French Connection II
French Connection II is a 1975 American neo-noir action thriller film[3] starring Gene Hackman and directed by John Frankenheimer. It is a sequel to the 1971 film The French Connection, and continues the story of the central character, Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, who travels to Marseille in order to track down French drug-dealer Alain Charnier, played by Fernando Rey, who escaped at the end of the first film. Hackman and Rey are the only returning cast members.
French Connection II
Alexander Jacobs
Robert Dillon
Laurie Dillon
Robert Dillon
Laurie Dillon
The French Connection
1971 film
by William Friedkin
Robert L. Rosen
- May 21, 1975
119 minutes
United States
English
French
$4.3 million[1]
$12.5 million[2]
Score[edit]
The music was composed and conducted by Don Ellis, who returned from the original film. A soundtrack CD was released by Film Score Monthly in 2005 and paired with the music from the first film.
Reception[edit]
On release, French Connection II attracted positive reactions from the press and fared well at the box office, though nowhere near as well as its predecessor.[5] The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 82% based on 39 reviews, and a rating average of 6.6/10. The consensus summarizes: "Flawed and more conventional than its predecessor, French Connection II still offers a wealth of dynamic action and gritty characterizations."[6]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two and a half out of four stars, feeling that Doyle's heroin detox sequence halfway through the film, while well-acted by Hackman, stripped the film's momentum. He said that "if Frankenheimer and his screenplay don't do justice to the character (of Det. Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle), they at least do justice to the genre, and this is better than most of the many cop movies that followed The French Connection into release."[7]
Vincent Canby wrote in his review in The New York Times, "Popeye is a colorful and interesting—though hardly noble—character, and when the Marseille drug people kidnap him, forcibly create a heroin habit in him, and then release him, you have a very special kind of jeopardy that the film and Mr. Hackman exploit most effectively."[8]
Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called the film "an intelligent action melodrama" with a performance from Hackman that was so "excellent" as to "suggest the possibility of winning another major award for the same character in a sequel film."[9]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded three stars out of four and wrote, "Too many Popeye histrionics turns one of the screen's more compelling characters into a bit of a cartoon. And when Hackman is shot full of heroin by the Frenchman's thugs, once again the action is overplayed ... Despite these objections, 'French Connection II' concludes with a wallop that argues persuasively for its being seen."[10]
Paul D. Zimmerman wrote in Newsweek that Doyle's drug addiction in the middle of the film "stalls the story" and that the action-packed climax "seems executed for those seeking the shoot-'em-up sequel that Frankenheimer apparently wanted to avoid. If the movie ultimately doesn't work, this can be said in Frankenheimer's defense: that, with every right and probably much pressure to do so, he refused to rip off 'The French Connection' as so many films with other names already had."[11]
Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "'French Connection II' is an audience picture, bold and vigorous, opting for action rather than nuance. There is none of the lingering irony of 'French Connection I.' Vivid characterizations and plot are all, and they are whiz-bang."[12]
Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote that "this is not a sequel that was really crying to be made ... John Frankenheimer's direction of 'French Connection II' isn't bad, but it also isn't ingenious or exciting enough to compensate for the perfunctory screenwriting."[13]
"French Connection II" earned North American rentals of $5.6 million, surpassing its $4.3 million budget.[14] On the DVD commentary of the film, lead actor Gene Hackman remarked that the disappointing box office may have been due to the four-year gap between releases of the original and its sequel.
In 2009, Empire rated French Connection II to be the 16th greatest film sequel.[15]