Tools of Characterization

Characterization in The French Connection

Characterization: Occupation

Cops & Robbers

In a police drama, you're either with the cops or against them, and what you do for a living has everything to do with what side of the fence you're on.

The Boys in Blue Are Blue

As Narcotics Unit detectives, Popeye and Cloudy are being asked not only to clean up the streets joint-by-joint, but also to find the source of the drugs flooding the urban market. That's crazy-stressful. The streets are gross, and the people that hang out on those streets (including the cops) are just as gross.

Do you like drinking whiskey for breakfast and cold coffee for dinner? Hey—maybe being a narco circa 1970 is for you!

(Really) Organized Crime

For the criminals, it's all about power. While Sal is a small-timer looking to make a big score, Joel Weinstock is an experienced money man who lives in a fancy building and is already living the high life.

And then there's Charnier. Charnier has ambition: he is building an empire and has connections across the world. Lou or Angie Boca? They're the supporting cast, destined to do a little a jail time and keep on living, their parts only small pieces of the Charniers of the world's schemes. We learn about characters based on their investment, and what they have to lose.

Characterization: Names

Nicknames Versus Codenames

You think your nickname is bad? At least you don't have to go around your workplace being called "Cricket" or "Claire Bear" or "Pookie Pie." (We hope.)

This puts you way ahead of Popeye and Cloudy, two grown men who have to exist day-to-day being called, well, Popeye and Cloudy. No wonder they're rageaholics.

And it's not just fiction. "Popeye" and "Cloudy" were the code names of the real-life counterparts. As we cover in Cloudy's Character Analysis, the IRL Cloudy was a pessimist, vulnerable and big-eyed.

As for Popeye? According to the writer of the book, Robin Moore, IRL Popeye was first nicknamed "Bullets," because he always had an extra cartridge. But by the time of the French Connection bust he had been given the name "Popeye" by the Narcotics Unity… because he liked to "popeye" around (apparently slang for "checking out" girls back then). Even though he was burly, turns out the nickname had nothing to do with spinach.

Characterization: Action

n action movie, it's not a mystery that the action itself tends to be the primary way we learn about the guys and gals we're watching. Since the movie is a cop drama, occupation has a lot to do with it, of course—everybody has their role—but the moment-to-moment decision-making is what teaches us more deeply about who these people are.

Here's a list of big and small actions that seem like they're really important to understanding the psychology of the actors. Try taking each one and thinking about how that feels true or false to you:

• Popeye not only takes the pills and what-have-you from the patrons of the bar during a sting, but shakes it up in a pint glass with water, saying "Anybody want a cocktail?"
• Angie tells an undercover Cloudy that she'll "model a blouse" for him, but not for anything less than two hundred bucks.
• Mulderig makes a hobby of giving Popeye a hard time, asking him if it's true that he wears his gun on his ankle so girls won't know he's a cop when they canoodle.
• Even though money man Joel Weinstock sees how jumpy and eager Sal is, to get the deal done, he still agrees to put up the cash.
• Rather than let the sniper (who we know to be Nicoli) get away after he takes aim at Popeye in a park and misses, the detective goes after him... even after the sniper hijacks a train in order to escape.
• And let's now turn to Nicoli, seeing that there's no other escape from Popeye's pursuit, hijacks a train. A train! That's some pretty crazy decision-making right there.

In such a quick-paced movie, it can be hard to remember that there's dimension under all that heart-pounding chase, but it can be totally worthwhile to take a breath to really think about the players in this story… and how their actions speak louder than words.