As an action/drama writer myself, the gritty cop action movie is always a favorite of mine. This movie is considered by many to be the finest in that genre. There are many reasons for that, and some of them should be examined by us screenwriters so we can implement and incorporate those techniques into our own works.

 

First, the primary reason this movie is historically significant is because of…

 

The Car Chase

 

Producer Philip D’Antoni, who essentially created the modern car chase in movies in his 1968 film Bullitt, improved upon his own invention by setting the car chase in traffic for the very first time in film history. Nowadays, having a car chase scene in an action films seems mandatory, and has even in many cases become bland if nothing truly unique happens, or even comical if they go too outlandishly far.

 

But the car chase in The French Connection is not just unique, it stands the test of time. Gene Hackman is not trying to catch another car, he’s following a subway train and needs to speed through traffic in order to do so. It’s amazing because of the realism and hard work that was clearly put into it. If you are going to write a car chase scene into your film, don’t do it because you think you have to. Because you don’t have to. Well, unless the studio who hired you tells you that you have to. Then you do.

 

But if this is your script, don’t just throw a car chase scene in there. Do something spectacular, but keep it ingrained and real to the world of your film, and make sure it is a necessary component of the plot line you are writing.

 

You don’t want it to feel like over-the-top extraneous fluff. A good car chase, when done right, can instantly speed up the pace  of your film, create immediate danger, and put your audience on the edge of their seats. All good things. But only if done right. Doing it right means that it happens in your story because at that moment in time, nothing else could possibly happen. The chase is natural within the context of the story you are writing.

 

But, you may ask, why was the car chase a necessary component in The French Connection? The answer to that question is the primary lesson for screenwriters to learn from watching the movie. The lesson of…

 

The Aggressive Protagonist

 

Too often, writers have their main character stumble around early in their manuscripts, and eventually find themselves in some kind of scenario that leads to a movie twenty or so pages in. This slow start will either bore or confuse the reader (AKA potential buyer) and boredom and/or confusion are the last things you want.

 

No, what you want is for your main character to have a quest. To have a very specific goal that he will pursue without pause through the entire film, while other characters either help or hinder his progress in every single scene.
 

Gene Hackman was absolutely the right man for the role of unlucky narcotics detective James “Popeye” Doyle. His Academy Award winning performance was needed, because of the demand of this well written character.

 

From the start of this movie, James Doyle aggressively pursues the arrest of any ne’er do-wells involved with drugs. Screenwriter Ernest Tidyman does not bother with exposition as to why Popeye and his partner Buddy “Cloudy” Russo are so interested. Mr. Tidyman streamlines our learning curve of who these characters are by putting them in action, not by slowing down the pace of this film with needless backstory. This proves an important point.

 

Backstory often convolutes the point of your manuscript — which is that something happens today that sets your Protagonist on a quest that he must complete before the movie is over. The only time exposition is ever needed is when the audience can’t understand why events on-screen are occurring. For most movies this is never. Yet writers feel that they need to put it in anyway, that they need to explain the motivations of their characters. You don’t. It is a writer’s conceit to think so, that just because you came up with this great reason for why your character does so-and-so that it suddenly becomes a plot point. That’s faulty reasoning, and usually results in sidetracking the Protagonist from the quest, which is nothing short of plain ol’ bad writing. So, don’t do that.

 

In The French Connection,  the time for backstory is never. Ernest Tidyman won a lot of well-deserved, prestigious awards for his screenplay. Keep that in mind while you are bogging your own manuscript down with flashbacks about your character when he was nine.

 

But I digress from the point, which is how Popeye keeps the story moving. I guess I should keep this blog moving, eh? Let’s examine Popeye’s actions.

 

After a “routine” bust in which Cloudy gets his arm cut by a small-time drug dealer’s knife, Popeye refuses to let his partner go home to bed. Instead, he takes him to a nightclub, and there they observe a table full of suspicious criminals, some of which they recognize. Rather than letting it go as 99 percent of the rest of the world would, Popeye aggressively decides that they will tail Salvatore Bocca, because he’s tossing cash around, and who the hell is this guy at this table full of seedy ex-cons? This is what makes Popeye the unique character he is. He has no idea if this guy is a criminal or not, but he’s going to follow him around anyway, because he probably is, and that’s enough for Popeye.

 

From this point on, he never stops chasing Bocca and his French drug connection Alain Charnier until the unfortunate conclusion of the film.

 

It is the single-minded purpose of Popeye that continuously moves the plot forward. No matter what setbacks he faces, he relentlessly pursues his goal. The only time he stops, momentarily, is when his captain pulls him off the case after two months of pursuit, and a failure to create results. But his actions have been enough to cause Alain to send his second, the assassin Pierre Nicoli to end Popeye’s life.

 

Which is another great lesson for screenwriters. The Protagonist and Antagonist must BOTH drive the story forward, and in The French Connection they both do. If your Protagonist is relentless, it forces the hand of the Antagonist every time. And that is good writing. You want the major external conflict in your script to come from the Protagonist and the Antagonist butting heads and playing high stakes chess.

 

With Alain ensuring that the timetable for the smuggling trade remains on schedule, and Popeye chasing every possible lead no matter how thin, much to the disgust and chagrin of the police and FBI around him, both Protagonist and Antagonist are single-minded in their attempt to achieve their goal. And only one of them can win. They are both great at what they do, and they both force the issue at all times. They are both unyielding. Both relentless. But especially Popeye.

 

And this is what leads to the historic car chase. Why nothing else but this car chase could happen, when it happens, and how it happens. Alain sends his assassin to kill Popeye, but he fails. In lesser films, the bad guy gets away or gets captured by someone else or any number of other scenarios happen. What we learn from studying the writing in The French Connection is to keep the focus on your main character. Popeye is shot at by a man with a sniper rifle. But instead of just hiding, he fights back, and forces Pierre to run for it. Popeye isn’t having any of it. He chases him on foot. He chases him like a madman. He isn’t going to quit, and forces Pierre into a no-win situation where he has to take over a subway train to try and escape. Popeye continues to chase him, literally stands in the middle of the street to commandeer a car, which he smashes into a thousand pieces while he follows the train. Nicoli ends up on the wrong side of Popeye’s bullet.

 

And now the real chase is back on. I love that there are no needless scenes where the captain apologizes and the FBI are put back on the case. No, in the tone of this streamlined, aggressive pursuit, we stay with Popeye and Cloudy. Its obvious from how the story is now being portrayed that the police and FBI are all firmly behind Popeye’s investigation. He now can pursue with their support until the conclusion of the story. He has overcome their initial objections and skepticism by forcing the Antagonist to show his hand. That is how a Protagonist drives the story forward properly in a screenplay.

 

Writers often miss the mark by shifting from one character’s point of view to the next. But in The French Connection there are only two points of view: Popeye’s or Alain’s. There are very few scenes that do not involve at least one of them.

 

The story is clean and focused because it is about one man relentlessly pursuing his goal. We, the audience, are on the roller coaster ride with Popeye. We understand him, we want him to win. We are emotionally engaged at all times and are never baffled or confused because the story is vivid but concise.

 

And that is the lesson for screenwriters here. Tell the story from the perspective of your Protagonist. Put him on the scent, like a blood hound, to achieve the quest of your movie. Ensure that all of the major events of the story are created by the actions of your main character, that he is the one propelling the story forward.

 

Don’t convolute the story with needless exposition or side plots that drift too far away from the main storyline. Your

movie needs to be fast and clean to be good.

 

This works no matter what genre you write in, not just with action. It is a rule of thumb that all screenwriters should adhere to with the exception of when you are writing an ensemble piece, which has its own different set of rules.

 

Most movies are about one character, and those are the ones that have classically and commercially been the most successful. For a quality lesson on how to keep your main character driving the story forward watch and study The French Connection.