Nano N
Classic! Love the vintage gritty NYC streets and contrazting French scenes. Hackman living the part of Popeye, rogue cop. Gene Hackman in great physical shape, attracting young broads when he isnt chasing a suspect on foot for block after stairway after city block.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/27/25
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Yash B
On a technical level, "The French Connection" is expertly made. The way the movie crafted chase sequences and shootouts is really impressive. I can see why a movie that is this old still holds up in that regard. That being said, I feel like this movie is so thin on plot, story, and characters, and it never really engaged me in the way it should have. There are intense moments but I wish the movie gave me more to latch onto. Overall, I think it is an okay movie with many good qualities, but it doesn't really stand as one of the great Best Picture winners for me personally.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/22/25
Full Review
David M
I'm pretty sure I'd seen this before, a very long time ago - but my memory of it was only the car/train chase and something about 'picking your feet'. I finally got to this long overdue reacquaintance in memory of the much missed Gene Hackman. What struck me most about Friedkin's brilliant drug-crime thriller is the economy of it - not only in the run-time, but certainly that; but that somehow it's a film pared down to essentials. Nothing is there that doesn't need to be; every element of the film has a purpose. That's in the editing, the cinematography, the direction ... and the economy of the performances, especially Hackman's remarkable central performance. A classic that more than stand up, it stands an object-lesson in thriller film-making and also as a study in obsession.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
03/22/25
Full Review
Stephen L
"The French Connection" is a gripping crime thriller that has stood the test of time. Gene Hackman's portrayal of Detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle is both brash and passionate, earning him the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film's direction by William Friedkin is innovative, particularly in its thrilling chase sequences, including one of the most iconic car chases in cinema history. The movie's pacing and stylistic choices keep viewers on the edge of their seats, making it a must-watch classic.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/17/25
Full Review
Ola G
In Marseille, a police detective follows Alain Charnier, who runs a heroin-smuggling syndicate. Charnier's hitman, Pierre Nicoli, murders the detective. Charnier plans to smuggle $32 million worth of heroin into the United States by hiding it in the car of his unsuspecting friend, television personality Henri Devereaux, who is traveling to New York City by ship. In Brooklyn, detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) dressed as Santa Claus and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider) stake out a bar known for drug trafficking. They later go out for drinks at the Copacabana. Popeye observes Salvatore "Sal" Boca and his wife, Angie, entertaining mobsters involved in narcotics. They tail the couple and establish a link between the Bocas and lawyer Joel Weinstock, a buyer in the narcotics underworld. Popeye learns that a shipment of heroin will arrive soon. The detectives convince their supervisor to wiretap the Bocas' phones. Popeye and Cloudy are joined by federal agents Mulderig and Klein...
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars and ranked it one of the best films of 1971. Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote: The French Connection "is in fact a very good new kind of movie, and that in spite of its being composed of such ancient material as cops and crooks, with thrills and chases, and lots of shoot-'em-up." Variety wrote: "So many changes have been made in Robin Moore's taut, factual reprise of one of the biggest narcotics hauls in New York police history that only the skeleton remains, but producer Philip D'Antoni and screenwriter Ernest Tidyman have added enough fictional flesh to provide director William Friedkin and his overall topnotch cast with plenty of material, and they make the most of it." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded the film four stars out of four and wrote: "From the moment a street-corner Santa Claus chases a drug pusher thru the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, to the final shootout on deserted Ward's Island, The French Connection is a gutty, flatout thriller, far superior to any caper film of recent vintage." Pauline Kael's review in The New Yorker was generally unfavorable. She wrote: "It's not what I want not because it fails (it doesn't fail), but because of what it is. It is, I think, what we once feared mass entertainment might become: jolts for jocks. There's nothing in the movie that you enjoy thinking about afterward—nothing especially clever except the timing of the subway-door-and-umbrella sequence. Every other effect of the movie—even the climactic car-versus-runaway-elevated-train chase—is achieved by noise, speed, and brutality." David Pirie of The Monthly Film Bulletin called the film "consistently exciting" and Gene Hackman "extremely convincing as Doyle, trailing his suspects with a shambling determination; but there are times when the film (or at any rate the script) seems to be applauding aspects of his character which are more repulsive than sympathetic. (Via Wikipedia)
"The French Connection" is on the American Film Institute's list of the best American films ever made and to a certain extent I can truly agree to that. The film is based on Robin Moore's 1969 nonfiction book "The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy" about real life narcotics detectives Eddie Egan (Who plays Captain Walt Simonson in the film) and Sonny Grosso. And their fictional counterparts in the film are New York Police Department detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo. At the 44th Academy Awards, the film earned eight nominations and won five, for Best Picture, Best Actor (Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Scheider), Best Cinematography and Best Sound Mixing. Tidyman also received a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award for his screenplay. It's a slowpaced dialogue driven neo-noir action thriller, but director William Friedkin makes sure that there's sequences that suddenly goes in overdrive like the car chase in Brooklyn, often cited as one of the greatest car chase sequences in movie history. I love that this sort of sequence comes from out of nowhere. This is of course one of Gene Hackman's best roles and performances as the hard as nails Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, a role he won an Oscar for and a role he will always be remembered for. Rest in peace Mr. Hackman. "The French Connection" carries a feeling of being a documentary at times and there's this massive authentic vibe that adds so much to the film plus the backdrop of a gritty New York in the 70s. I haven´t seen "The French Connection" for many years and I guess I was a bit surprised at first that the film is quite slowpaced as said which I didn't remember, but I adjusted to that during the screening. "The French Connection" is a classic.
Trivia: Though the cast proved to be one of the film's greatest strengths, Friedkin had problems with casting from the start. He strongly opposed Gene Hackman as the lead, first considering Paul Newman (too expensive), then Jackie Gleason, Peter Boyle, and the columnist Jimmy Breslin, who had never acted. The studio considered Gleason box-office poison after his film Gigot had flopped several years before, Boyle declined the role out of disapproval of the film's violence, and Breslin refused to get behind the wheel of a car, as Popeye does in an integral chase scene. Steve McQueen was also considered, but did not want to do another police film after Bullitt; moreover, as with Newman, his fee was too high. Charles Bronson was also considered for the role. Lee Marvin, James Caan, and Robert Mitchum were also considered; all turned it down. Friedkin almost settled for Rod Taylor (who had actively pursued the role, according to Hackman), another choice the studio approved, before going with Hackman. (Via Wikipedia)
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/17/25
Full Review
Michael V
Doyle is bad news—but a good cop.
The French Connection is a 1971 American neo-noir action thriller film directed by William Friedkin 🔫
Not bad, but not my favourite either 😐
Meh, it passed the time.
Just. 😐
👍🏼👎🏼
Tough narcotics detective 'Popeye' Doyle is in hot pursuit of a suave French drug dealer who may be the key to a huge heroin-smuggling operation.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
03/09/25
Full Review
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