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(More customer reviews)"The French Connection" is a fantastic time capsule of a film; a solid crime drama enhanced tremendously by great performances, terrific stunt work and wonderful location shooting in and around NYC that captures The Big Apple during its 1970's heyday as a scummy, gritty cesspool of a town. It's a fine example of 1970's American cinema, a classic of its type and a must-see, if not a must-own, for fans of crime dramas and police procedurals.
Regarding specifically the Blu-Ray edition of the film, Director William Friedkin has apparently decided that the gritty, documentary-like feel to the original cinematography of his film was not gritty and documentary-like enough; instead of taking advantage of the latest technological advances to clean up or restore an original master of this classic film, director Friedkin decided that he would revisit his 39-year-old masterpiece by making it look decidedly worse. Using various digital filters, he has amped up the graininess, distorted and smeared the color scheme, while blowing out the contrast in order to give "The French Connection" an (intentionally) worn-out, distorted look that really does change the visuals of the film.
Unfortunately, rather than giving the film a more "authentic" feel (as was the director's intention), this inexplicable digital makeover adds absolutely nothing to the film's impact save for scads of fake film grain, alternately faded and overly-saturated hues and crappier contrast. I am by no means a film purist, but the fact is this visual overhaul is pointless, gimmicky and (most problematic) extremely distracting. The added grain will astonish you during certain parts of the film... and not in a good way. People with large televisions especially be warned.
This is what "The French Connection" cinematographer Owen Roizman had to say on the matter of the film's "new" look:
"I wasn't consulted. I was appalled by it. I don't know what Billy (director William Friedkin) was thinking. It's not the film that I shot, and I certainly want to wash my hands of having had anything to do with this transfer, which I feel is atrocious."
I sympathize with you, Mr. Roizman.
Mr. Friedkin's decision to experiment with the film's original cinematography wouldn't be much of an issue if the original version of the film was included alongside the digitally-altered version, but alas, that is not the case with this blu-ray release. On the contrary, Mr. Friedkin has stated that this new, digitally-altered version of "The French Connection" is how this classic film will unfortunately be presented in future releases from here on end.
I infinitely prefer the 2001 Five-Star Collection 2-disc DVD set, and wholeheartedly recommend it over this Blu-Ray. The remastering on the THX-approved 2001 DVD is terrific (looking especially good upconverted via 1080p), the original cinematography is preserved, the 5.1 Dolby Digital sounds great, and its got hours of extras (in fact, its got virtually all of the extras found on the Blu-Ray incarnation); right now, it can be had brand new for around the same price as the blu-ray edition... but snap it up while you can, as the two-disc edition is currently out-of-print. As another alternative, if you can live without most of the extras, the 2005 single-disc DVD release has the same mastering as the 2001 Five-Star Collection 2-disc DVD set, is currently still in circulation, and can be bought brand new for around $7.00.
If you must check out this Blu-Ray, rent before you buy.
Perhaps its time for Mr. Friedkin to make a new film rather than waste time tinkering on his old ones (or, judging by his last film "Bug", maybe not).
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Two narcotics detectives, "Popeye" Doyle and his partner Buddy Russo (Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider), start to close in on a vast international narcotics ring when the smugglers unexpectedly strike back.Following an attempt on his life by one of the smuggl
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