It's not very often that a sequel snags a filmmaker even more accomplished than the original director, but John Frankenheimer's gritty touch was just what 'French Connection II (1975)' needed. William Friedkin's 'The French Connection (1971)' was itself gritty, tense and exciting, spinning a true-life police procedural into a harrowing exploration of obsession and corruption. Frankenheimer, in the same vein as 'The Manchurian Candidate (1962),' occasionally infuses his film's stark realism with surreal, hallucinatory elements, perfect for depicting the heroin-fuelled stupor that "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) is ruthlessly forced to endure. The sequel offers a fictional extension of the original film's true events, and sees Detective Doyle following the trail of drug-lord Charnier (Fernando Rey) onto the unfamiliar and unsympathetic streets of Marseilles, France. With the reluctant assistance of local cop Barthélémy (Bernard Fresson), Doyle uncertainly strolls the dirty streets, out of his element in this foreign metropolis, and perpetually hampered by cultural and language differences.
Gene Hackman won an Oscar for his first turn as "Popeye" Doyle, and here he probably deserved another one. His efforts continually frustrated by international bureaucracy and local hostility, Detective Doyle broils with aggression and resentment, a distinctly unlikable but engrossing personality. In one particularly excruciating sequence, as Doyle attempts to kick a heroin addiction cold-turkey, Hackman's performance is a masterclass – pitiful, riveting and painful. 'French Connection II' concludes with an exciting police raid and foot-chase, shot in a realistic style that no doubt influenced successors like Ridley Scott. Doyle's final pursuit of Charnier across the busy streets of Marseilles is enthralling, not least because Hackman himself appears to give it his all, having reportedly neglected to alert Frankenheimer of a chronic knee ailment. In a medium where heroes apparently possess boundless energy, I can't recall a more exhausted and beaten-looking chase participant since Kurosawa's 'Stray Dog (1949).'
