27/04/2005
NEWS STORY
The superb 1971 movie The French Connection, contains many memorable scenes, not least the stunning sequence when Gene Hackman, at the wheel of a Pontiac Le Mans, pursues a subway train the Brooklyn.
Another memorable scene is when, under the direction of Detective 'Popeye' Doyle (Hackman), a drug baron's Lincoln Continental is stripped down to its bare 'bones' in the search for concealed drugs.
With the car totally stripped down, and nothing found, the rest of the team is ready to give up and start reassembling the car. However, Doyle knows that the drugs are there, somewhere, and continues searching, eventually finding them in the 'door sills'.
The fact that the detective continued searching, knowing that the drugs were there, somehow comes to mind when one thinks of the six hour investigation of Jenson Button's BAR on Sunday evening, and the FIA's subsequent decision to appeal the stewards' decision.
Note: In reality the car was driven by legendary stunt driver, Bill Hickman, who drove the black Dodge Charger in the car chase in Bullitt.