Two of the greatest thrillers of the 1970s, both with awesome acting, direction, pacing, set-pieces.....but who wins? vs
The French Connection, clearly Serpico is a fine film, obviously but TFC is MÉS QUE UN FILM It is a state of mind... it is the city captured perfectly and vividly right at the midway point of its transition from boom to bust; its first signs of chronic neglect, its first throes of abandonment, its ever escalating racial tensions but with visible remnants of former prosperity literally everywhere... at any moment it feels as if the camera might leave Popeye or Alain and focus on someone else spawning a whole new film... it's alive somehow ... the dialogue feels improvised and real ... Hackman disappears into the maniacal, ethically fluid, self-destructive character... the film is gray in a way that life so often is. Murky. If Do The Right Thing showed you a heartbroken, defeated New York covered in callouses, TFC shows it in throes of its transition to that point I look at setting stills of "Serpico", I'm looking at a movie... setting stills from "The French Connection" could be shots from anybody's camera in real life
Yes, I have. And it's hard for me to say FC because I like Pacino more than Hack. Serpico isn't even a top 3 Sidney Lumet film. The man made Network, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict, and arguably the best film ever made... 12 Angry Men.
