Saturday, May 17, 2025
a balanced look at fruit
From a doc who leans keto/carnivore, but who still stands at a skeptical remove:
the plot thickens
Wait, what?
So let me get this straight the plane that was a gift from Qatar was actually a conversation that was started a year ago by the Biden administration with the Qataris? You literally can’t make this stuff up. pic.twitter.com/LDjs2yR5NK
— Insurrection Barbie (@DefiyantlyFree) May 15, 2025
Some comments from Instapundit:
• The only people who are upset about the whole "free plane" thing are people who already hate Trump and are suffering from chronic TDS. The rest of us don't care, but the people who are trying to make this a thing are just coming off as even more insufferable than they already are.
• Can we get Democrats to condemn the Qatari funding of our elite colleges and universities? Qatari money is everywhere in America, buying influence.
the Drinker with the final word on "Doctor Who"
From February 19, so this is old news but worth hearing:
Friday, May 16, 2025
the boss weighs in
My boss called today, after a two-day silence, to weigh in on my recent iMovie video. "Are you ready for my critiques?" he asked teasingly. I rolled my eyes. As it turned out, he had nothing too cutting to say. The beginning 15 seconds, where I pan across ingredients, struck him as too frenetic (I kind of agree), and he didn't like the fact that there was no music for that part. He would also have liked a voiceover, but as I told him, that's something I'll be working on for the next sample video I do, along with some other stuff like animated text, sound effects, visual effects, etc. He also suggested something I'd been thinking about myself: instead of that frenetic pan across all of the ingredients at the beginning, why not have a series of freeze frames to allow people to see all of the ingredients at a more leisurely pace?
I didn't think these criticisms were all that stressful; the only one I mildly disagreed with was the one about the lack of music at the beginning. If you listen carefully to the first 15 seconds, you'll hear that I did, in fact, incorporate a background noise, which iMovie called a "starship rumble," similar to the all-pervasive ambient noise of the Enterprise in "Star Trek: The Next Generation." I had put this noise in to suggest a buildup and to create anticipation: after the 15-second mark, the music suddenly starts (I'd found a free music clip at one of those websites offering free music for video-making); once the music begins, that's how we launch ourselves into this short adventure. My boss isn't the most artistic guy, so I don't really expect him to get the psychology of this. Still, I realize that, if I'm making videos for myself, that's different from making videos for the boss's company: his word and his creative vision ("creative") will have to be law. And frankly, I'm only at the beginning of my video-making journey, so I need all the advice and criticism I can get. This adventure could lead anywhere, and the sky's the limit.
Hillary's poor take on Qatar's 747
The following isn't journalism. At best, it's an editorial. More likely, it's little more than a blog post showcasing an opinion—about all you can expect from Townhall.com ("blows up in her face," below, is nothing more than clickbait). That said, the blog post comes with an argument. Now, as one complaining commenter on Instapundit noted, this argument won't be heard by the left-leaning public because the mainstream media aren't covering it: they're covering only Hillary's side. Still: there are people who will read the argument and be aware even while the left remains clueless that Hillary has been responded to. It's this awareness that led, in part, to Trump's electoral victory.
Hillary Clinton's Weigh-in on the Trump-Qatar 747 Story Blows Up in Her Face
Does she think we don’t remember the slush fund she ran for years and cashed numerous times? Hillary Clinton, the political succubus who won’t go away, decided to ascend from the depths of hell to comment on the Qatar-747 story that Democrats have mainlined for the past few days. But, like black tar heroin, it’s poisoning their bodies since it’s deadly fake news.
Boeing oversaw manufacturing a new 747 aircraft to be used as Air Force One. They’re behind, which is the real story—this company can’t get its act together. So, Trump contacted a Florida-based defense contractor, who obtained a 747 that the Qatari royal family once used. It’s under consideration to be transferred to the US proper, not Trump, where, if all goes well, it will be retrofitted within a year and used as the new aerial transport for the president of the United States until Boeing can honor its commitment.
It's not bribery, and it’s not a national security issue, but Hillary opted to weigh in, posting, “No one gives someone a $400 million dollar jet for free without expecting anything in return. Be serious.”
Lady, Qatar gave your foundation $11 million while you served as Obama’s secretary of state. That whole Clinton Foundation was a funnel from which you could take lavish gifts from the world’s wealthy and powerful, who later cashed in on that favor. The timelines do not lie, especially on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.
Mrs. Clinton, you lost 2016 for a reason. These little ‘hey, remember me, how the hell are ya’ drop-ins are annoying, and no one misses you, even Democrats. You weren’t right about anything. Trump won two presidential elections. You have won none.
I could be accused of lifting up a tu quoque fallacy here: What about Hillary's having received donations from Qatar? the blog post argues. Indeed, her being dirty doesn't necessarily mean she's wrong. But if the writer's point is that Hillary herself is in no position to claim self-righteousness ("Let the one without sin cast the first stone"), I agree: she would have done better to keep silence and to let someone with more integrity make the point she was trying to make. But she couldn't help herself, despite being a two-time loser.
The woman can't die fast enough. And to think she has progeny who will plague us as a country until long after I'm dead. Fuck. Last thing:
"will be retrofitted within a year"
As I said, Trump's not going to be using the Qatari gift anytime soon.
ah, the bleeding toes
I need to learn my lesson and get my toenails clipped by a professional pedicurist. Almost every time I cut my toenails, especially over the past five years, I've ended up with one or more bleeders. Normally, I just shrug, wipe away the blood (if it's not bleeding too fast and hard), and bandage the toe(s) up. Within 24 hours, the bleeding stops, and I go on with life.
Yesterday was a bit like a low-grade horror movie. I clipped my toenails, noticed a single bleeder, bandaged it up, sat at my computer desk, and forgot about the toe. I then got up after some time and walked over to the kitchenette for whatever reason, and as I walked back to my desk, I finally noticed the studio's floor, which was covered in big, gloopy tracks of dark, venous blood. How had I not noticed this while I'd been sitting at the computer? How had I not noticed the tracks I'd been making on my way to the kitchenette?
I saw that I'd been bleeding from both feet. Figures. More angry than horrified, I grabbed at my conveniently located container of wet wipes on the computer table and wiped down my feet (choosing to concentrate on them first, as opposed to the floor), removing the blood-soaked single bandage. I then grabbed some conveniently located Kleenex and dried my feet off after the wipe-down so as to have dry skin for the many bandages I would be applying. I noticed, during this wipe-then-dry procedure, that enough time had passed for most of the major bleeding to have stopped, but there was still some ooze. I bandaged my feet up, then turned my attention to the studio's floor, which looked as if someone had been murdered.
Turning again to my wet wipes, I mopped up the major spillage all across the floor. It was lucky, what with cardboard boxes being stored under the computer table by my feet, that the boxes had somehow miraculously survived being bloodied. With the major blood pools now sopped up, I brought out the weapon I normally bring out in cases of floor spillage: my Swiffer-like rectangular mop (a Sweeper), which can hold either wet or dry mop-sized sheets. I chose the wet sheets, obviously, since this was a heavy-duty occasion. As I mopped the floor and got rid of the remaining traces of blood, I watched my now-bandaged feet to see whether I was leaving any new blood tracks. Nothing, thank Cthulhu.
I chucked away the blood-soaked Swiffer wipes,* sat back down, and finally took stock of the situation. I'd never had that much post-clipping bleeding before, and while I've often thought about visiting a pedicurist (there's one in the building I used to work at), I now realize that—unless I wise up and watch some YouTube tutorials about how to properly cut my toenails—I need professional help.** So in a few weeks, when the time will come once again to clip my toenails, I might finally bite the bullet and see a pedicurist for the first time ever. Or will I be stubborn and keep trying to clip my toenails myself? Only the Shadow knows.
As to why I hadn't noticed anything while it was happening: (1) when I'm at the computer, I'm usually consumed by whatever is happening on my monitor's screen, and (2) I have severe diabetic neuropathy in my feet, which means I don't feel much down there to alert me to problems, anyway. It's a bit like the leper's plight as he starts to lose his peripheral nerves. If I'm not careful, I fear something will get infected, and I won't look down until it's too late, and something will have to get amputated. That's at least part of the reason why diabetics lose feet, legs, and fingers. Also, (3): while walking toward the kitchenette, I was focused on my destination, not on the floor, which is why I didn't notice anything until I had turned around and started back to the computer.
__________
*Unnecessarily pedantic note: I'm using "Swiffer" the way other people might use "Xerox"—as a generic term, not because this was literally an all-Swiffer operation; the wipes I normally use, for example, are off-brand Korean products that work fine enough. The metal-and-plastic mop itself was and is indeed a Swiffer (but Korean knock-offs do exist), and I have other actual Swiffer products as well (e.g., for dusting). But the combo of products I used for this cleaning project was not 100% the literal Swiffer brand.
**I have in fact, watched some toenail videos, and they all say the same thing: don't cut a curve around the nail. Instead, cut straight across and leave the "corners" of the nail a bit longer than the nail's front. When you cut the "corners," you encourage the nails to curl downward and become ingrown as they grow, which leads to much unhappiness in life.
"Politico is a joke"
🔥ROASTED🔥@SebGorka just eviscerated POLITICO on their own stage.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 15, 2025
"This is why POLITICO is a JOKE! This is why you're gutter-press and fake news!"
"You're sitting here, live, defending a member of MS-13!"
"This isn't journalism. This is protecting those who hate America.… pic.twitter.com/PMeoPAl0FA
Nerd Cookies on Hayt the ghola
I like Jason Momoa, but does he have the acting chops to carry "Dune Messiah"? Momoa played Duncan Idaho in "Dune, Part I," but in "Dune Messiah," he will have to play Hayt, the ghola (reconstituted form) of Duncan, a cloned being who retains his original's memories but who has been trained/programmed with new and different knowledge atop the old knowledge and memories. Hayt's role in the story is complex: he's given as a gift to the emperor Paul Atreides (read my review of the novel), but he makes no bones about having been sent to eventually kill Paul. At the same time, Hayt, despite his metallic eyes and spooky demeanor, finds himself falling in love with Paul's gifted sister Alia. Can Momoa handle all of this? My one fear is that he won't have the emotional range, and he'll spend the movie with a generic frown/scowl on his face to indicate how troubled he is on the inside. Please, God, no. Momoa could easily ruin the movie if he doesn't step up. On the bright side, he played Duncan well, so he might be okay. I'd like him to be more than okay, though. I want him doing his Oscar-contending best. Hayt is arguably the emotional center of the story because of what he means to Paul (as an echo of Duncan), and what he comes to mean to Alia.
Doug is back!
Doug TenNapel (what a surname, eh? "ten acres"), an affable conservative commentator and cartoonist with whom I disagree vehemently about gay marriage (but who is otherwise sensible), is back on YouTube after having been banned during the Biden era, forcing him to live the truth of his moniker, Doug in Exile.
Thursday, May 15, 2025
as the Boers move to America
90% of farms seized from the Boers by the Bantu commies are lying derelict.
— Wanjiru Njoya (@WanjiruNjoya) May 15, 2025
Nobody told the Bantus that farms require hard work, so they didn't bother.
This was a catastrophe for the farm animals, most of which had to be euthanized. pic.twitter.com/jHNJA6IKM6
typo belatedly caught
I must have been high. Right there at the beginning of my iMovie video, I had misspelled bourguignon as bourguigon. Do you see the problem? The final three letters should be N-O-N. Look again at the correct and incorrect spellings. How the hell did I miss that? Anyway, I went back to iMovie, redid the opening title card, redid all the subtitles, and republished the video. So: mea maxima culpa for not having caught that obvious mistake.
for better or worse, it appears to be a done deal
Whatever you might think of the US's accepting the gift of a 747 from the nation of Qatar, it seems the gift has now been accepted in the larger context of a set of deals made between Qatar and the US. See here (paywall):
Trump Strikes $244 Billion in Deals With Qatar, Including ‘Historic’ Boeing Jet SaleQatar Airways signed a $96 billion agreement to acquire up to 210 American-made 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft from Boeing.
DOHA, Qatar—President Donald Trump announced on May 14 more than $243.5 billion in economic deals between the United States and Qatar, including a $96 billion agreement for Boeing to sell up to 210 jets to Qatar Airways.
The White House stated that the agreement with Qatar is projected to generate at least $1.2 trillion in economic exchange between both countries.
The deal was signed amid Trump’s four-day trip to the Middle East. The president was joined by Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani for the signing ceremony in Doha.
Trump had signed multiple agreements with Saudi Arabia the day prior.
Ortberg signed the deal with Qatar Airways CEO Badr Mohammed Al-Meer while standing next to Trump and Tamim. The president said Ortberg told him that it’s “the largest order of jets in the history of Boeing.”
The White House released a fact sheet after the ceremony confirming that Qatar Airways had signed a $96 billion agreement to acquire up to 210 U.S.-made 787 Dreamliner and 777X aircraft from Boeing with GE Aerospace engines inside.
“This historic agreement will support 154,000 U.S. jobs annually, totaling over 1 million jobs in the United States during the course of production and delivery of this deal,” the White House stated.
Other Economic Deals Signed With Qatar
The president was also present to sign a defense agreement and an unspecified joint declaration with Tamim.
“I think after signing these documents, we are going to another level of relationship between Qatar and the United States,” the Qatari leader said.
Among the agreements is a deal between American engineering company McDermott and Qatar Energy, which will partner with seven active energy infrastructure projects worth $8.5 billion.
Parsons, a defense contractor, was awarded 30 projects worth up to $97 billion, that will create “thousands of jobs across the United States,” according to the White House.
Qatari company Al Rabban Capital finalized a joint venture with quantum computing company Quantinuum to invest up to $1 billion in quantum technologies and workforce development in the United States.
Aerospace and defense contractor Raytheon, now a business unit of RTX, secured a $1 billion project for Qatar’s acquisition of counter-drone capabilities, which was approved by U.S. and Qatari officials.
Qatar Gifts New Air Force One Jet
On May 11, Trump announced that his administration would be receiving a plane from Qatar to be temporarily used as the new Air Force One while Boeing contends with continued delays on the jet it is contractually obligated to build for the Department of Defense.
“The Defense Department is getting a gift, free of charge, of a 747 aircraft to replace the 40 year old Air Force One, temporarily, in a very public and transparent transaction,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, his social media platform.
The decision to accept the plane—a Boeing 747-8—for the Defense Department has been met with criticism from several lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), who called the gift “corrupt” and a “grave national security threat.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told Spectrum News: “Air Force One is the symbol of America. When it lands or flies, it is America flying and landing. And I want to make sure that this whole thing is kosher. Time will tell.”
Trump said accepting the jet in place of the plane that Boeing is readying for the Defense Department will save the government money.
Others have raised national security concerns over using the plane as Air Force One.
The gift of the 747 is a separate matter from the above-mentioned Boeing deal. That latter deal seems to be a boost for American manufacturing (like the other deals mentioned), but I have to wonder whether Boeing will be as sluggish with Qatar as it's been in producing the new Air Force One. Qatar could end up losing patience, which might be inadvertently hilarious. Meanwhile, was Qatar, in making these deals, obliged to yield any concessions in terms of its terrorism sponsorship, or was that delicate matter never brought up? I'll also be curious to see whether Trump gets the new 747 vetted for security... or will he just start riding in it? As I said before: I'm far less concerned about whether this gift "looks bad" than about whether it presents safety and security concerns from yet another nation that is all handshakes with one hand while undermining our country with the other.
this nonsense is relentless
Headline (paywall):
Former National Guardsman Arrested in Foiled ISIS-Linked Attack at Michigan BaseThe DOJ says the 19-year-old planned a mass-shooting and gave drones, ammo, and attack training to undercover agents posing as terrorists.
A 19-year-old former Michigan Army National Guardsman was arrested on May 13 after he attempted to carry out a plan for a mass shooting at a U.S. military base in Warren, Michigan, on behalf of ISIS, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ).
The DOJ announced in a statement that Ammar Abdulmajid-Mohamed Said, of Melvindale, a community near Dearborn, has been charged with attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and distributing information related to a destructive device.
“The arrest of this former soldier is a sobering reminder of the importance of our counterintelligence efforts to identify and disrupt those who would seek to harm our nation,” said Brig. Gen. Rhett R. Cox, the commanding general of the U.S. Army Counterintelligence Command.
“We urge all soldiers to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activity to their chain of command, as the safety and security of our Army and our nation depends on our collective efforts to prevent insider threats.”
According to the criminal complaint, Said allegedly informed two undercover law enforcement officers of the plan he had concocted to conduct a mass shooting at the U.S. Army’s Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command (TACOM) facility at the Detroit Arsenal.
Last month, the two undercover officers indicated to Said that they intended to carry out his plan at the direction of ISIS.
[ ... ]
Said was expected to make his initial court appearance on May 14. The U.S. Attorney’s Office stated that it would ask the court to hold him in pretrial detention because of his danger to the community and the risk that he could flee.
Sue J. Bai, head of the DOJ’s National Security Division, said it was thanks to law enforcement that the attack was foiled “before lives were lost.”
“We will not hesitate to bring the full force of the Department to find and prosecute those who seek to harm our men and women in the military and to protect all Americans,” she said.
Based on the charges in the complaint, Said faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each count if convicted, according to the DOJ.
Whatever happened to the death penalty for treason?
the trans ban is a thing now
DeVory brings up three arguments against the military service of trans people that I hadn't considered: (1) hormone treatments, (2) gender-affirming care, and (3) readiness to deploy. A bit like how we'd never put pregnant women on the front lines, we'd be nuts to put trans people on the front lines when they need their hormone treatments or their gender-affirming care. This isn't to say I'm against such treatments or care—just that trans people's need for these things means, as DeVory says, that that need takes away from these soldiers' readiness to deploy. If Pete Hegseth is serious about increasing the US military's lethality, then you have to have troops who are ready to go at a moment's notice.
interesting if true
I saw this comment on Instapundit:
Trump really found the weakness in the American media system. He moves fast, so all the days of criticism and reactions to criticisms and then lawsuits—they are soooo behind the tempo. Democrats are screaming about slowing down so the Left Media can spend days and weeks attacking something; meanwhile, Trump has moved on and the results and facts speak for themselves and moot out so much of the stuff from before.
Can he keep up the breakneck pace for four years? As Tyrell says in "Blade Runner": The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long. Or maybe Trump will be Joan Baez.
now on my sidebar
Let me get my self-pitying whine on:
Given the utter non-reaction to my first-ever home video done on iMovie, I know no one actually cares about this, and further, I know we're all pretty apathetic about blog sidebars, anyway (who needs 'em? who uses 'em aside from the bloggers themselves?), but all the same, I've created a new sidebar category where I'll collect links to the posts I do featuring new video/photo projects. This will likely be among the last of the major things I blog as I eventually migrate to Squarespace (probably by the end of July). So consult the sidebar if you want. Or don't. It's always been up to you.
"The French Connection": review
 |
| So young: (L) a 1971-era Roy Scheider as Cloudy, and (R) Gene Hackman as a hard-bitten Popeye Doyle |
I rewatched a classic from the early 1970s: 1971's "The French Connection," a bleak detective drama directed by William Friedkin ("The Exorcist"—how have I never reviewed this?) and starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, Fernando Rey, Tony Lo Bianco, Marcel Bozzuffi, Frédéric de Pasquale, Bill Hickman, and Arlene Farber. The movie is based on a non-fiction book by Robin Moore also titled The French Connection. The last time I saw this movie, I was just a kid in either junior high or very early high school; I had no idea what was going on, and I certainly wasn't fluent in French at that point in my life. Now, all of these decades later, I'm old enough to get the plot and to understand the French.
"The French Connection" takes its time in bringing our main characters together in New York: initially, the story is split between (1) detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and his partner Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Scheider) in New York City and (2) drug-dealing bigwig Alain Charnier (Rey, speaking French with a strong accent) in the port city of Marseille, arranging a deal that will require the transport of millions of dollars of heroin across the Atlantic to the States. Charnier's reliable henchman/hit man is Pierre Nicoli (Bozzuffi); we initially see Nicoli take down a French detective in Marseille. Charnier and Nicoli are to come to the States via the same boat that is carrying French movie star Henri Devereaux (de Pasquale), who has no idea that the land yacht he's transporting across the ocean (he's traveling by boat to avoid phone calls; this is way before the era of cell phones) is already loaded with the heroin for the US-French deal. Devereaux is helping Charnier, but he doesn't know details. Charnier's Stateside contacts are Sal Boca (Lo Bianco), his young wife Angie (Farber), and big-time lawyer/buyer Joel Weinstock (Harold Gary). The characters all converge in New York City.
Popeye Doyle has had hunches fail him before, and one bad hunch led to the death of another cop. He nevertheless becomes unshakably convinced that a huge drug deal is about to go down in his city. As he begins following tenuous leads up the food chain, he realizes that Boca, the small fry, can lead him to Weinstock. Once Charnier is on American shores, Popeye begins to follow the Frenchman, too, but Charnier is too savvy not to notice the attention; he and Doyle play a game of cat and mouse, with Charnier's henchman at one point doing his best to kill Popeye (you may remember the classic car-versus-subway chase for which the film is renowned). Popeye, at one point, manages to get hold of Henri Devereaux's huge car (in the 70s, all of the cars were huge, really), but after having it ripped apart, he's unable to find any evidence of drugs until his partner Cloudy realizes that the car's factory weight and its weight in Marseille are different by 120 pounds—with that same difference being reflected at the New York chop shop where the car is being taken apart. In other words: the drugs must still be hidden in the car. Energized, Popeye orders the rocker panels to be ripped out, and sure enough, they finally find the drugs—over $80 million worth. With the original car destroyed by its disassembly, a twin is found, and the drugs are placed back in the equivalent hiding place to allow the drug transaction to go down. The criminals apparently suspect nothing: they have no idea the cops now have definitive proof of the hidden drugs. Things come to a head when the police track the criminal parties down to where their international deal is to take place: on Wards Island in an abandoned factory complex. Police and FBI surround the criminals, have a gun battle, and try to chase the bad guys down, but Charnier himself gets away while Sal Boca is killed. Popeye accidentally kills one of the feds (Hickman); with the failure of the operation to net any big fish, Popeye and Cloudy are transferred out of Narcotics and reassigned elsewhere. It's not that Popeye's hunch had been bad: it's how the joint police-federal operation played out, with one fed dead and no prominent criminals caught. Of the criminals who did get arrested, we learn that most of them received little to no punishment.
I had serious questions about the story. Let's put aside the 70s-era racism and police brutality; most cop dramas of the period weren't shy about portraying lawmen as perpetually pissed off and not hiding it. Look at the Dirty Harry films of the time. Instead, let's concentrate on two major story problems: first, why did the cops put the heroin back in the car instead of impounding the drugs right away? The only answer I can think of is that they wanted the deal to go down so they could catch every party in a large dragnet. This makes little sense, though: they could have packed the car with fake heroin. Sure, it would have been discovered since the bad guys had brought along a crooked scientist as a purity tester, but this would only have prompted one side to shoot the other, making the criminals do the authorities' dirty work for them. Second: when Charnier tries to drive away, he finds himself facing a police blockade on only one side of the bridge he's on. He is thus able to turn his car around, flee back to the factory complex, abandon his car, and literally just run away from the ensuing gunfight. If this is a faithful portrayal of what happened in Robin Moore's book, then I'd have to say the feds and the New York police were abysmally stupid and utterly inept when it came to tactics. They didn't think to block the other side of the bridge once Charnier's car was halfway across? These two story problems took me almost completely out of the narrative.
Otherwise, the quality of the acting is fine. Hackman and Scheider both take to their roles with aplomb as, respectively, a jaded, slobbish, cynical cop and his cleaner-cut-yet-faithful partner. (Four years later, in 1975, Scheider would catapult to fame in "Jaws.") Having not seen "The French Connection" in decades, but remembering that Popeye accidentally shoots someone, I spent most of the movie convinced that Scheider's Cloudy would be the one to get gunned down in a moment of cosmic irony. The trope of the younger, loyal, earnest, ill-fated partner has been done to death by now. But Cloudy survives to the end: it's Agent Mulderig (Hickman), the asshole who kept busting Popeye's balls about having once gotten a good cop killed, who ends up buying it when Popeye mistakenly thinks Mulderig is Charnier. Charnier, meanwhile, is played by the actor Fernando Rey, who is Spanish. Rey speaks French for most of the movie, and he delivers his lines very clearly and correctly, as if he were comfortable with the language, but the adult me picked up on the fact that his French had a very heavy accent (I had to look up who he was to realize his accent was Spanish). Aside from that annoying quirk—that the filmmakers were trying to pass Rey off as a native-French character when he could have been rewritten to be an immigrant—Rey's Charnier makes for an excellent counterpart to Popeye Doyle. One of the great pleasures of "The French Connection" is watching these two spar. At first, we're not even sure whether Charnier knows he's being surveilled by Popeye, but as time goes on, it becomes painfully obvious that he's known from the beginning.
70s-era films didn't always have neat conclusions and happy endings. Whether the country was aware of this or not, the 70s ended up being an awkward, tacky bridge period between the agitated Sixties and the maniacally happy, artificially pastel-colored Eighties. "The French Connection," which came out in 1971, was consistent with the changing Zeitgeist. The movie portrays a grimy, hopeless, trash-strewn New York City full of racist cops who are, impossibly, the good guys of the story. Black characters in the movie serve as little more than background punching bags, and cops fling around terms like "dumb spic" and "greaser" as they interact with or talk about various ethnicities. Part of the problem may be the pervasiveness of the PC lens through which we see things these days, but part of the problem could well be that things really were as bad, back then, as Hollywood portrayed them. That said, I hope today's society doesn't try to hide or whitewash (what a term) these old movies. I also have to wonder why I find the racism of Hackman's character, Popeye Doyle, so repugnant while I easily give Clint Eastwood's various policemen and crotchety old men a pass. Maybe it really is all in the delivery. Or maybe, despite the fact that Gene Hackman was always a better actor than Eastwood, Eastwood adopted an ironic pose more naturally than Hackman ever did. Any racist thing uttered by an Eastwood character is thus guaranteed to be freighted with layers of self-subverting meaning or, at least, a good measure of irony. In this movie, Hackman's Popeye just comes off as a nasty brute, especially whenever he interacts with black people.
"The French Connection" still hits hard even today; it must be a Friedkin film. The language is a bit dated ("pick your toes in Poughkeepsie"), but it's still rough and raw; the no-holds-barred portrayal of New York City as a collapsing shithole feels apt; the movie's musical soundtrack is scarce almost to the point of nonexistence, with long silences; but the movie retains its gritty, rough-edged charm despite the aforementioned major story problems. William Friedkin's cold, stark direction revokes any notion or hope of comfort, and the story ends in such a way as to confirm that any justice won't come until the afterlife. Like Friedkin's later film "The Exorcist," this movie affirms that this realm here below is a hell, and dark powers freely roam it. That said, I think I'd recommend "The French Connection" more for its cultural significance than for its story or entertainment value. It's definitely watchable, but it's also far from perfect—uncomfortably similar to Popeye Doyle himself.
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