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French Connection II
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray A - America - Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak (8th April 2009). |
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The Film
 I suppose if you've read a lot of reviews regarding sequels you would have come across the usual rant; the good sequel versus bad sequel set-up? While I'd love to start this review with something different, unique and refreshing for once, I find myself at a loss to come up with the right way to welcome you, the reader, to this review in such a manner. I could glam-up this opening paragraph with some crazy trivia or something but the fact is there isn't that much interesting trivia regarding this film. So please accept my apology for what will likely be the umpteenth time you've come across this similar intro: If a film is successful (a subjective term, this could either mean critically, box office-wise or both) it's common practice among the brass that control Hollywood to go forward with a sequel. In some cases as we've covered before in previous reviews; this has led to some fairly awful attempts to cash in on the original's goodwill, examples of these are "The Exorcist II: The Heretic" (1977), "The Sting II" (1983), "Speed 2: Cruise Control" (1997), "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003) and "Basic Instinct 2" (2006) just to name a few. Usually these films are either rushed into production or the production is flawed because the producers care more about making a quick buck than the story or characters. On the flip side we've also got sequels that are just as good or better than their predecessor like "The Godfather: Part II" (1974), "The Road Warrior" (1981) and "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" (1991). Those sequels are a few that managed to exceed both fan and critical expectations. The sequel business is a fine line between the good and the bad... for fans of "The French Connection" (1971) the 1975 follow up manages to sit squarely on that line. While it wasn't exactly 'rushed' into production (4 years in-between) it did follow on the heels of the original only this time with director William Friedkin choosing not to return, replacing him in the role was John Frankenheimer. At the time he'd carved out an impressive body of work that included "Birdman of Alcatraz" (1962), "The Manchurian Candidate" (1962), "The Fixer" (1968) and "The Iceman Cometh" (1973) among others... in other words he was a good choice. Following the events of the first film, 'Popeye' Doyle (Gene Hackman) travels to France to track down the escaped drug lord Charnier (Fernando Rey). While in France he works with the local police to find his man, but Charnier is one step ahead and kidnaps Popeye and forces him to take heroin. Popeye, addicted to drugs undergoes a difficult rehab, coming out with a renewed motivation to bring down Charnier. While the original was loosely based on real events, this sequel is entirely fiction, I supposed it represents a 'what-if' scenario. Not satisfied that drug kingpin Charnier escaped back to his homeland, Popeye does what every hero should... never give up until your man is behind bars... or dead. These are themes that we've seen numerous times over the years in Hollywood films. It's a prototypical template for a character and one that's immediately recognizable. The film has touches of the classic fish-out-of-water elements, for example Popeye dealing with people he has nothing in common with other than the fact they are all policemen. This provides for some scenes of Popeye trying to deal with difficult French people, ride-alongs, rad tape and so forth. Thankfully this is only a very slight aspect of the film. Popeye decides to go at it himself to find the notorious Charnier with devastating results. I must admit the one thing that surprised me about this film was the direction it chose to go in, I never thought Popeye would become addicted to heroin, granted by force but this story line makes "The French Connection II" an intriguing concept. The 45 odd minutes of Popeye's abduction, forced drug taking and cold turkey rehab has got to be the most excruciating 45 minutes in film. It's disturbing and sometimes hard to watch, although we've seen more graphic depictions of drug taking in today's films, "The French Connection II" depicts these scenes in the raw and gritty manner we've been introduced to in the first film. Making it all the more impacting. However, this film is at times nothing like the first, it's not a procedural thriller that keeps you on the edge from scene to scene. It plays out more like a fairly straight drama, with elements of revenge added in. Popeye is less a cop here and more a vigilante going after Charnier. In some ways this feels out of character for someone so devoted to police work and procedure. Going vigilante makes him no better than the scum he's used to putting away. I also had problems with some plot elements, why would Charnier just let him go after getting Popeye hooked on drugs? Of all people it's Charnier that knows just how dedicated Popeye is and that letting him go (drugged up or not) would end up biting him in the ass. Finally Roy Scheider is sorely missed here, Popeye really needs his partner to play off of and part of what made the first film so great is their relationship. The film's aesthetic style is very much in keeping with the original (although I found that this film had less handheld camera), while the tone provides a nice continuity between the two and overall it's an enjoyable enough film, it can also be seen as a fairly unnecessary sequel, the first film's ending was powerful enough and helps to maintain intrigue, even though audiences are told what happened in the form of text before the end credits. "The French Connection II" is a good film that seems to have several flaws which unfortunately keep it in the shadows of its predecessor, it's worth watching if you've seen the first but I suspect audiences will be divided, especially if they loved the first one.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 in high-definition 1080p 24/fps and has been mastered in AVC MPEG-4 compression. This film comes to HD for the first time, and the image has not been altered by the director like the first. After some research I was unable to find out if this image was created from a new master or if the old DVD master was used. Comparing it to the previous DVD release, the HD edition looks cleaner and brighter. The image is very natural but overall soft and at times lacking in detail. Backgrounds tend to suffer the most as a result, colors are muted but seem accurate, blacks are a little noisy but mostly solid, overall the film's tone is in keeping with the original, however the film is much less grainy and stark than the first.
Audio
Four audio tracks are included in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixed at 48kHz/24-bit as well as audio tracks in English, French and Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 Dual Mono. For the purposes of the review I chose to view the film with its DTS-HD audio. Much like the first film we've got an up-mix audio track that takes the original mono audio and expands it into a 5.1 surround mix. The result is a very average mix that is front heavy, lacking in depth, range and doesn't do much in terms of immersing the viewer. It feels weak and largely lifeless without much in terms of ambient sounds, action scenes sound tinny and the music lacks power as well. It's not the best sound presentation but it's far from the worst. Purists will rejoice that the original mono track is also included, which I recommend over this DTS-HD audio. Optional subtitles are included in Cantonese, English, Mandarin and Spanish.
Extras
Fox has released this film with two audio commentaries, two featurettes, an isolated score, a series of galleries, original theatrical trailers and a bonus trailer. Below is a closer look at these supplements. First up is a feature-length audio commentary with the film's director John Frankenheimer. The filmmaker takes through a breakdown of the film from scene to scene providing a rich and broad amount of information about the production. The director lets fans in on his process and initial reluctance to jump on board, it's a founded position considering the success of the original and the responsibility of trying to make something just as good if not better. There aren't many quite moments, as he continues to talk about the locations, working with the cast including a heaping handful of praise for Hackman and his performance. Overall it's a great track that's worth listening to if you haven't already from accessing tis feature on the previous DVD release. A second feature-length audio commentary is next this time with actor Gene Hackman and producer Robert L. Rosen. Recorded separately these two provide another informative track providing viewers with an insight into the challenges of the production. The overall tone is much drier and slower than that of the director's but worthy of exploring none-the-less. They comment on their experience working on the film and also with the various cast and crew, the shooting process and on their reactions to making a sequel so soon after the first one came out among other things. "Frankenheimer: In Focus" is the first featurette, this is a new clip produced for this Blu-ray release and runs for 25 minutes 13 seconds. This clip is an wonderful look back at the filmmaker's career from his early career in live television to his political involvement and also on his feature films. His family are interviewed about the filmmaker as are some famous fans including William Friedkin who clearly respects the director. The clip features some crew from the film recalling the filming process of the second film, on his directing style and temperament among other things. "A Conversation with Gene Hackman" is another new featurette that runs for 7 minutes 6 seconds. This is an interview with the actor about his involvement in the sequel. He comments on how tough it is to make a sequel, on his co-stars and the story which allowed the actor to play a drug addict and going through the withdrawals. He also comments on the similar styles of Frankenheimer to Friedkin, on the director wanting to do 'grander' shots in the sequel among other things. It's a great interview that's worth checking out. The film can also be viewed with an isolated score track in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround, the track is quite sparse and presents the Don Ellis score in HD audio, Ellis returns to the sequel after scoring the original. Following that are stills galleries for: - "Wardrobe" which features 29 images. - "Storyboards" which features the sub-categories: -- "Scene 12: The Arab Quarter" which features 14 images. -- "Scene 27: Doyle Kidnapped" which features 23 images. -- "Scene 66: Doyle Gets Even" which features 22 images. -- "Scene 71: Staking Out The Dry Dock" which features 56 images. -- "Scenes 88 and 89: Chasing Charnier" which features 47 images. The disc includes three original theatrical trailers for the film, they can be viewed individually or with a 'play all' option, they are: - "English" theatrical trailer which runs for 3 minutes 14 seconds. - "Spanish" theatrical trailer which runs for 3 minutes 14 seconds. - "Portuguese" theatrical trailer which runs for 3 minutes 14 seconds. There's also a bonus trailer for "The French Connection" which runs for 2 minutes 50 seconds. Finally the disc includes D-Box motion code for those that have the equipment.
Overall
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