CATCH A CLASSIC The French Connection 50th Anniversary (1971)
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
Five Oscars, including Best Picture, went to Best Director Oscar winner William Friedkin’s highly acclaimed and realistic 1971 crime drama The French Connection, which is based on the true story of New York City narcotics detective Eddie Egan, dramatized
here as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (portrayed by Best Actor Oscar winner Gene Hackman). The adapted screenplay by Ernest Tidyman, which also won an Oscar, sparkles under Friedkin’s direction as it follows Doyle and fellow detective Buddy “Cloudy” Russo
(Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Roy Scheider) as they use sharp instincts and unconventional methods to thwart the international suppliers of New York’s heroin trade. The film’s cinematography and sound
were also nominated for Oscars, and their excellence is particularly on display during the movie’s legendary car chase, often cited as one of the greatest ever filmed, with Doyle commandeering a civilian’s car
for a frantic pursuit of an elevated train on which a hitman is trying to escape and creative camerawork enhancing the thrills and sensation of speeding through the streets of a densely crowded big-city borough. The French Connection celebrated the 50th anniversary of its release on Oct. 7, so it’s a perfect time to revisit or discover the influential classic. It’s also perfect time to check out another Friedkin crime-drama classic, 1985’s To Live and Die in L.A., which he cowrote as well as directed, and which airs as the second half of tonight’s double feature. The neo-noir thriller is led by William Petersen in his second feature-film role, as a secret service agent who, with his partner (John Pankow), goes to increasingly desperate lengths to arrest a counterfeiter (Willem Dafoe in one of his earlier credited roles, and playing one of his creepier characters
— which is saying something). To Live and Die in L.A. features another harrowing and highly regarded Friedkin-directed car chase, this time with the participants careening the wrong way down a busy Los Angeles freeway.