the french connection

I watched The Bourne Supremacy last night, which I thought was pretty good. I had heard terrific things about the car chase sequence, and was encouraged to watch the movie for that reason alone. Although I'm not usually a fan of "the action movie", I do like a good car chase. Still, though, I can't say that I liked this car chase anywhere near as much as the one in The French Connection.
I have to admit that I really was impressed with the chase scene and how they went about making it in The Bourne Supremacy. If you haven't seen the DVD version, rent it just to watch the bonus feature about the car chase. Pretty neat. But I still think the French Connection scene is far superior. First of all, they didn't have some of the technologically advanced things that the director of TBS had. The car was rigged to look as if Gene Hackman was driving, just as the TBS car was rigged to look like Matt Damon was driving, but that's about the only similarity. TBS was a much more controlled and safe environment. With The French Connection, they didn't even have clearance from the police department to clear out the streets. They just did the scenes anyway. They were able to control the traffic signals, but they were not able to block off the area. As a result, there were numerous REAL cars and REAL people in that scene. Mainly those people who lived and/or worked in the neighborhood. Every car in TBS was scripted , and every movement was planned and carefully storyboarded (but not rehearsed). In that unrehearsed respect, TBS felt kind of real. TFC, on the other hand was not given permission, nor did they give warning that they would be doing those scenes. The woman with the baby stroller, for example, was not supposed to be there. That was a real woman with a real baby stroller who unknowingly was on a film shoot. Almost got killed. The city bus they sideswiped was a real bus in service, with passengers. They took some big chances, and fortunately nobody was hurt. Plus, they ended up witha kick-ass scene. I also think it was supremely cool that a car was chasing a subway train rather than another car.
I dunno. This is just my opinion.

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