Rating: 18/20
Plot: Long before he would meet Olive Oyl, Popeye works with his partner in the narcotics unit where he tries to stop that guy in those Bunuel movies from making life a lot more fun for people in New York City.
One of my least favorite movies ever is The French Connection II which I'm reminded exists every time I think about The French Connection. That movie is as terrible as this one is brilliant, just one of those nearly-perfect movies from cinema's best decade. I guess you really have to start with Hackman's performance and the character created here. That or you start by wondering why a song performed in this movie had the lyric "It's customary in songs like this to use a word like spoon." No, it's better to start with the character, a kind of anti-hero. Hackman just seems so big, towering over everybody else. I think when I first watched this movie, I thought Gene Hackman had to have been 7'4" or something in that neighborhood, and not with a scrawny Manute Bol build either but a burly 7'4". Then, I realized that this was the same guy who was in Superman and wondered where his hair went and how he lost a foot and a half. I was a stupid child. Doyle's slightly racist, probably a misogynist, and chews his gum obnoxiously. He's loud and crude, but you never deny that he's really good at what he does, and I think it's impossible not to enjoy watching him go about his business. Oh, and he sure likes his boots on women, doesn't he? Partner Roy Scheider's good though somewhat overshadowed by the star, and Fernando Rey brings some class into this often too-gritty urban crime drama as the criminal mastermind. This movie is the epitome of grit, really diving into the oily crevices to bring out the soul of the story. Things get ugly here, but it works because the world Popeye Doyle is charged with protecting is an ugly one. I'm not sure the camera has to jerk around that much though. I like the attention to detail there is, all the tiny spectacles this movie has to offer. Love seeing Hackman chasing down a guy while wearing a Santa suit, a lengthy scene where the good guys are stalking the bad guys on the streets, that absolutely ridiculous little cat-and-mouse game on the subway that was really probably too ridiculous to even work. It's brilliant stuff. And then, of course, there's one of the best car chases ever filmed. And things end with a bang, literally. A bang more open-ended than any bang I can think of, an ambivalent bang. Great movie, but I'm always a little surprised when I think of it cleaning up at the Academy Awards. Wouldn't this have been more than a little daring in 1971? Regardless, it seems like people have been trying to make another one of these for over forty years.
Sorry about the spoiler on that poster up there.
3 comments:
It is a great and gritty movie, and Hackman dominates every scene he plays. A 17.
Never seen French Connection, but it sounds much more my kind of thing than I'd assumed. Somehow, I got the impression that it was kind of a prototypical Requiem For A Dream deal.
In any event, the song in its original context is a Big Band turning exuberant cartwheels about the Space Age and how the Kate Smith-esque singer can't wait for her moon ticket. The spoon line is the song gently poking fun at the tendency of Big Band songs to rhyme with the word "moon" a lot:
How many times have I been downhearted
Looked up and saw him smiling
Like a shining dime?
And wished that he would stay and tell me
Why he was so happy
If he had the time?
And wished there was a way to reach him,
Catch a flying horse and chase him!
Every buddy guess to go to the boon!*
Everybody gets to go, it will be quite soon.
It's customary in songs like this to use a word like "spoon"...
By the light of the silvery--
We'll take a flight to the silvery--
You know, everybody's going to the moon!
How many times while looking down
Has he heard us singing songs
And wondered who we were?
And every dusk, because the lady
In the moon is gone,
And he misses her,
And wonders to himself, why is it
No one ever pays a visit?
Every buddy guess to go to the boon, oh yeah!
Everybody gets to go, it will be quite soon.
It's customary in songs like this to use a word like "June"...
By the light of the silvery--
We'll take a flight to the silvery--
You know, everybody's going to the moon!
Is unt'it a mackerel
That weyr the gin and ration
That will much that shy nibobble with our own true ands?
It has to make it laugh to be alive!
Yes, it has to make you proud to be a man! (A man! A man!)
How many times have I heard a cynic
Say I was a fool
To try and reach for him?
Or heard everybody say the sky is the limit
And had to laugh
At least for him?
Oh, I suppose the point is only
That he is no longer lonely!
Every buddy guess to go to the boon, oh yeah!
Everybody gets to go, it will be quite soon!
It's customary in songs like this to use a word like "rune"...
By the light of the silvery--
We'll take a flight to the silvery--
You know, everybody's going...
To the moon!
*Bizarre lapses into phonetic first cousins can be blamed on our host and my politics.
Interesting lyrics there...This part:
Is unt'it a mackerel
That weyr the gin and ration
That will much that shy nibobble with our own true ands?
It has to make it laugh to be alive!
Yes, it has to make you proud to be a man! (A man! A man!)
Is where the lyricist is having a stroke...I'm guessing.
No connection with Requiem at all. Completely different styles, and there's no ass-to-ass action in this one although that might be the sort of thing Popeye might enjoy. You should see this movie, vytresna, if you like gritty 70's cop 'n' robber stuff.
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