The Connection (Shirley Clarke, 1962)

The Connection (Shirley Clarke, 1962)
Rating: 9.3

The Connection is one of the first low budget American underground films and an early documentary satire. It is based on a play of the same name which is a little too apparent at times seeing as it all takes place in a studio apartment and the characters take turns delivering long winded monologues. The film is about a documentary filmmaker attempting to capture a week in the lives of a group of junkies, most of which happen to also be jazz musicians and contribute to a great soundtrack. Jazz musician Jackie McLean who plays the sax in the film, battled an addiction to heroin himself. Clarke does an excellent job of distinguishing her film from the play and making it more free flowing and natural through stylistic intentionally sloppy camera work, jump cuts, and improvised dialogue, realizing the true potential of the medium. The film often appears to be in the form of cinema verite style even though it is carefully scripted as it captures the bebop counter culture much in the same way and perhaps better than Cassavettes's Shadows. The Connection takes a fairly objective stance on the subject, neither condoning nor glamorizing drug use. The film also comments on the nature of the filmmaking business as the documenter at first tries to force his own version of reality, paying Leach to keep the junkies high for a week, and insisting that they act naturally, yet directing them to philosophize or act as he'd seen them on previous occasions. The question is raised whether or not the filmmaker wants to document the activities for social commentary or just turn it into a freak show. Eventually the filmmaker partakes in the drug-use, taking his first hit or heroin, and subsequently succumbs to the drug as we gather from the opening title card. The film won the Critic's Prize at Cannes and was also banned for it's edgy subject matter and harsh depiction of drug use.