{"id":14163,"date":"2021-06-02T17:51:31","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T21:51:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=14163"},"modified":"2026-04-28T14:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T18:44:20","slug":"the-french-connection-ii-1975","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/?p=14163","title":{"rendered":"French Connection II-1975"},"content":{"rendered":"

French Connection II-1975<\/strong><\/p>\n

Director John Frankenheimer<\/strong><\/p>\n

Starring Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scott’s Review #1,148<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Reviewed June 2, 2021<\/p>\n

Grade: B<\/strong><\/p>\n

The French Connection, the winner of the coveted Best Picture Academy Award for 1971 releases, is a brilliant film that holds up well as a cream-of-the-crop cop film.<\/p>\n

An action film winning an Oscar is as rare as a horror film winning one. It’s rare.<\/p>\n

The decision to make a sequel is debatable, but French Connection II (1975) stands as a decent action crime thriller, but hardly on par with the original.<\/p>\n

Is anyone surprised?<\/p>\n

Sequels rarely usurp their predecessors, especially when The French Connection is such a superior genre film. In a way, Part II didn’t have much of a chance measured up against Part I.<\/p>\n

Films like The Godfather (1972) only come around once in a lifetime.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, William Friedkin did not return to the fold to direct, replaced by John Frankenheimer, best known for the nail-biting The Manchurian Candidate (1962).<\/p>\n

Thankfully, Gene Hackman did return. He helps the film from an acting perspective and gives his all in a tough role. His partner, played by Roy Scheider, does not appear and is not mentioned.<\/p>\n

Picking up a couple of years after the first one ended, Detective “Popeye” Doyle (Hackman) is still hot on the heels of cagey and sophisticated drug trafficker Charnier (Fernando Rey).<\/p>\n

Doyle hops a flight to lovely Marseilles, France. Away from his familiar New York City territory, he struggles to assimilate himself in a strange city and conquer the drug ring to bring Charnier down.<\/p>\n

Doyle is accosted and spends time as a dreary heroin addict in rough confines before being tossed away and forced to recover cold turkey style. He becomes even more determined to bring the bad guys to justice- dead or alive.<\/p>\n

As a stand-alone action film, French Connection II is not a bad experience. It is certainly better than the still-to-come 1980s doldrums, like the Die Hard and Lethal Weapon cop\/buddy films, that marginalized the genre into cookie-cutter popcorn fare.<\/p>\n

The equally compelling French landscape replaces the gripping New York City. Gorgeous locales like the French Riviera and the Mediterranean Sea are featured, but Marseilles is not Paris. There exists a seediness and dirtiness that helps the film a bit.<\/p>\n

Hackman acts his ass off, especially as a drug addict. I shudder to think of a weaker actor trying to pull off this acting extravaganza. From scenes featuring his withdrawals to his drug cravings, it is exciting to watch and showcase Hackman’s wonderful acting chops.<\/p>\n

But the intent is to produce a good action film after all, and that effort is mediocre. French Connection II is not as compelling as The French Connection, and despite some decent chase scenes and a cool finale where Doyle gets his satisfaction, there is little else but by-the-numbers activity.<\/p>\n

The final fifteen minutes are the best part of the film.<\/p>\n

Remember the frightening car chasing a subway sequence? Or the delicious cat-and-mouse subway sequence between Doyle and Charnier?<\/p>\n

Brilliant scenes like this do not exist.<\/p>\n

A few clich\u00e9s are bothersome. Predictably, Doyle stands out like a sore thumb in France, and his hot-headedness emerges quickly, offending or pissing off the French authorities. He is not the most likable character, and I frequently found myself rooting for the bad guys!<\/p>\n

I don’t think I was supposed to.<\/p>\n

Other implausibilities occur, like the boneheaded decision to send Doyle to Marseilles, to begin with. Was he the only detective, including the French authorities, capable of catching Charnier?<\/p>\n

What was the point of the old-lady heroin addict stealing Doyle’s watch?<\/p>\n

A shadow of The French Connection, the dull titled French Connection II (1975) is a weaker effort but still respectable compared to other genre films.<\/p>\n

This is mostly due to the French landscape and Gene Hackman’s return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French Connection II-1975 Director John Frankenheimer Starring Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey Scott’s Review #1,148 Reviewed June 2, 2021 Grade: B The French Connection, the winner of the coveted Best Picture Academy Award for 1971 releases, is a brilliant film that holds up well as a cream-of-the-crop cop film. An action film winning an Oscar is … Continue reading French Connection II-1975<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,151,9918,9986,329,9987,9028,791,10533,5343,9919,204],"tags":[69,152,9920,9988,330,9989,9031,792,10540,5345,9921,258],"class_list":["post-14163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-1975-films","category-actionfilms","category-bernard-fresson","category-cathleen-nesbitt","category-crime-thriller","category-ed-lauter","category-fernando-rey","category-gene-hackman","category-hal-needham","category-john-frankenheimer","category-philippe-leotard","category-thrillers","tag-1975-movie-reviews","tag-action-films","tag-bernard-fresson","tag-cathleen-nesbitt","tag-crime-thrillers","tag-ed-lauter","tag-fernando-rey","tag-gene-hackman","tag-hal-needham","tag-john-frankenheimer","tag-philippe-leotard","tag-thrillers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14163"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22778,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14163\/revisions\/22778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottsfilmreviews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}