It begins - French Connection

So,

Lauren and I are embarking upon watching all of the AFI Top 100 movies.

Our first movie off the list is #93, The French Connection.

It primarily features an impossibly young Gene Hackman in a proto buddy cop movie role. Some French businessman tries to orchestrate a huge drug trafficking route into New York but Hackman and his partner stand against him.

I've got to say, having seen American Gangster, this movie is both awesome and way better than American Gangster. Gangster was kind of boring in the end - we were all kind of just waiting for it to end. French Connection is just plain more interesting.

It's great watching chase scenes like this movie has - from what I've heard there was no permission from New York nor any warning to the traffic on the street that anything was planned. So this car with a camera mounted on it, a cameraman in the back seat, and a little police dome light on top, go flying through heavy traffic chasing an elevated train. It's allegedly the best car chase scene ever - I'm not sure about that, but I don't feel like it was overhyped actually seeing it for myself.

I've got to say that I loved the ambiguity of the very ending when Hackman leaves camera while pursuing Frog One and you hear a single gun shot. Did he kill the guy and hide the body? Was it just anger? A great note to end on.

Overall assessment - There are movies that make me angry and feel like I've literally wasted those hours of my life. This movie was at the other end of the spectrum - I feel it was well spent time and the movie has aged extremely well. American Gangster has nothing on this.