Two commentary tracks; the first with William Friedkin the second with Gene Hackman & Roy Schieder, new HD featurettes, deleted scenes, original documentaries/featurettes, isolated music track, trailer

William Friedkin’s “The French Connection” redefined the police drama. Gone were the elements of the police procedural drama that had taken root in the 1950’s replaced with a gritty surface, police officers that were one stepped removed from the criminals they were hunting and often using questionable means to achieve their ends. “The French Connection” also upped the ante with an intense chase scene through the streets of New York in the grip of urban decay; the city had never looked nastier on film before. ***

Based on the book by Robin Cook and inspired by a true story Friedkin’s documentary style fits “The French Connection” to a tee and still continues to influence film directors 37 years later. “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman in his Oscar winning performance) and his partner “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider who would expand on this role in “The Seven Up’s” the first of many films made in the wake of “The French Connection” that used Friedkin’s gritty look and approach to the material)hunt down the French (Fernando Rey)head of a drug cartel importing heroin into New York. ***

Popeye and Cloudy jump over the obstacles in their own department to try and nail the bad guy during a bitter New York winter. The plot is simple on the surface but it’s the characters, their interactions and the world that they inhabit that resonate most strongly in Friedkin’s classic film. ---

Image & Sound:

Friedkin is no stranger to controversey; his "Director's Cut" of "The Exorcist" and alterations to other films he has made continues to demonstrate that he's a maverick filmmaker who wants to do things his way. The new Blu-ray release will be in good company. “The French Connection” always had a muted pallet that looked gritty with rich detail. The previous DVD version was a nice approximation of how the film originally looked in theaters. Friedkin who supervised the remaster has chosen to alter the look of the film by going for a muted look. The landscape still looks suitably harsh and the grain and detail remain gritty looking. It’s hard to argue with the director of a film and their decision to alter a film like this and Friedkin’s changes range from subtle to very noticeable at times. Friedkin uses the digital medium to enhance the detail of the film but decision to saturate colors blurring the lines that contain them (almost like watching a child who has just learned to color within the lines but doesn’t quite have it down pat) means that the colors bleed over almost as if the film itself has been colorized. It’s a bold decision that will leave fans divided. It does add to the “documentary” and messy feel of the film itself but it’s quite a bit different looking from the DVD incarnation of the film and even the original theatrical prints from the 80’s that were shown in revival houses. ***

Audio sounds extremely good with an isolated track for Don Ellis’ innovative score (which truthfully reminds me of what Jerry Goldsmith might have done on a project like this). Dialog remains strong and clear with the lossless True HD track giving us even better clarity than the previous incarnations on home video.

As mentioned previously, we get Ellis’ score in an isolated track. Additionally there is a on Ellis’ influential score. “Rogue Cop” focuses on the film noir elements of “The French Connection. We also get a featurette in HD that allows Friedkin to demonstrate the changes he made and explain his rational. “Color Timing” allows Friedkin to show the audience the digital tools he used to alter the look of the film to more closely capture what he originally envisioned but that wasn’t possible in 1970. Included are film clips from John Huston’s “Moby Dick” with Gregory Peck demonstrating how Huston tried to achieve much the same look using analog technology in the 1950’s. ***

We get the extras on the previous deluxe edition ported over to this one including a commentary with Hackman and Scheider and, on a second audio track, Friedkin himself detailing the making of the film. ***

“Anatony of a Chase” takes us back to where the influential chase scenes (probably the second most copied car chase scene after “Bullitt” although none of the copycats can quite match Friedkin’s intense cutting style for this sequence) with Friedkin and his producer along for the ride so to speak. ***

Gene Hackman appears in a new featurette sharing his reflections on the role that made him a huge star. Another featurette has technical advisor (and extra) Sonny Gross discussing the real events that inspired the film and the relationship to the film with Friedkin. ***

We also get the deleted scenes and documentaries that took up much of the space on the second disc of the original 2 disc DVD that Fox released nearly a decade ago. It appears that all of the extras from the original 2 disc set have survived intact for this version as well. ---

Final Words:

“The French Connection” altered the landscape for police thrillers; gone were the procedural elements that populated those films and the officers who followed the rules strictly replaced by rogue cops that had to use the same techniques (outside of murder) to nail the more sophisticated criminals in the 60’s and 70’s. The film may seem languid compared to our post Michael Bay slice and dice editing approach where editing is often misused outside of the dramatic context of the film, but it continues to remain a gripping drama because of the performances, style of the film and hard hitting story. It is, in a sense, a quaint look into our past when drug lords were less like the remake of “Scarface” and were businessmen in a nasty often deadly business. ***

Fans will no doubt have mixed feelings about the new look of Friedkin’s film but it’s hard to argue with the man who directed it and the fact that this version more closely resembles what he had in his head in 1970 when shooting the film in the mean streets of New York during a harsh, cold winter. Friedkin makes a strong case for the current look of the film and the new HD extras compliment the documentaries from the previous DVD (also included) making this the most comprehensive version of “The French Connection” available on home video. Hopefully we’ll see similar treatment for John Frankenheimer’s underrated sequel (although Frankeneimer is deceased so it’s unlikely we’ll see anyone playing with the “look” of the film to the degree that Friedkin did here).