THE CONNECTION

THE CONNECTION is a meticulous, engrossing French movie about the French judge who led the way to stop “the French Connection” bringing heroin into the United States in the 1970s and early 1980s. THE CONNECTION is a little too long, and there’s some intense violence and strong foul language, but it’s an important fictionalized record of an important time in criminal history that stresses justice and shows that selling drugs like heroin is indeed a violent crime that costs lives.

The movie opens with a juvenile judge, Pierre Michel, being assigned to a police precinct in Marseilles to help with combating the infamous French Connection, the smuggling of Turkish and Asian heroin to New York City. Pierre is a conscientious judge who’s upset about the toll that the drug trade is taking on young hearts and minds. He’s moved to go full bore against the Mafia in Marseilles when one teenage girl he was trying to save suffers a deadly heroin overdose.

The rest of the movie shows the efforts of Pierre and the police detectives working with him to bring down Gaetan Zampa, the “godfather” behind most of the heroin smuggling coming out of Marseilles. Pierre’s heroism begins to endanger the lives of his wife and children, not just himself.

THE CONNECTION is a wonderfully heroic movie about a moral man dedicated to stopping criminal evil. It tells France’s involvement on both sides of the heroin trade of the 1970s, a subject dealt with in an Oscar-winning movie starring Gene Hackman. A couple scenes reflect some moral relativism, when the movie shows that the drug lord also has a wife and children, but the movie clearly shows that the judge is the much better man and that his cause is totally righteous.

THE CONNECTION does contain some violence, including pointblank assassinations, but it usually doesn’t focus on the blood and gore. There is, however, one scene where a seriously wounded criminal is shown being wheeled down a hospital corridor with blood all over his bare chest. The criminal survives his wounds, and the judge tries to get him to inform on his fellow drug smugglers.

Also, the movie has some “f” words and other foul language. Finally, there is a kissing scene where the judge’s wife is wearing a see-through bra in their bedroom.

Ultimately, THE CONNECTION warrants a light extreme caution. The movie is a little long, but it has an extremely positive role model in the judge, who’s played beautifully by Jean Dujardin from the MOVIEGUIDE® Award winning movie THE ARTIST. THE CONNECTION tells an important story that reveals the dangers of using illicit drugs and the dangers that society’s first responders face in protecting our children and grandchildren from the ravages of the drug trade.