Gene Hackman names the only car chase in cinema history that beats ‘The French Connection’: “There was a better one”
Even though sentimentality was never his strong suit and nostalgia never carried any interest, Gene Hackman would be well within his rights to claim that he was involved in the greatest car chase in cinema history.
After all, William Freidkin’s classic crime thriller The French Connection inspired generations of filmmakers with its signature action set piece, and Hackman’s contributions are every bit as important to the seminal scene as the squealing of tyres and careening camerawork that saw the sequence homaged and cited as an inspiration in everything from John Frankenheimer’s Ronin to Matt Damon’s Jason Bourne franchise.
Part of the chase’s enduring legacy isn’t just the way it was shot from a professional and artistic perspective but the way it was shot from a legal one. The production didn’t have the necessary permits and permissions to start barrelling through New York traffic at full pelt, but Friedkin didn’t care. He had cameras, a willing stunt driver, and a dream, which was all he needed to execute his vision and craft a timeless action beat that was as dangerous in real life as it was on screen.
The director didn’t even want to cast Hackman as Popeye Doyle, either, but overcoming his reluctance was vindicated in a major way when the leading man went on to claim an Academy Award for ‘Best Actor’, one of five Oscars that also saw the film claim prizes for ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’, and ‘Best Editing’.
Hackman wasn’t dismissive enough of his achievements to overlook the importance of The French Connection in relation to his own career, but nothing could convince him to watch it twice. As he revealed in a rare interview with the New York Post, the star only saw the finished feature once, and that was long before it even hit the big screen.
“I haven’t seen the film since the first screening in a dark, tiny viewing room in a post-production company’s facility 50 years ago,” said. “If the film has a legacy, I am not sure what that would be. At the time, it seemed to me to be a reverent story of a cop who was simply able to solve and put a stop to a major crime family’s attempt to infiltrate the New York drug scene.”
Hackman has no interest in considering, examining, or exploring The French Connection‘s impact on cinema, to the extent he even downplayed its most famous scene. Ask anyone to name one thing about Friedkin’s masterpiece, and the majority of them will respond with the car chase. It’s the defining aspect of an all-time great, but the star wouldn’t rank it at the top of the pile.
“As for the car chase,” he offered. “There was a better one filmed a few years earlier with Steve McQueen.” According to Hackman, the burning rubber of Bullitt beats The French Connection hands-down any day of the week. It’s not exactly an unpopular opinion when those two are as good as it gets, but somebody should have told him it’s perfectly OK if he wants to pat himself on the back for a job well done.
