenger (2009), Thomas Hayden Church, To Live and Die in LA (1985), William Friedkin