I never get tired of hearing this story. $1.5 million was a shoestring budget even in 1971. The actors couldn't have made much at all, but if they got a percentage of the box office take after the film's release they probably did pretty well.
i doubt they did. not one of the actors, not even hackman, had reached the point in their careers where they could demand a percentage of the box office. it wouldn't surprise me if hackman got about 100,000 dollars for the movie. that wasn't bad money for the time.
@@bearman9033 I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that that's the truth. I can't find the article anymore but I remember they wrote that the production had to pay a bodyshop to get the poor's man car fixed.
@@matt697n I mean the director talks about it a bit but yeah they paid for the car after the movie released but I’m assuming they would have been sued otherwise. Great movie and scene glad no one died lmao
Amazing...I've driven under the Queens el fairly drunka few times- its absolutely frightening-- did he say "90 mph"?? i have a hard time there at 30....and I was in a 70's ford similar to that pontiac lemans in the film
I bet the MTA employee figured he wasn't getting anywhere in the US and wanted to go back home and retire. $40k Corrected with inflation is $250k in 2020. I bet he built a house for $50k in Jamaica and used the rest of the money to start a bushiness or retire on.
Hickman was good friends with James Dean. Hickman was following Dean in his Porsche with a station wagon. About a minute after Dean and Turnupseed collided Hickman got to the scene. Dean was thrown out of the car and Hickman got to Dean before anyone else and Dean died in his arms.
Is it true that early in the chase when Hackman collides with the white Ford, that scene actually wasn't part of the script because the driver of the Ford had accidently driven on to the film shoot? I read this somewhere years ago.
robert tucker This is true. They didn't have permission to shoot this car chase scene. The guy that got hit, was just going about his day, & was caught up in it unfortunately. They ended up paying him to repair his car, from what I heard.
That white car with the black vinyl top was driven by a stunt driver, executing a planned stunt. it appears a few minutes earlier in the film, again driven by a stunt driver, as Hackman stands in the middle of the street trying to flag down passing motorists, and drives right past him. That planned stunt went awry and turned out more violent and spectacular than planned but ended up in the film. www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0603-Fall-2006/Feature-Anatomy-of-a-Chase.aspx the DGA article is a reprinting of an article Freidkin wrote in 1972 for DGA's Action magazine. In a 2000 interview for Mark Kermode's documentary, Gene Hacknam told the story of another collision with a driver who interfered with some other shot, so that really happened, but wasn't in the finished film. In the presentation of that story, the planned-but-mistimed stunt collision seen in the film is being mixed up with the genuine traffic accident that happened in a different time and place.
NO matter what it was a lot of money back then...not a million but still it was an interesting factoid about the making of a great film. Its also a great film to see what NYC was like in that time period which was more grimey and dirty before Times Square was cleaned up.
The average blue collar worker at that time made about 50-70 bucks per week = about 2500-3500 per year. He got more like 10-15 years and also money in Jamaica will last you far longer than NYC. then and now.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0713m2n Continuing with his look at Oscar-winning films and what they tell us about the society that gave birth to them, Paul Gambaccini turns to the first R-rated movie to win the Best Picture Oscar and one of the earliest to show the newly complete World trade towers. An early example of the new wave in American Films, The French Connection went on to win 5 Oscars and set both its leading man (Gene Hackman) and its young director (William Friedkin) on what were to become glittering careers. BBC Radio 4.
New York was nice and rough around the corners back then. In ~ '76 I used to go through the Holland Tunnel at about 114-115 mph at least...regularly. I'm sure plenty of other people have done the same and faster. At that speed it becomes way to dangerous to check your speed and drive. Up until the mid '70s there was far less traffic. It certainly wasn't right and down right irresponsible. "Youth is a grade of craziness".
Maybe the car did reach 90 mph at some point - although that sounds excessive even if the traffic was to be blocked. I would guess most of the chase didn't go much above 40-50mph.
If Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama invited rapper/actor Common (b. Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr) to the White House, why not his “Just Wright” co-star, Dana Owens, bka Queen Latifah. In the film, he plays NBA player Scott McKnight to Owens’ Leslie Wright, his love interest. Unrelated: ray beam attack; stone cults; watch?v=NhNoZcU0N20 or Common as Turner Lucas in Ridley Scott’s heroin crime drama “American Gangster”, which had Denzel Washington as protagonist Frank Lucas, the NC crime family kingpin
A few years later William Friedkin put together the breathtaking car chase in "To Live and Die In LA".
That is one of the best.
Specifically 14 years later
Both legendary car chases
I never get tired of hearing this story. $1.5 million was a shoestring budget even in 1971. The actors couldn't have made much at all, but if they got a percentage of the box office take after the film's release they probably did pretty well.
scdevon d
i doubt they did. not one of the actors, not even hackman, had reached the point in their careers where they could demand a percentage of the box office. it wouldn't surprise me if hackman got about 100,000 dollars for the movie. that wasn't bad money for the time.
90 mph over 26 blocks in a busy city with no permission. I wonder if they know how lucky they were that they did not kill somebody.
i'm fairly certain that when that civilian white car slams into the side of the car that is a random dude not involved with the movie
@@bearman9033 I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that that's the truth. I can't find the article anymore but I remember they wrote that the production had to pay a bodyshop to get the poor's man car fixed.
@@matt697n I mean the director talks about it a bit but yeah they paid for the car after the movie released but I’m assuming they would have been sued otherwise. Great movie and scene glad no one died lmao
@Briscoe17555 the stuntman was drunk, too!
Amazing...I've driven under the Queens el fairly drunka few times- its absolutely frightening-- did he say "90 mph"?? i have a hard time there at 30....and I was in a 70's ford similar to that pontiac lemans in the film
A gran Torino ?
Great storyteller.
I bet the MTA employee figured he wasn't getting anywhere in the US and wanted to go back home and retire. $40k Corrected with inflation is $250k in 2020. I bet he built a house for $50k in Jamaica and used the rest of the money to start a bushiness or retire on.
Bill Hickmen. One of the greatest wheelmen ever
Bill Hickman was in Bullitt too!
Bill Hickman was the best stunt driver I've seen bar none.
From Bullitt to The French Connection
@@rancosteelBullitt, French Connection AND The Seven Ups. The best stunt driver there ever was.
Hickman was good friends with James Dean. Hickman was following Dean in his Porsche with a station wagon. About a minute after Dean and Turnupseed collided Hickman got to the scene. Dean was thrown out of the car and Hickman got to Dean before anyone else and Dean died in his arms.
But the bright side is that transit guy got a nice severance package. Forty thousand in 1970 might have been 4 years pay for that guy.
Is it true that early in the chase when Hackman collides with the white Ford, that scene actually wasn't part of the script because the driver of the Ford had accidently driven on to the film shoot? I read this somewhere years ago.
robert tucker This is true. They didn't have permission to shoot this car chase scene. The guy that got hit, was just going about his day, & was caught up in it unfortunately. They ended up paying him to repair his car, from what I heard.
It was indeed a member of the public. If you click on the link that I provided above, he explains it in full detail.
That white car with the black vinyl top was driven by a stunt driver, executing a planned stunt. it appears a few minutes earlier in the film, again driven by a stunt driver, as Hackman stands in the middle of the street trying to flag down passing motorists, and drives right past him. That planned stunt went awry and turned out more violent and spectacular than planned but ended up in the film. www.dga.org/Craft/DGAQ/All-Articles/0603-Fall-2006/Feature-Anatomy-of-a-Chase.aspx the DGA article is a reprinting of an article Freidkin wrote in 1972 for DGA's Action magazine.
In a 2000 interview for Mark Kermode's documentary, Gene Hacknam told the story of another collision with a driver who interfered with some other shot, so that really happened, but wasn't in the finished film. In the presentation of that story, the planned-but-mistimed stunt collision seen in the film is being mixed up with the genuine traffic accident that happened in a different time and place.
It takes balls of steel to that chase in the French Connection,it was real, they even didnt even get a permit to that chase.
NO matter what it was a lot of money back then...not a million but still it was an interesting factoid about the making of a great film. Its also a great film to see what NYC was like in that time period which was more grimey and dirty before Times Square was cleaned up.
I wondered about how it was filmed.
1:57 90MPH for 26 blocks - no way! 2:49 something different - arrange train for car chase scenes
The average blue collar worker at that time made about 50-70 bucks per week = about 2500-3500 per year.
He got more like 10-15 years and also money in Jamaica will last you far longer than NYC. then and now.
Unless it's Jamaica, NY!
1:57, kinda looks sped upish, what with the really fast exhaust fumes, and you can see him stop in the scene.
Thats true but this guy was not a blue collar worker. Freidkin said the guy was the head of the transit authority.
26 blocks into city traffic going 90 mph an hour without stopping 😨
3:39 - :43 I’m thinking this movie might’ve prepared them for that.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0713m2n Continuing with his look at Oscar-winning films and what they tell us about the society that gave birth to them, Paul Gambaccini turns to the first R-rated movie to win the Best Picture Oscar and one of the earliest to show the newly complete World trade towers. An early example of the new wave in American Films, The French Connection went on to win 5 Oscars and set both its leading man (Gene Hackman) and its young director (William Friedkin) on what were to become glittering careers. BBC Radio 4.
great story.
New York was nice and rough around the corners back then. In ~ '76 I used to go through the Holland Tunnel at about 114-115 mph at least...regularly. I'm sure plenty of other people have done the same and faster. At that speed it becomes way to dangerous to check your speed and drive. Up until the mid '70s there was far less traffic. It certainly wasn't right and down right irresponsible. "Youth is a grade of craziness".
old creep.
Old 'murican cars could do those speeds?
RIP William Franklin
People used to take more chances and live life to the fullest
THE GOAT
Sure you have to go fast to chase frog 2...😎
Marcel Bozzuffi vs
Gene Hackman /Bill Hickman 🎩👍
This man is a maniac lol
albeit that that much considering what things cost nowadays.
2:20 - :23 I don’t blame him cause it’s too dangerous.
2500 t0 3500 a year would be many times more than that in today's money
Maybe the car did reach 90 mph at some point - although that sounds excessive even if the traffic was to be blocked. I would guess most of the chase didn't go much above 40-50mph.
I reckon it did 80-90 as he says, Friedkin isn’t a bullshitter
the queens l is kind of curved, isn't it? i thought the l in the movie was in brooklyn or the bronx.
That's the West End line in Brooklyn.
Mike Rowe sent me here...
Ditto.
Me too
Ditto!
So cool. Lol
Sup reddit.
Dislikes. Feel free to explain.
Sounds like he tried to take a Cracked at his manhood.
He speaks like Donald Trump.
They're from the same place.
A great myth
If Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama invited rapper/actor Common (b. Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr) to the White House, why not his “Just Wright” co-star, Dana Owens, bka Queen Latifah. In the film, he plays NBA player Scott McKnight to Owens’ Leslie Wright, his love interest. Unrelated: ray beam attack; stone cults; watch?v=NhNoZcU0N20 or Common as Turner Lucas in Ridley Scott’s heroin crime drama “American Gangster”, which had Denzel Washington as protagonist Frank Lucas, the NC crime family kingpin
ha, nice story. but a bit bullshit. 2.5 million budget was great deal back in those days.
+RivieraByBuick I think he said 1.5 million.
He called Gene Hackman "Hickman".
Bill Hickman was the legendary stunt driver for the chase scenes in Bullitt, The Seven Ups, and The French Connection.
OK, thanks for clearing that up.
Bill Hickman actually drove during most of the chase footage. Hickman was pure crazy behind the wheel and often drinking on top of it during filming.