Badge 373 [1973] [DVD]Robert Duvall (actor)
Verna Bloom (actor)
Format: all-region dvd (worldwide)
Runtime: 110 min
Quality: Digital
The real-life New York cop who inspired The French Connection was called Eddie Egan, and he served as this film's technical adviser. Presumably, then, he endorsed Robert Duvall's portrait of a bigoted, racist thug with a badge. Here Egan (renamed Ryan) is up against the Puerto Ricans and tends to shoot or punch first and ask questions later, if ever.
It's not unlike The French Connection in its equivocal stance towards its hero, though a chase with a school bus seems to mimic another maverick cop classic, Dirty Harry. |
