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The French Connection

The French Connection (1971)

tomatometer

98

Average Rating: 8.6/10
Reviews Counted: 47
Fresh: 46 | Rotten: 1

Realistic, fast-paced and uncommonly smart, The French Connection is bolstered by stellar performances by Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, not to mention William Friedkin's thrilling production.

100

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 0

Realistic, fast-paced and uncommonly smart, The French Connection is bolstered by stellar performances by Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, not to mention William Friedkin's thrilling production.

audience

86

liked it
Average Rating: 3.8/5
User Ratings: 39,351

My Rating

Movie Info

This gritty, fast-paced, and innovative police drama earned five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (written by Ernest Tidyman), and Best Actor (Gene Hackman). Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and his partner, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), are New York City police detectives on narcotics detail, trying to track down the source of heroin from Europe into the United States. Suave Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) is the French drug kingpin who provides a large percentage of

R, 1 hr. 44 min.

Drama, Action & Adventure, Classics

Ernest Tidyman, Robin Moore

Sep 25, 2001

20th Century Fox

Cast

All Critics (47) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (55) | Rotten (1) | DVD (38)

A knockout police thriller with so much jarring excitement that it almost calls for comic-book expletives. POW! ZOWIE!

February 20, 2009 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | Comment
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

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.

February 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety | Comment
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Popeye also earned counterculture points by mistakenly shooting a federal agent and exhibiting a conspicuous lack of remorse.

August 28, 2007 Full Review Source: Village Voice | Comment
Village Voice
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This 1971 thriller about a heroin bust is solid, slick filmmaking, full of dirty cops, shrewd operators, and slam-bang action.

December 13, 2006 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The French Connection is as amoral as its hero, as violent, as obsessed and as frightening.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | Comment
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

It moves at magnificent speed, and exhausts itself in movement.

May 21, 2003 Full Review Source: New York Times | Comment
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Hard as nail crime saga with a blistering central performance.

February 13, 2012 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Four decades after its initial release, William Friedkin's Oscar-sweeper The French Connection remains an electrifying achievement.

September 11, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | Comment
Slant Magazine

Exciting cinema that's not to be missed by those in search of a fast-paced, well-crafted thriller.

February 14, 2010 Full Review Source: Film and Felt | Comment
Film and Felt

well-acted, well-written and brilliantly directed film that could be recommended even to those viewers with little interest in history of cinema

December 15, 2009 Full Review Source: Draxblog Movie Reviews | Comment

Though it seems slower now, there's still steady movement. Doyle is like a nervous tiger on the prowl, one big itch looking for something to scratch, and Hackman delivers one of the best performances of his career.

June 7, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

Grounded in a gritty reality - and shot as such - it's still an action classic today that offers adrenaline-fueled pacing without insulting one's intelligence.

March 14, 2009 Full Review Source: Movie Views | Comment

The movie itself is unassailably great, featuring Roy Scheider and Gene Hackman in two of their most famous roles.

March 6, 2009 Comment
H Magazine

With its deathless car chase, Friedkin's film became an instant American classic... [Blu-ray]

February 22, 2009 Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | Comment

As you would expect when a Blu-ray release can't fit all the extras on a single disc, there are lots of special features here.

February 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment
Apollo Guide

Fascinates us in an almost perverse way, gripping us with its tension, thrilling us with its action, and troubling us with its dystopic view of American society circa 1971.

February 20, 2009 Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | Comment
Apollo Guide

When people talk about the Golden Age of movies in the 1970s, this is one of the ones that they're talking about.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs | Comment
Three Movie Buffs

Packed with memorable set pieces, tense action and a great script, this remains a classic cop thriller, and boasts one of Hackman's best performances.

February 19, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4 | Comment

William Friedkin's symphony of long, sharp shocks is memorable for any number of sequences.

January 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Time Out New York | Comment
Time Out New York

This is your typical cop movie with good performances from Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider.

December 2, 2006 Full Review Source: Oscar Guy | Comment
Oscar Guy
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for The French Connection

A classic crime drama that has a great cast and great performances from Gene Hackman, the comedy or liners from this movie are funny and it is a good car scene chase that is realistic but certainly not a favourite movie that id watch over and over! Its good but not that good. The story just seem to float in and out of

September 29, 2007
FiLmCrAzY
Film Crazy

Super Reviewer

What can one say about the brilliance of William Friedkin's masterpiece The French Connection that hasn't already been said? It's a fantastic cop drama, in the style of later TV shows like Homicide: Life on the Street, but it's also incredibly well-made and dripping with young director angst. I love Gene Hackman in

February 13, 2010
FilmFanatik
Tim Salmons

Super Reviewer

    1. Jimmy 'Popeye' Doyle: When's the last time you picked your feet, Willy? Who's your connection, Willy? What's his name? I've got a man in Poughkeepsie who wants to talk to you. You ever been to Poughkeepsie?
    – Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • French Connection (FR)
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