The Brooklyn of The French Connection, the 1971 film, is a domain of heroin transport, bloody car accidents, and murder. The borough seems broken. The police in the film concentrate on narcotics, with the work turning grippingly dangerous (thus thrilling the audience). Surprisingly, the difficulty of the cops’ work is actually matched here by the difficulty of the crooks’ work: obtaining a particular illegal product. The product is from France. Trans-national drug dealing doesn’t look easy; it does look inevitable. In truth, crime in Connection is as grim as New York City itself.