The Connection

source: The Connection

This is an arthouse drama about a group of heroin addicts hanging around an apartment in Harlem, waiting for their connection to arrive with the day's fix. The characters monologize about their pathetic lives, while a few of them play jazz music. The film is presented as a documentary being filmed by a director (William Redfield) and his cameraman (Roscoe Lee Browne, in his debut). Featuring Warren Finnerty, Jerome Raphael, Jim Anderson, Barbara Winchester, Henry Proach, and Carl Lee. Shirley Clarke directed this film version of a play which structurally resembles the later mockumentary genre, only without the humor. The subject matter and the presentation ensure that this will have little appeal outside of the arthouse crowd, as most audiences will find this tedious, self-indulgent and of minimal entertainment. I applaud the effort and the intent, but the end product isn't something I'd want to revisit.

This fine film may contain a bit of over acting as mentioned in other reviews here...but what do you expect from obvious non-actors, and obvious non drug users, but at least they got ppl who had been around the culture albeit the inner circle where all one would see ir notice were individuals who had gotten to the point their behaviors could not be contained. The best junkies are the ones who but once in a while are caught outside their own skin. But once again kidos for attacking such a taboo subject in 1961(!). Favorite moments are the nodded out "turned on"' director, the impatient horn player who has gotten to the point he has sold everything including the one thing that makes him whole-his instrument, and the great portrayal how the music changes once the players get high. Despite everything there are many many truancies in the connection's characters as every actor involved...like Stories of police brutality, Sleeping the day away, impatience waiting for the cowboy character, and many other moments that keep the viewers attention while not leaving the same room. Kudos. PS. Noone seemed to mention they figured out what was in/on leach's neck. Certainly not a boil. Try an abcess. Theres your spoiler. Cheers

"The Connection" gets some points for pushing the envelope for its time, but my goodness what a tedious movie it is. The end credits reveal that the film was based on a play, which did not surprise me in the least. It's set in one room and follows a bunch of junkies while they're waiting for their dealer to arrive so they can get their next fix. There's a movie director and his cameraman in the room filming the whole thing, so the film we are watching is really the film within the film. Each character gets a moment to monologue about something, but everything is delivered in the same sweaty, rambling style so that it all blends together and no one character is really distinct from another. Meanwhile, a few of the guys improvise jazz in the background for nearly the entire length of the film, which becomes insanely irritating about mid-way through. I think the idea is that it's all supposed to be so cinema verite that we aren't sure what's real and what's not, but the dialogue sounds so scripted, and the acting is so unbelievable, that we never for a moment are fooled into thinking this is anything but fiction. Grade: D

I don't know why anyone would call this realistic. It looks and feels like a play...the "acting", the overblown dialogue (almost Odets-like), etc. And unless you were a junkie in 1961, how would you know if it's realistic? And Sister Salvation? How could that possibly be real?! Noone is that clueless. It's obviously dated for many reasons....the "lingo", the lack of serious profanity, the odd discussion of homosexuality. Still, the film hooks you in...and I'm not exactly sure why. I guess it never really slows down. The camera tricks are cool, the band is great, some good dialogue. And the acting and characters are interesting, if not realistic. Worth seeing...

I'd like to clear up this jazz/heroin confusion (ignorance) that may stop you from watching this great film. Leach is the connection to Cowboy, and Cowboy is the connection to a dealer. The IMDb plot summary says that Cowboy is bringing "the connection" back to Leach's house, but he is really just bringing heroin. The fact that some of the people waiting for heroin are jazz musicians doesn't mean all jazz musicians were addicts, although most of the good ones were. With that said, I would advise any bee-bop fan to watch this film just for the amazing, and sole, footage of Blue Note heavies Jackie McLean and Freddie Redd. You will most likely also like the free-jazz directorial treatment of what was originally a stage play. The film also deserves credit for it's honest portrayal (in 1961!) of heroin addiction, neither glamorizing nor condemning it. The only problem I had was the slightly over-theatrical styles of some of the actors. Overacting did become the Leach character, however: "OHHH, MY BOIL!!!" If you liked "The Incident" or "The Pawnbroker," you'll like this one.

I first saw this movie in 1963 by hassling the cashier into selling me a ticket though I was under 18. I can't remember what I expected, but it was so interesting to me that I came back with a couple of underage friends--and got in again. This is a very sophisticated film not only for its time, but for now. There is no surprise ending or plot twist, but the use of the film-within-a-film allows the characters to relate to the outside world even though all the action takes place within one studio apartment. And what they have to say makes as much sense now as it did then. This is a film that could be re-shot with a minor change of clothing style and would look and sound cutting edge. While "Traffic", in its glossy, artfully edited, mainstream way, explores the glossy, mainstream life of at least some drug traffickers, "The Connection", in its gritty, black-and-white, hand-held way, explores the gritty, hand-held life of at least some of the customers. I would recommend this film for anyone who is interested in serious exploration of the drug culture. For people who think "Trainspotting" too mainstream--or at least too narrow in approach. "The Connection", too, is narrow, but it helps round out the picture begun by "Traffic" and"Trainspotting".

I am not a heroin addict but having seen enough and read enough I know that when you really need a fix - - it's like being tortured within. Now whether or not this movie intended to be in itself like a method actor and torture the audience just as the characters are being tortured by waiting for their fix, I am not sure, but in that it works, it is torture, it is horrible, it is staged, and the acting is over-the-top and too obvious. I sought after this film because it stars Warren Finnerty who plays the "Rancher" in "Easy Rider", and I was always amazed at how he was so good in that role, it didn't even seem as if he were acting. I had to see him in something else, and that something else is this movie where he overacts and does a Brando impression that was downright silly. I also wanted to see William Redfield who played "Harding" in "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", and in this he plays a square director filming junkies, and his acting might be worse than Finnerty. An actor named Gary Goodrow is also in the cast, and he's usually a comedic actor and he played a junkie like Paul Lynde would play a coke head. This movie needed a John Cassavetes or Vic Morrow or Dennis Hopper or Timothy Carey, and also needed to seem more real and to have dialog that mirrored real people talking, not a bunch of actors trading off monologues. It was like watching a bunch of method actors trying too hard to be real, and in doing so, it comes across contrived and totally unbelievable. It was like watching a troupe of actors rehearsing, and badly at that. Simply horrendous. The jazz music, played by real musicians, was quite good though.

This is a very difficult film, austere and hard, but after about ten minutes you can calibrate yourself to its rhythm, which is slow -- or, not so much slow as not fast, with extremely long takes in a one-room setting. The film, which is about a group of jazz musicians waiting for "the connection" (heroin) in an apartment, is essentially a filmed piece of experimental theater; it's very interesting, I think, and valuable for its honest portrayals of blacks (not all of the characters are black, but those who are are allowed to give equal amounts of monologues to the camera). The film itself, which is a product of the beat culture, is an experiment in subtle documentary satire -- the film is a film that's being made by a documentarian and his camera assistant; the documentarian becomes involved in the "film" himself by interacting with the musicians, trying to get them to act naturally for the camera by saying he's one of them, that he "reads" them. (The film is also a kind of Method film in the sense that the performances are strained and melodramatic -- the main character who owns the apartment has a boil that makes him scream at a few points -- and that everything is about the documentarian retaining emotional truth.) As the documentarian gets involved with the group (and after the connection arrives, with a female religious preacher in toe), the film feels almost like a public service announcement. It's a really fascinating document. 9/10

A director and his cameraman film the interactions of an apartment full of drug addicts as they wait for their dealer to arrive. When he does, the addicts persuade the director to try some, too, which he does as a way to gain a deeper understanding of their world. Eventually the high causes him to become one, too. He gives up on the film, leaves the cameraman to finish, and goes to join the other addicts as they sit there high and do nothing. I read about this one on Wikipedia yesterday and thought it sounded interesting. It's the oldest one in a big FF list, from 1961. Why not? I liked it! I think it captures how heavy-duty addicts get locked into a daily cycle of abuse. It shows the mood swings, physical neglect, the withdrawals. There's this feeling of hopelessness the whole film. Heroin completely rules their lives. What a sad situation they're all in. I kind of wanted to feel pity, I think. All the different characters were interesting and believable and it was well made. I do consider this found footage. The Director didn't die, but he became incapacitated (by the drugs) and quit and gave the project to his cameraman. It's close enough! Honestly, I could watch this again. It was good! I'm surprised by how much I liked it.