The french connection

Johanna Cornejo
April 30th, 2009
Film Appreciation

How is Doyle (Popeye) character portrayed in the film?

The French Connection was released in 1971 and it is based on the book of the samename which narrates the drug trafficking scandals held throughout the 60s. The book and the movie were based on a real case of drug traffic in the 1962 were a gang was arrested for bringing heroin fromTurkey to France and from France to New York through the port of Marseilles however; the name of the characters were changed.
The main character of the story was Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle interpreted byGene Hackman. This character was created based on the real life New York detective Eddie Egan who led the investigation in 1962. In addition, Jimmy’s nickname in the movie: Popeye was Eddie’s nicknamein real life. On the other hand, Eddie Egan was also in the movie; he played a small role being Jimmy Doyle’s supervisor, Simonson. He also contributed as a technical adviser for the movie.

Jimmy“Popeye” Doyle’s character is a tough cop who will do whatever it takes to make a bust and who currently leads the NYPD Narcotics Squad. He regularly busts several bars so that he could getinformation from their owners about potential leads. This time, he and his partner “Cloudy”, driven by Jimmy’s hunch, are behind a lead in order to catch some drug traffickers driven. Jimmy’s hunches havebackfired before and even got a police man dead so they are not reliable for his boss. He is alcoholic, bigoted, overzealous and sometimes disrespectful with superiors, for example when he demandedSimonson to get warrants for them to tap Boca’s phones.

Throughout the movie, different patterns on his behavior are shown. For instance, it starts showing him dressed as Santa Claus as a cover to catchhis opponent however; once he caught them he is very violent, threatening and intimidating them using phrases such as: You want a hand broken? Hitting them and putting them offensive nick names...