Unforgiven for me is the role that shows just how brilliant an actor he is, he goes from jovial to utterly terrifying in seconds!!!! the scene with the writer and 'The Duck of Death' (Richard Harris) in the jail cell always gives me CHILLS!
By the time he got to Mississippi Burning and the subject matter, he was more than happy to apply the correct intensity and physicality to fit the scene. Perfectly
totally, it reached a peak in the 70s before other things like effects and marketing took over and from the 80s it started to go downhill, now it's really at an all time low.
Great film as is Part 2. Gene Hackman is a brilliant actor, he's a really humble, mild-mannered guy, somebody you could share a pint with. Bet he could tell a few stories too.
Definitely in my top 10 of classic must watch movies ... it is so realistic because of the great acting by the main characters and the supporting actors ... Fernando Rey plays his part so well as Frog 1 and is nearly as good as Hackman who was genuinely outstanding
Saw this when I was 10 in Brooklyn N.Y. so I know "new-yorkers". Accent, mannerisms etc. If you would of told me then this was a southern boy, I would of thought you were lying to me. Today, it's still hard to believe. Gene Hackman's performance in my top 3 of all time! Classic!!!
@@johndoherty4976 *were *actors No. Gene was better than both. Hackman's career took off when he was 40, and he got better as he got older. Great in everything.
One of the finest actors of all time and one of the greatest directors in cinema, creating one of the best thrillers ever made. Absolute cinematic perfection. I dare anyone to start watching French Connection and try to tear themselves away from the screen.
Whatever doubts and hesitancy Hackman had about effectively portraying Popeye's fearless physical bravado and bullying, roughneck nature, we in the audience never detect it. Hackman's performance is seamless and his commitment to the character is fully realized. I think the film seems somewhat dated now - it is very much a movie of its particular historical moment - but Hackman's work holds up exceptionally well. Some might say his greatest performance came in The Conversation in which he plays a character that's vastly more cerebral and emotionally reserved - nearly an inversion of Popeye Doyle - but both performances are a testament to Hackman's considerable range and talent.
Well said! The idea that the movie is "Dated" strikes me as odd. All period films are "Dated" This is a modern "Period" film. Wouldn't you say? Simply astounding.
@@melsteffano6189 You have a point there. This is something I've been thinking about for a while now. I would agree French Connection is definitely part of the modern period - in other words, it seems more part of our era than distinct from it. But here's the thing. Look at Jimmy Cagney's famous gangster film from 1931: The Public Enemy. As a thought experiment, pretend you're watching it in 1981. Do you think the film, fifty years after the fact, would seem dated? I would definitely think virtually anything from the early thirties - especially movies - would seem dated to a an early eighties audience. Yet, oddly, here we are in 2023 talking about a movie released in 1971 that seems more recognizably contemporary. Something about that 60/70 era - the movies, the music, etc - stays with us. It never becomes "Clara Bow"
I agree, I have always thought of The French Connection and The Conversation as the yin and yang of Hackman performances (extrovert vs. introvert). Yet his physicality remains remarkably consistent: his shambling walk, the way he points his finger, etc. Brando did something similar when he followed-up The Godfather with Last Tango In Paris. Two totally different performances, but the essence of the actor remains in place.
Good comment. It's interesting that Hackman had that hesitancy to portray that bullying and toughness on screen. In real life Gene was a tough guy (an ex-marine), a guy you wouldn't want to mess with, and at times as a young man would go looking for fights. Dustin Hoffman said that about Hackman, as both he and Gene were good friends going back to their early actor days in NYC. "I need to get in a fight," Hackman said (paraphrasing slightly) to Hoffman one time.
Gene Hackman is probably one of the 10 best actors the last 50 years. I miss the French Connection, it's been many years since I saw it and I would like to watch the sequel too.
They really don’t make ‘em like they used to. Gene Hackman was such a riveting/powerful actor. Everything he did, he always gave his 110%. French Connection, Unforgiven, Hoosiers, Mississippi Burning and Get Shorty are some of my favorite performances of his.
@@jamesanthony5681 I watched a documentary on Gene Hackman where Dustin Hoffman (Who roomed with him in the early days) said Gene used to say "I got to go out to a bar for a drink and get in a fight" That's what Gene was like
~~ William Friedkin could be difficult & demanding for his cast & crew to deal with - but the results speak for themselves - French Connection still resonates to this day - and that film is what earned him the right to do The Exorcist and he clearly made the most of that opportunity as well ..
I loved William Goldmans story about Roy Scheider in marathon man when he says Dustin Hoffman is griping that his character 'wouldn't look for a flashlight' and they are carrying on with the director and Roy Scheider is just standing there for an hour just being rock solid. I remember he didn't want to do Jaws 2 but was contractually bound, and that movie would have been, well, Jaws 3, if he hadnt been in it. Definitely was an under rated actor. But its amazing that a movie like this could be so good, when its basically about 'well, some french guys smuggling in drugs and they get away'.
Billy Friedkin originally wanted Jackie Gleason to play Popeye, and when you see Eddie Egan (the real Popeye) it is hard to imagine anyone but Gleason in the role (if it was a year or two later, Charles Durning would have fit the bill). Gene Hackman brought a different skill set to the performance. First, his physicality lent itself to this most physical of leading man performances, his innate charm and likeability took the edge off of Egan's racism. What Hackman lacked was, not as he says, the anger, but Eddie Egan's Brooklynese way of speaking. That voice was the character's signature and Hackman found out quickly he couldn't master that "deez, dem and doze" dialect. So what he did instead was take a cue from his old Marine drill instructor and that helped make Popeye his own (Egan was a Marine as well, and when he told Hackman he was, the actor knew he could find Popeye's core). You will note that when Popeye raids Roy's Bar ("Popeye's here!"), Hackman spouts it from the side of his mouth. That's straight up "hut-hut" Marine style.
TCM, to their shame, for years has been censoring the dialogue between Doyle and Grosso in the police station after Sonny has been slashed in the arm by a black drug dealer. It’s a key and extremely well-written scene, but TCM for some reason doesn’t think viewers are mature enough to digest a brief exchange between two cops that included the word ni*ger. And keep in mind that the word is uttered only that one time in the entire movie. There are other movies TCM has aired where the dreaded n-word is spoken and not censored. One of them, “In The Heat of The Night,” is also a great movie. But for some reason they couldn’t keep their hands off of “The French Connection.”
@@charleswinokoor6023 Uncarded public access Vending Machine Cigarettes priced at 35 cents per pack in New York State in '71 was the greater Evil, also highlighted in that scene between Gene and Ray @2:06.
Just because someone says the nword doesn't make them racist If that's the case everyone that used it would be racist Movies and rap music have made billions from using it.
As of 2020 the network TCM has expunged the "n" word segment from the film. I'm not a fan of that decision at all. Listen to Gene above to understand why.
Lost all respect for Hackman after this interview. Couldn't act tough, couldn't say a hurty word? Gimp. Needed a safe room. Ad him to the list of snowflakes with DeNiro etc.
Friedkin in his book recalls the scene with the drug dealer in the opening took 30+ takes on day one and it still wasn't satisfactory. Hackman wanted to quit. Like it or not The French Connection defined Hackman as an A List star and launched his long career. I think he has always had a problem with that fact. The one thing about him that's pathetic. He is an actor, now long retired, but played many different roles in a career including his role in Superman. Let's be realistic, what kind of prep do you do to play a hero from a kid's comic book? His aversion to the alleged racist cop portrayal in FC is all bullshit, it was a fake, movie role. And good movie role. Remember he wasn't the first choice for it either, an afterthought. From a true perspective, the real life, NYPD Detective Eddie Eagan, how many lives were saved keeping that dope off the street? And hundreds of other arrests before that in his service career? Hundreds, thousands? How many families were spared death and heartache? Mostly Blacks and Puerto Ricans. How many kid's grew up with their parents? How safer were the streets of those neighborhoods? Hackman then, as probably now, needs to get beyond his own personal view of life and look at the larger picture. As for a tough shoot, possibly. I was outside working in NYC when that movie was filmed, I got through it Ok. I had a good coat. For Christ's sake, he was a former U.S. Marine. Went through USMC MCRD training in the 1950s. Are you kidding, "I got too cold?" Hackman was a WOKE whiner before the term ever got used. And as for this horrible role as Eagan the cop it sure didn't keep him from the sequel (with a much bigger payday) just a few years later did it?
