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The Connection Review

By David Kempler

Over forty years ago, "The French Connection" exploded on the screen. Its tale of heroin smuggling from France to the United States captured five Oscars, including Best Actor for Gene Hackman, Best Director for William Friedkin, and Best Picture. Hackman's Popeye Doyle was one of the screen's great characters. "You ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?"

Now, we have "The Connection", a view of the same story from the French side of it. Pierre Michel (Jean Dujardin) takes the job of magistrate. His assignment is to halt the rampant drug trade, in particular going after Gaetan Zampa (Gilles Lellouche), the kingpin of the mob running Marseilles. The overall battle is between the law and the criminals. The personal battle between Michel and Zampa adds a layer to the tension.

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Michel soon realizes that pursuing Zampa while trying to remain within the confines of his legal restrictions is not going to work. He knows that he will have to step outside of those restrictions in order to have a chance of bringing down Zampa.

By going after Zampa so hard, he is putting himself and his family in danger, but he is so consumed by the chase that his tunnel vision allows him to remain focused in his quest. Zampa is similarly focused on his need to keep his drug business going while eluding Michel.

"The Connection" fails to live up to the standards of "The French Connection", but that's not really fair because "The French Connection" is a crime classic of American film. However, "The Connection" crackles also, even if it at a lesser voltage. It's still worth your while to make a connection to it.

What did you think?

Movie title The Connection
Release year 2014
MPAA Rating R
Our rating
Summary "The French Connection" is revisited from the French point of view. It falls short of its predecessor, but it's still a pretty nice piece of work.
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