10 years of Flick Filosopher: creating the A-list action movie

It’s the mother of all action movies. From my review of The French Connection, the Best Picture winner from 1971:

The French Connection is Patient Zero in Hollywood's epidemic of blood, guts, and mayhem, the Typhoid Mary that spread gunplay, car chases, and psychotic cops throughout filmdom. Like Typhoid Mary, though, The French Connection has only a mild, nonfatal case of the sickness that continues to rage through movies. This film demonstrates how smart action movies can be, and points out how dumbed down most of them have gotten.

• review of The French Connection, posted 02.23.99

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