Last night, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences had a screening of the 1971 film The French Connection and your obedient blogger was in the audience. I'd forgotten how much I liked that movie, especially the second half. The first part, which is mostly about police surveillance is, at times, about as exciting as…well, as police surveillance. But as the various components of the plot come together, things speed up and the storyline becomes very intriguing and you can see why it won its Oscars.
Sitting there in the Academy theater, I kept thinking how much this film would be diminished if I were home watching a DVD. It isn't just the small screen. It's that if I were home, I'd be constantly distracted during the slower parts. Sometimes, it helps to be forced to see a movie the way it was intended to be viewed.
After the film, its director William Friedkin was interviewed by writer-director Christopher McQuarrie. Friedkin was delightful and funny and quite humble for a guy who came on to a long, loving standing ovation. The conversation was recorded for, I'm guessing, some upcoming DVD or Blu Ray release so I'll just summarize a few points.
Friedkin spoke of how the film could not be made today because today, you'd need permits and permissions for something like 95% of all the locations. He said the only time they sought and got permission was to shoot on the elevated trains. The fellow in charge said absolutely no at first, then relented when offered a bribe. He wanted and got $40,000 and a one-way ticket to Jamaica, the latter because he had to quit his job and flee the country after taking the $40,000.
The director also told of doing dangerous things (legally dangerous and physically dangerous) to get certain shots and said he would not do that today, nor recommend. This is an approximate quote: "I've come to realize that no shot in any movie is worth even a twisted ankle on a squirrel."
Gene Hackman was not the first choice to play Popeye Doyle, nor was he even on the first list. Friedkin's first choice was, believe it or don't, Jackie Gleason. Gleason was willing to do it but the studio said no due to the poor performance of Gleason's film, Gigot. (That struck me as odd since Gigot was eight or so years earlier and Gleason had made other movies after that and before French Connection was casting. I'm wondering if what did him in wasn't Skidoo.)
The next choice was Peter Boyle and yeah, I can see him in the role. But Boyle turned down Doyle because, according to Friedkin, "He wanted to do romantic comedies." The director quoted his friend Phil Rosenthal, who was responsible for Everyone Loves Raymond, as saying that every single day on the set, Boyle would talk about the huge mistake he made turning down The French Connection.
After Boyle said no, Twentieth-Century Fox suggested that maybe the film didn't need an established star. Friedkin did an audition with Eddie Egan, the real-life Popeye Doyle, who wound up in the film as Doyle's boss. He wasn't right but Friedkin thought he'd found his guy when he managed to talk writer Jimmy Breslin into auditioning. Breslin, who was skeptical about his own acting, was fine the first day. The second day, he forgot what he'd done the first day. The third day, he didn't show up. The fourth day, he showed up drunk. And that was how Jimmy Breslin remained one of America's great writers.
Soon after, superagent Sue Mengers recommended her client Gene Hackman and he was signed. Friedkin said that Hackman had trouble getting to the right pissed-off level so it was necessary to insult and prod him on the set, pissing him off for real. And there were other great revelations which you'll hear when that DVD or Blu Ray comes out, assuming that's where the video will wind up. (Oh — Freidkin also said that they tried to get Hackman there for the screening but he's retired from acting and "doesn't want to look back.")
Like everyone else in the audience, I had a great time…and why not? A great movie in a great theater. On the way home I was thinking, "They don't make 'em like that anymore…but after The French Connection became a huge box office sensation, they sure tried making a lot of 'em like that without a lot of success."