Cool News
William Friedkin calls NARC - 'The Greatest Cop Movie I've Ever Seen!'
Hey folks, Harry here... I've seen NARC, like it a whole bunch, but when William Friedkin goes out and calls it the best cop movie he's ever seen... It just makes me wonder if Billy has seen: FRENCH CONNECTION, TOUCH OF EVIL, L.A. CONFIDENTIAL, NAKED CITY, BULLIT, DIRTY HARRY, THE UNTOUCHABLES, ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE, TICK.TICK.TICK., IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, HIGH NOON, THE BIG HEAT, THE DETECTIVE STORY, DETROIT 9000 and SHARKY'S MACHINE. I like NARC - personally towards the end I feel it gets a tad too he said, then he said, oh no then he said, then what he meant to say, and oh yeah here's how it goes... for me. Up until that point though, I was right there with the movie. The performances are dead to rights great. The cinema involved is absolutely arresting. I wouldn't say the end buckles the movie, it just is a bit unsteady for me. These other films were more consistently great throughout, but surely you can add NARC to the list, which... by the way... FRENCH CONNECTION is still the best cop movie ever made. Just hands down, it rules. Here ya go with a report from the DGA...
Dearest Harry, a friend took me to a screening tonight at the DGA in LA for Joe Carnahan's brilliant "Narc." And afterwards, there was a Q and A with Carnahan and WIlliam Friedken, who started off by saying that "Narc is the greatest cop movie I've ever seen." This by the many who won the Oscar for "The French Connection" for crying out loud!
I just read Jake Ryan's review of this film on this site and I have a bit more to add.
To begin, this movie is my fav so far this year and the opening sequence is the most riveting and mindblowing I've seen since "Saving Private Ryan." Is this film perfect? No. Is it great? YES! Carnahan and his DP, Alex Nepomniaschy, who also did "Safe" for Todd Haynes have proven to be a serious one-two creative punch of a team. Amazing that they shot this on a $3-4 million budget in only 28 days. It's the way movies should look. I actually liked the quad-screen sequence much better than Ryan did. Carnahan mentioned that that was shot the last day in Detroit with a skeleton crew and Jason Patric carrying the actual badge that belonged to their police liason. The people that he was going up to on the street and questioning really thought he was a cop.
As Jake Ryan pointed out, Jason Patric and Ray Liotta are both very good. But I'd like to mention the supporting players, especially Richard Chevolleua, John Ortiz and Busta Rhymes. These guys are major reasons this movie is so damn good. Each just explodes on screen.
I'm not going to mention much more about the film itself. JUST GO SEE IT!
As for Carnahan, he mentioned that not only does he have his Harrison Ford project at Universal, but he also has a labor of love at Paramount about Pablo Escobar. Other things Joe mentioned were that the reason he hired Alex as his DP was that when they met at LAX, Alex helped Joe with his bags. Joe knew that this was a good guy right there and then. He avoided any additional looping because he liked all the extra noise that drives most sound mixers mad and that it just seemed to fit the cinema verite mood of the movie. At one point, the lab held his footage hostage for six months because the financiers weren't paying them. He didn't get to see his last 18 days of dailies for half a year! "Not even a vhs tape." You should've seen the look on Carnahan's face when Friedken said it was the best cop movie ever. He said that that comment "from Billy Friedken will be something that I will always remember, man. Wow, that's unbelievable." (I'm paraphrasing here.) He was beeming like a fanboy, annointed into the pantheon.
T. Azimuth Schwitters
-
+ Expand All
-
i was underwhelmed by it, fell asleep
-
Crossread with the bastard Training Day, and infused with lotsa Liotta.
-
"Has Friedkin seen The French Connection?". Well, seeing as how he DIRECTED it, then I'd say the answer is "yes". And since when is High Noon a cop movie?
-
Werner Herzog didn't sit around watching dailies all the time.
-
I completely agree with you about the Training Day thing, and so does a friend of mine who saw Narc about a month ago. Expect to get abusive emails from a guy who calls himself CutCheese. He REALLY liked Narc and gets REALLY mad when you compare it to Denzel Washington's ejaculation I mean Training Day.
-
Cheech and Chong's Up in Smoke - Stacey Keach was absolutely perfect. "Just how well do you know the freak with the basketball?""It's turning blue - this is high grade stuff, could be Peruvian Flake." Now that's more like the cops I know. In high school me and a few friends were busted, caught absolutely red-handed with a burning doob and a bag o' grass - and I watched the cop blow the bust - he didn't even know if it was weed or hash, made us dump it out (conveniently in a small pile that could be picked up later - and was) and let us go with a warning. He even tried to be all hip - approached the car we were in and said "Hey boys, I smell dope, I smell dope large." Cops - what the idiots in high school become when the flunk out of Chiropractic school - "Hey I can drive and I like to hit people and be told what to do." That said - Cop movies are way better than real cops - far more intelligent and interesting. I think its also high time we all just admit that there is no way we are going to see better genre films made than were made in the 1970s - Hollywood jumped the shark shortly before Staurday Night Fever - in an inronic post-modern twist, the phrase "jumped the shark" officially jumped the shark about four months ago.
-
Glad you mentioned that Harry as it is, for me, the highlight of the 1970's. That includes everything made in the 1970's and I thank my ol' film tutor every time we bump into each other for introducing me to that particular rollercoaster ride. It has the most horrific, yet momentous, closing shot in cinema history. A masterpiece, rich in it's subtlety and everything that the crass, but admittedly exciting, 'French Connection' is not - a damning indictment of America.
-
how did that get in there? Lazy, plagiarist film-making from De Palma, who had quite clearly 'lost it' by that time. Plus, Mamet was writing far greater material for his own movies - 'House of Games' and 'Things Change'.
-
Hey when someone is kicking in your door at 3 in the morning, who are you going call for help? Some of your dope smoking buddies? Maybe you could have a little tiny bit of respect considering that cops die in the line of duty every week in this country.
-
You put "Tick.Tick.Tick." on there and not "Walking Tall," I thought you loved that movie. I mean, everybody knows Jim Brown is close to God-dom when it comes to 70s films but still, one of the best cop movies ever? Maybe I need to see it again. Oh oh, "In the Heat of Night" is a better Southern cop movie in my opinion - sort of has a similar mind as "Electra Glide" in that it dares to question and prove the Hero wrong. Anyway, are we putting Cop films as a sub-genre of Crime films, I mean, "Asphalt Jungle" was supposed to be a cop movie. If so, shouldn't "To Live and Die in L.A." be on that list, especially if "High Noon" is on there (we're speaking in terms of whether a Cop film includes Law Enforcement)? Sub-genres, got to love 'em. One more, what about "One False Move?" Way underrated flick from the early-90s, directed by Carl Franklin and written by Tom Epherson and Billy Bob. I know a good many Aint It Cool folks probably know it but you gotta talk about that movie. Friend of mine saw it last week and he's a major Noir fan, "The Big Heat" being one of his favourite films and he loved "One False Move." I mean, he also knows about Cop and Criminal films, so I'm not talking about of my ass here. "One False Move" isn't a procedural like "French Connection" but holy shit, some of the best character writing I've ever seen. Little blood, but very very brutal in the way it depicts violence, it questions its hero and a femme fatale, one of my favourites ever, well, cause she's human. Check it out if you haven't before. And shouldn't we throw "Seven" in there? A movie that asks us, do you really want to know. Alright, cool, get some more cop movie talk on this talkback. Isn't this what this site is about?
-
Seven is good, but I'd have to say In the Heat of the Night and The Fugitive are the best.
-
What about Colors?
-
Dec 05, 2002 12:42:55 PM CST
William Friedkin is either one confused or brutally honest filmm
by cooldan989
Either way, it ain't good in Hollywood to diss your own film. Especially one that doesn't deserve it. And one that won a Best Picture Oscar.
-
....Yor, the Hunter from the Future the greatest Sword and Sorcery flick he's ever seen. Gee
I wonder if Petey has ever seen Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring??????? -
Dec 05, 2002 1:01:53 PM CST
Fucking Sharkey's Machine? One of the best cop movies ever?
by jackburton
Why? Just because it had ninjas in it, and ninjas always equal some of the best cinema ever made, is that it? I mean shit, by that equation Sho Kosugi must be the greatest actor who ever walked the earth. Only he's not. ******************************************************************** Your tastes are your own Harry, but man are they ever seriously fucked up. I mean I happen to like Sharkey's Machine, Hell I even like Burt Reynolds, but fucking Sharkey's Machine listed in a best cop movies ever list? Sharkey's Machine? I'm at a loss, seriously...yeah, sure, and next thing you'll be telling us is that Jar Jar was actually both a good idea and legitimately funny...oh, you already did. Never mind then.
-
Simon72 is wondering the same thing as I. And WTF is this quad-screen sequence that Narc supposedly does better than Ryan? And I mean WTF is a quad screen? Sounds like four shots on a single screen, ala 24. But SPR didn't have that. So WTF are you talkin bout, Willis? And The Untouchables represents when DePalma 'lost it?' I guess you would consider that over-rated hackfest Scarface to be his best. The Untouchables is one of the finest directed films out there. And anyone who disagrees...well, I guess they disagree with me.
-
Scarface is definitely one of the most overrated pieces of shit in cinema history.
-
Dec 05, 2002 1:09:33 PM CST
Guy, maybe he does the same thing I do when he watches SPR...
by iamjacksuserid
And that is to skip ahead to the Omaha Beach sequence. I consider the bookends unnecessary.
-
SUPERFUZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
-
Oh, relax - you're so uppity. Being a cop is voluntary last time I checked, they're not martyrs - its just like every other job - some are good, some are bad, and some should have stuck to painting. Cops being killed on duty is one of the more oft missappiled statistics - Fire fighters, people who work in meat processing plants, convenience store workers and fast food employees get killed more on the job. There really isn't another job out there though that offers as much power to an individual than policework - and you have to take, what a six week course? Cops deserve respect as much as anyone else - no more, no less. The cop that came to my door at 4 in the morning after I had been broken into and had been ripped off basically accused me of engineering the whole thing for insurance money. I think that's pretty standard.
-
Ok. Im not uppity. Also Im friends with some cops here where I live and this is the training they go through: 6 weeks with the dept. training officer, 12 weeks riding with older, more experienced officers, and a 15 week academy. Not to mention that they have to pass numerous tests (including lie detector) to get hired. Now this is in a city of 50,000 so obviously its going to vary from town to town. But I bet its pretty representativc. Also Im curious where you get your statistics from. A Shelby County Deputy (Memphis TN) was killed yesterday in the line of duty. I really cant remember the last time I heard of anyone working at Taco Bell taking one for the team. The only guys that compete with cops for risk are firefighters. And Im also just talking about death, Im not talking about all the risky stuff they respond too, and all the strain it places on their personal lives. And they do all this while a great many people sneer at them and make fun, as if a simple "Thank you" is just too much trouble. Guess its not "cool" to think of a cop that way but maybe things look different when your not looking through a haze of bong water.
-
No, actually it's true, fast-food workers really do die on the job more than any other profession. That is an absolute fact, validated by legitimate studies. For more information, read Fast Food Nation.
-
those blond chicks and their TITS....leave it to Speilberg, the gentile-loving Jew.
-
OK fine, its a thankless job where all the cops are really heroes and they all die to keep me safe and sound from the monsters that roam our streets. jeez, you make it sound like all these people are so special - its a tough job, like so many others that don't seem to warrant so much fucking drama - yet they all want to be cops, want to get into the dangerous situations - its voluntary, so shitcan this whole salute your local poilce crap. Its a service, I'm glad they're there - I just wish they'd stop shooting people instead of running after them. Cops kill a lot of people - but that's OK, I'm 100% sure they were all bad. Where do I get my stats from? Well, I look them up - but things might look different from, uh, inside a... brown... shell... numbered r113....
-
If Friedkin would have said "This is the best cop movie ever...uhh except the one I made." He'd sound like a dick. Also Weedy, I'm with you, for the most part cops suck.
-
... "Clockers," but I'm a big Spike Lee fan. Great acting, and the bleached film, the teetering on the edge of right and wrong. Spike Lee is easily one of the most underappreciated directors of the past two decades. "Summer of Sam" is trashy but it is about trash, it is sort of a film that goes down to the level of those it is portraying. And that film stock was fucking greasy, you could feel it, like the sleaze was rubbing off. He's really matured and turned into a no-holds-barred director and yes, "Do the Right Thing" is any amazing piece of American cinemna but by glazing over the rest of his films as inferior is like saying that Scorsese hasn't put out anything decent since "Raging Bull." Whatever, discuss on.
-
Got to agree with Nordling; Se7en is the best cop movie I've seen. Not least because of its brave, bleak ending. It is dramatically perfect, playing with the audiences expectations throughout, and delivering an original and engrossing finale. A Pandorian box of hopelessness!
-
Fred Dryer is the man......
-
Michael Mann's "Heat" has to be in the top ten of all time greatest cop-movies, period. If you're talkin movies about a cop, "The Pledge" by Sean Penn is the best in recent years.
-
William L. Peterson and Willem Dafoe in William Friedkin's "To Live & Die In L.A." If you've seen it, you know what I mean. Powerful stuff... really.
-
Classic Walter Hill. One of Eddie Murphy's best. James Remar and Sonny Landham are great. Nick Nolte rocks the fucking house. Jack, tell me a story. FUCK YOU. That's my favorite. Great dialogue. Great action. Just don't see it on TNT or TBS.
-
Jackie Chan's Police Force. Also, Copland is underappreciated.
-
I live in Sydney and went to a rerelease of 'Sorcerer' a couple of weeks back where William Friedkin did a Q&A and talked about Sorcerer and his other films.
There are plenty of great cop films- most of them from the 70's, such as Dirty Harry. But French Connection remains the standard. And the debt which Seven owes to French Connection is so large that it precludes Seven from rating as a top cop film. No one can do a cop film like Friedkin.
If you want to see some serious cop films check out the Aussie films BLUE MURDER (which is actually a 2 part mini-series about the corrupt police in Sydney in the 70's and 80's: Bob Towne called it the best cop film of all time) and THE INTERVIEW, starring Hugo Weaving (Matrix, Lord of the Rings) as a guy who gets hauled into a police station on suspicion of serial murder. The Aussie take on the cop genre will be very refreshing to people who are used to the American take. Enjoy. -
....William Friedkin is Sherry Lansing's husband. Sherry Lansing runs Paramount. Paramount is releasing this movie. Get it? And just for the record. I've seen this. And it's not better than a cable premiere piece. The only thing missing from this film was Dennis Franz. In fact, it looks like a poor man's NYPD Blue..shot in Canada. Which it was. God bless 'em. Chalk one up for the Hollywood hype machine. PS - Carnahan...can I have the name of your reps? I too would love to plucked from obscurity.
-
MITCHELL, hands down!
-
... come on! why do people like this movie? boring. boring. boring. the only time the movie has any life is during the famed chase sequence. and how the fuck does this jackass get the gun in the airport? and why is McQueen so boring? and why do i not care about anything that happens in the movie? lame. lame. lame.
i go with seven and the french connection. and if everyone's gonna throw out oddball choices, hell, i kinda like copland. -
Or start writing "Th13teen Ghosts."
-
As no one has mentioned it I must say that I personally would have Assault on Precinct 13 near the top of my list.. ditto Fargo
-
People need to stop comparing SEVEN with the classic 70's cop films. SEVEN really only has surprises for people who aren't literate in the influential stuff which SEVEN shamelessly rips off (ie French Connection). Clint can play a cop, Hackman, Scheider, Pacino, these guys can play cops. Brad Pitt really was quite crap. Morgan Freeman was good, but I'd always prefer to see him as the pimp in STREET SMART. Speaking of which, heres a great pimp story: I live near Kings Cross, the seedy part of Sydney and I saw a pimp blasting one of his 'bitches' the other day when he saw her sitting down in a doorway talking to another hooker. He yelled "Stand up you bitch, you look like you're on a fucking coffee break". Nice to see someone bringing some old school bullying back to the pimp industry.
-
heh... wrong button. Anyways... How could you forget Kindgergarten Cop and the Robocop Trilogy? Geez. And... Why would anyone want to do that with Mitchell, Joel?
-
Lieutenant. Enough said.
-
Busta Rhymes+ this line=brilliant
-
Damn fine movie. Violent, fatalistic and surprising. So when is it being released on DVD? Also how can you not love a movie scored by Wang Chung? Creamy 80s synthpop goodness, kids.
-
Brilliant French Cop movie from 82
with Nathalie Baye & Phiippe Leotard(heavy from French Connection 2)-Harry think before making up any more Crap lists! Also I agree Heat,Seven,Serpico in the top ten. -
I was thinking about it last night (because I'm a loser and I don't have a life) and I decided that Seven is definitely the best cop movie. I completely agree.
-
You sound like a fun guy to hang out with, but are being for real when you say you have just as much respect, if not more, for a fast food worker compared to cops? I realize during a robbery a guy behind the counter can take a bullet, and I've read Fast Food Nation, so I know in bad neighborhoods that it can be dangerous to work at an unguarded place with a cash register. But when one of those places is robbed, they don't call a specialized division of McDonalds that has a fully armed security force, they call the cops. I know there's bad cops, but for the most part, people join the force to make a difference. I have no doubt that the majority of people arrested deserve it, I've been pulled over for speeding, and I was guilty, I was knowingly breaking the law, I'm so much of a square that I actually thanked the cop for doing his job. When you get busted for drug possesion, you are also knowingly breaking the law, so don't get pissed at the cop for doing his job. Ok, I'm off my soapbox now, carry on Weedy.
-
I hope its like that
first -
William Friedkin is married to the president of Paramount Pictures, Sherry Lansing. Narc is a high profile Paramount release and...guess who is the only one in Hollywood who finances Billy's films???
-
Someone was saying the original Dirty Harry is the only one which rates. true it is in a class of it's own but let's be honest, there is no guiltier male pleasure than watching a Dirty Harry film (except possibly slashing up a prostitute and throwing her carcass in a dumpster).
The Dead Pool in particular features some of Harry's best lines (The 'Butcher Hicks' scene for instance ''He'll probably come down here and cancel your ass like a stamp!") as well as featuring Jim Carrey lip synching 'Welcome to the Jungle' and Liam Neeson as a bitchy film director.
Get back to me when you've sat through the whole series in one sitting. Otherwise you can fick my bick.
-
Have to agree with a lot of you " To live and Die in La" is the best cop movie of all time. When is it being released on DVD hell we need a special edition with all the trimmings. Oh my original point YOU LIKE COP MOVIES, YOU WANT TO PLAY COP MOVIES , YOU WANT TO PLAY COP MOVIES WITH WANG CHUNG PLAYING. Then play GTA Vice City its the best cop movie of all time and its a frickin game.
-
Dec 09, 2002 4:55:13 PM CST
"to live and die in L.A." is better than "the french connection"
by beamish13
"Cruising" was awesome, too, and that was another Friedkin cop film.
-
So you were so drunk that you couldnt be awakened from the back of a Taxi (which is a public place Im pretty sure) and the cops wanted to arrest you for public intox? But they didnt? Shocking! What Nazis!
Readers Talkback
User Login
Top Talkbacks
- Whitney Houston 1963 - 2012 -- 273 total posts 271 posts
- New JUDGE DREDD post production footage pops up -- 92 total posts 92 posts
- AVENGERS enemy revealed as pink boardgame pieces... You might suffer some form of elation... SPOILERS!!! -- 160 total posts 69 posts
- There's a STAR TREK video game that is going to lead into JJ's STAR TREK 2 apparently... -- 151 total posts 63 posts
- Does ‘SNL’ Rhyme With ‘Deschanel’?? Learn Which SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE Vet Hosts After Sexy Zooey!! -- 67 total posts 59 posts
- HANNA's Saoirse Ronan to boss around seven little people -- 60 total posts 57 posts
- To Commemorate The 3D Release Of STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE, George Lucas Wants You To Know...Greedo Shoots First!! -- 484 total posts 49 posts
- Here's The Red Band Trailer For Drafthouse Films' THE FP! -- 69 total posts 42 posts
- Friday Brings SWEEPS DAY NINE!! Gab Here About Tonight’s FRINGE!! Plus Einstein on TIM, Wiig On PORTLANDIA, MAHER, CLONE, GIFTED, GRIMM, SPARTACUS, SUPERNATURAL, GOLD RUSH And More!! -- 120 total posts 32 posts
- SPACE 2099!! -- 183 total posts 24 posts