With Billy Friedkin knee deep in Israel laboring over a masterpiece nobody would even see, and with financial and critical success necessitating a sequel, someone new would have to come in and direct French Connection II. Only, the director they chose was far from the new blood they had previously sought when they chose Friedkin. The producers went with John Frankenheimer, one of the underrated “action verite”, as I like to dub him, directors of the sixties. Ticking up classics like The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds, he was the proven talent that eccentric Friedkin wasn’t. Would that mean, then, that French Connection II would deliver on an old, reliable, predestined formula? Absolutely not!
The high concept for the sequel is this time bringing New York cop to French drug ring. Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) is still chasing Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), only this time the location is different. Popeye quickly learns that the France police force is just as corrupt and mismanaged as his own, although en francais he can’t just beat down his man. There are politics. Brutal, constricting politics. Before he even gets a taste of that, though, he’s getting a taste of a more dangerous dead end.
Alain is well aware of Doyle’s presence on his turf, and sensing Doyle’s threat to his drug cartel, Alain decides to fight fire with fire. He kidnaps Doyle, and instead of killing him, gets him hooked on drugs. Seriously. Once Doyle become reliant on the needle, they start pulling away long enough to make the withdrawals really count. After all the merde Doyle stirred up in New York, they are going to make sure he never toys with their operation again.
Eventually Doyle escapes, thanks to the hands of the France police force, and we know what that means. Chase sequence after chase sequence, right? Doyle shouting bigotry while the camera zigzags in and out of choreographed cat and mouse games. The stuff taught action is made of. No. Instead, Frankenheimer goes internal on Doyle. Determined to make drug addiction more than just a prime mover in terms of plot, Frankenheimer puts it front and center to show the devastation it can bring on even the most resistant of users.
We get scene after scene of Doyle going in and out of sanity, drooling, pleading and absolutely miserable for the bulk of the film. As far as sequels go, it’s one of the biggest U-turns in cinematic history, but considering the first film played by an entirely new rule book to begin with, why can’t Frankenheimer’s?
Well, even when Friedkin’s was getting overly ambitious, it always at least defaulted to entertainment. Frankenheimer’s film, although certainly noble and daring, gets overly comfortable in languishing with its lead. The addiction commentary gets stale after awhile, especially considering the bulk of the second act is spent in a dank room. The first film was all about the energy of the city, all those chases on foot and the thrill of the chase. Here Doyle is chasing drugs with alcohol, and while it’s certainly a striking change of pace, it starts to burn out long before Doyle ever does.
The film may not flourish when it comes to action, but accolades must be given to Hackman and his dedication to character. This ain’t a pretty role, especially considering it was the original film that won him the Oscar, but Hackman descends face first into all the shadows of his character. His performance during the withdrawal scenes are rife with emotional energy, as if he’s pulling right from the dark pits of his memory to blurt out the stuff he’s saying. It’s a bare performance, and considering Frankenheimer lingers there rather than on the action, a much richer performance than even Hackman’s work in the original. Hackman rightfully got a Golden Globe nomination for this, just like he did with the surprisingly Oscar-snubbed The Conversation a year prior. As a film French Connection II may not come together quite as a satisfactory whole, but as a performance, Hackman’s has never been better.
presentation...
Like the previous film this Blu-ray disc is presented 1.85:1 1080p widescreen. Friedkin went to great lengths to color time his Oscar-winner to perfection, and considering Frankenheimer left us in 2002, this film gets far less lavish treatment. The overall image is a great deal softer than the original film – not nearly as flattering as it should be. It’s grainy, and even the colors just don’t seem to show like they did in the first film. Drab is more the word to describe this pretty pithy transfer.
There’s a DTS-HD 5.1 audio track, but it ain’t reference quality, that’s for sure. Pure and simple, it’s a glorified mono track, just like the first film. The mono track is included here for comparison, and really, there isn’t much difference. Dialogue is at least all audible, and Don Ellis’ score again sounds just as shrill as ever.
extras...
French Connection II was previously released on DVD as part of a two-pack with the first film. Now that it’s flying solo on Blu-ray, Fox has thankfully added a number of interesting extras. The best of which is a newly produced documentary on the career of John Frankenheimer, the 27-minute “Frankenheimer in Focus”. It features a fine recollections by such filmmakers as William Friedkin, Actor Bruce Dern and Editor Tom Rolf, in addition to his family.
Frankenheimer himself is very articulate, and he very much narrates the piece from clips from older interviews. The resulting piece really helps show the kind of groundbreaking directness that Frankenheimer brought to the action film and to cinema as a whole. Specific films are highlighted, including how the ending to Black Sunday was totally compromised, and it’s overall a treat for this late director. Frankenheimer had previously recorded a commentary for the 2002 DVD, and it’s here in its entirety as well. Again, well spoken, and he really provides a lot of information about his approach to the film and the way they all pulled it off. For prospective filmmakers, this is a must listen.
Surprisingly, the next commentary with Producer Robert Rosen and Gene Hackman is also a very revealing window into the filmmaking process. Hackman sort of mumbles his way through most of the parts (still in character?), but it’s Rosen who really remembers the production in fine detail, and his anecdotes, like how they used hidden cameras for most of the busy street exteriors, are fascinating.
The previous conversation with Gene Hackman from the original film extras is continued here, and while shorter, is still a great watch and a nice primer to the essence of the film. It’s Hackman against a black screen, but he’s vocal about his initial hesitation on making a sequel, and his interest in acting out the scenes of withdrawal. Good stuff.
The disc is rounded off with some trailers, galleries and another isolated score. This track is even more sparse than that of the original, and not as experimentally interesting, either. Still, a nice addition, proving once again that Fox is determined to use Blu-ray for more than just pumping out new transfers.
wrapping it up...
You won’t necessarily be feeling withdrawals from the first film watching this sequel, and that’s thanks to Frankenheimer’s dedication to character in letting Hackman take his Popeye Doyle into a deep, dark abyss. The only problem, though, is that the story goes down there with him and hardly recovers, resulting in a slow, morose travelogue that just doesn’t have the same impact of the original. It’s certainly different, though. The image is a good upgrade from the DVD, but not near the beaut that the remastering of The French Connection was. The extras, while not as decked out as the original, offer a few fine hours of film history and serve as a nice epilogue to Frankenheimer’s career. If Requiem for a Dream made you want to run through fields of daisies, then French Connection II is for you.
 | overall... Content: B- Video: B- Audio: C- Extras: B+ Final Grade: C |
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