Producer Philip D’Antoni was responsible for two of the most iconic chase films of the 1960s: William Friedkin’s The French Connection (1971) and Peter Yates‘ Bullitt (1968) — but as a producer, not a director.
Thus, D’Antoni decided to try his hand at making a film himself, The Seven-Ups (1973), starring Roy Scheider – the only film D’Antoni made as a director – which is uneven as a film, but contains one of the most kinetic and well-executed chase sequences in motion picture history. Some people like it even more than its predecessors.
As Michael Kabel wrote of the film,
“as much as Bullitt presaged and The French Connection ushered in a new era of violent, realistic police procedural movies, 1973′s The Seven-Ups took that gritty baton and ran with it, bringing a depth of character and dramatic pathos to its narrative that, by and large, those earlier films had little interest in developing. A tough and morally complicated story with a deep melancholy at its heart, the film isn’t just a copy or derivative of its predecessors’ more successful tropes (though it shares many of them), it’s also a more mature and well-rounded work of filmmaking. And for those reasons, many will find it a more rewarding viewing experience.”
You may or may not agree with this assessment, but no matter what else you might think, The Seven-Ups is an effective piece of action filmmaking, especially the 10 minute chase scene that highlights the film.
