THE FRENCH CONNECTION Clip - "Car Chase" (1971) Gene Hackman

Amusing to hear the director, William Friedkin, talk about this car-train chase. With no permits from the city, they improvised the entire thing! Remarkable editing of the shopping cart scene. Over nine edits in three seconds to create the tension.

Bill Hickman, who appeared onscreen in Bullitt as the Charger R/T's wheelman, filled in for Gene Hackman in the chase in The French Connection.

The "car chase" is intense, even more intense than the one in Bullitt.

The car chase was filmed without obtaining the proper permits from the city. Members of the NYPD's tactical force helped control traffic. But most of the control was achieved by the assistant directors with the help of off-duty NYPD officers, many of whom had been involved in the actual case. The assistant directors, under the supervision of Terence A. Donnelly, cleared traffic for approximately five blocks in each direction. Permission was given to literally control the traffic signals on those streets where they ran the chase car. Even so, in many instances, they illegally continued the chase into sections with no traffic control, where they actually had to evade real traffic and pedestrians. Many of the (near) collisions in the movie were therefore real and not planned (with the exception of the near-miss of the lady with the baby carriage, which was carefully rehearsed). A flashing police light was placed on top of the car to warn bystanders. A camera was mounted on the car's bumper for the shots from the car's point-of-view. Hackman did some of the driving but the extremely dangerous stunts were performed by Bill Hickman, with Friedkin filming from the backseat. Friedkin operated the camera himself because the other camera operators were married with children and he was not.

The good old Pontiac LeMans.

One of the Greatest chase scenes ever....The car was driven by the same driver as the Charger in Bullitt...

Happy 94th birthday Mr. Hackman!

The best car chase in the history of film, it beats the one in bullitt by a long way, i've seen this movie 8 times its William freidkins masterpiece

Stop and think for a moment. The whole scene really started with Hackman spotting the sniper running and Hackman coming down from the roof and began the chase on foot. Think of the quality and an impeccable “arc” in the scene, a small “film within the film”! Starting with the foot chase with EVERY subsequent scene shot immediately one after next, there was a dramatically increased incremental drama, building and adding until the demise of the villain. Mr Friedkin was a fantastic genius to craft that whole scene, all of it mind you, without one note of any musical instrument or orchestration (‘cept the las)!No disrespect here but I kept thinking ‘Hitchcock, Hitchcock’. That was often his magisterial film prowess.

Best film with the amazing car chases the other was Bullitt which was from San Francisco

One of the best car chases in this action packed movie

My favorite thing about this car chase is how it gradually grows more and more intense. At the start of the chase, Hackman is barely driving faster than the traffic around him, but by the end, he's wrecked the car and is forcing other vehicles off the road.

I love that Popeye commandeered the car from a law abiding citizen and then proceeded to destroy it!

I concur

In the 1971 movie The French Connection, Gene Hackman's character shoots a fleeing felon in the back. This would be illegal today, as the fleeing felon rule was limited to non-lethal force in 1985. Under current law, a police officer may not use deadly force unless they have probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious bodily harm to the officer or others.

A melhor fotografia da história do cine Americana!

Masterpiece. Simple as that.

I have been driving for 6 years now and I've played shit load of GTAs and shit but seeing the traffic from car's POV in a chase is so fucking thrilling.

RIP William Friedkin

RIP William Friedken 😢

"Going nuclear/pulling the trigger(already)❤️

When is Criterion censoring Goodfellas. N bomb is dropped during the truck hiest

I really liked American Cinema during the American New Wave era.

This is one of, if not the best car chase in movie history. The French Connection is such a fantastic movie. One of my all-time favorites.

Was it legal to shoot an unarmed man in the 70s?

wonderful 👍

Gene one of the best !

This movie is an absolute masterpiece. A true classic.