Suggested Reading/Viewing: "The French Connection" (Book - 1969 & Movie - 1971)

The French Connection by Robin Moore



My rating: Book: 4 of 5 stars - Movie: Two Thumbs Up





This particular edition of "The French Connection," the Bantam Books mass market paperback edition, was the 17th printing of the book, published in mid-late 1972. I recently picked up a near-new condition copy for $1.00 at a used book store. Having seen the movie several times previously (I still own a copy on VHS, really gotta upgrade to a DVD copy!), I was glad to finally have a chance to read the book as well. On the front cover of the copy I picked up, above the title of the book, in red lettering are the words "Best Picture Of The Year! Winner of Five Academy Awards!" This refering to the fact that by this point the movie adaptation of "The French Connection" had been released and done very well indeed, winning all kinds of awards and critical acclaim, evenutally going on to become what is considered by many to be one of the finest movies about organized crime and the dope trade ever produced.



The book reads particularly well if you've seen the movie. If you haven't seen the movie, the book would still read well, but might turn off some readers as the plot revolves heavily around the seemingly never-ending descriptions of how the cops tailed their suspects around New York City - up and down north-south streets. Back and forth on the cross-town streets. Up and down and all around the town on streets that will be familiar to people who live in New York or who have spent time there but will have absolutely no meaning to those who do not know the city and these heavily detailed descriptions may seem a bit overdone to those unafmiliar with the streets of Manhattan.



Other than that one small consideration, this book is top notch reading as one would come to expect from the legend of the title...every one's heard of "The French Connection," right? But not everyone has read the book AND/OR seen the movie. I've done both now and can attest to the equal enjoyment of both experiences...great movie, great book...experiencing both at least once each is highly reccomended.



For those of you who could give a rats ass about the book, there's the movie, which does have the added bonus of the inclusion of the stunning visuals of the setting of the story - the New York City of the late 1960's: a much grittier, less sanitized looking place when the movie was filmed on location there in the late 1960's. With the movie, unlike with the book, you don't have to try to visualize what city of that time looked like, and where the story is taking you...it's served up to you in all it's ragged, ravaged glory and all you have to do is sit there, shovelling fistfulls of hot buttery popcorn into your yap, effortlessly watching it appear on the screen...but you still have to try to follow along!







A shorter, more action packed trailer...





The filming of one of the craziest car chase sequences in cinema history!





...and more random scenes from the movie.









...and no, Red Box does not have "The French Connection" available for rental this month. You'll have to find a copy someplace other than McDonalds.

Suggested Reading: "The Making Of A Cop" by Harvey Rachlin (1991)

The Making of a Cop by Harvey Rachlin



My rating: 3 of 5 stars





In the 1991 book "The Making of a Cop", author Harvey Rachlin follows the 1988 class of new recruits of the New York City Police Academy through their physically rigorous and mentally challenging training as they work their way up from entry-level rookies right up through the day, several moths later, when they finally their receive their shields (that's cop talk for "badge") and weapons - graduation day as it were - and join the elite ranks of the N.Y.P.D. as full fledged law enforcement officers.



Author Rachlin attended all the classes right along with the '88 NYPD recruits and this is his story of how, with very hard work and self discipline, an average citizen of a certain age group (and other, stringent qualifying characteristics) can become an important member on an specialized force in the never ending battle to keep the streets of New York City safe for citizens of the city and tourists alike.



An enjoyable book to be sure that will probably only take most readers a few day to one week at most to finish up depending on the ammount of free reading time you have available - I read it over the course of about 5 days. My only complaint, and I do understand that it was out of necessity, is that the book does not go in to a bit more detail of the training the recruits received, but there is, I guess, plenty enough here to keep the reader interested throughout the course of the 302 pages.



If you can pick up a used copy for a buck or even two, you can't go wrong...