No Babies were Harmed in the Making of The French Connection

Today we are talking about The French Connection which was released in 1971 (A great year!!), directed by William Friedkin and starring Gene Hackman and Roy Schneider. It is a film about a pair of NYC cops in the Narcotics Bureau stumble onto a drug smuggling job with a French connection. We discuss the laws that were broken and stretched during the making of this film. We discuss the racial implications and police brutality that occurred at the time of filming compared to our current climate.

References from the podcast:

Seatbelts: Most seat belt laws in the United States are left to the states and territories. However, the first seat belt law was a federal law, Title 49 of the United States Code, Chapter 301, Motor Safety Standard, which took effect on January 1, 1968, that required all vehicles (except buses) to be fitted with seat belts in all designated seating positions.[1] This law has since been modified to require three-point seat belts in outboard-seating positions, and finally three-point seat belts in all seating positions.[2] Initially, seat belt use was voluntary. New York was the first state to pass a law which required vehicle occupants to wear seat belts, a law that came into effect on December 1, 1984.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt_laws_in_the_United_States

Highest grossing films in 1971:

1. Fiddler on the Roof
2. Billy Jack
3. The French Connection

Infamous chase scene from The French Connection

Some of our favorite techniques of this movie are:

• The acting of Hackman and Schneider
• The use of a dolly track in filmmaking
• The famous chase scene in the film
• The editing style of the film
• The sound design elements

Special thanks to our editor: Cameron Dodge

Make sure to watch Chips (2017) for next week

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