This was my first watch of "The French Connection". It wasn't entirely what I expected. It was less grand than I anticipated as it focused on a drug deal and a pair of cops fighting for respectability.

Gene Hackman absolutely owns this film. His character "Popeye" Doyle is a powder keg and an extremely driven individual. Roy Schieder's "Cloudy" Russo isn't as front and center but is vital to controlling Popeye's violence.

William Friedkin directs this. I don't know if I'm a Friedkin fan. I love "The Exorcist" and thought his later film "Bug" was appealingly weird. The way that he inter-cuts Popeye's surveillance of the suspects is so well done that I found myself trying to peer around corners and through the crowds.

The crime dramas of the 1970's are mostly appealing to me. The way that they capture that particular moment in time seems equal to the film-making from any other era. One of the things that I was astonished by was how totally awful New York looks. It's a filthy, dirty, grimy place. No matter where Popeye and Cloudy went, the dirt of the city was sure to surround them.

I'd heard many good things about the car chase. It's wild but since it's more of a one car pursuit of a train, it didn't have the impact I'd thought it would. Maybe my anticipation was too high.

Now for the ending. It was a letdown. I wasn't disappointed to find out the individual fates of the characters. It was the technique used that bummed me out. Maybe this will be fine with most, but I think I might have preferred a more open ended conclusion.