The French Connection (1971)

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

The Worst Film Ever

Great Film overall

A Masterpiece!

A great movie with amazing action sequences. The car chasing scene was the best scene in the movie. It makes me wonder of the effort taken by the crew to make the chase scene happen. I'm not sure how much of the climax really happened in real life, but it could have been handled in a better way and not let the main culprit escape.

"The French Connection" needs no introduction. Along with "Dirty Harry," it set such high standards for how a cop thriller should be made. The above film strives for realism and achieves this and more. Almost every camera shot was on location.The fact that "The French Connection" won major Oscars just about says it all. The film wisely has a documentary feel to it, seeing as the film is based upon real life events Gene Hackman became an overnight sensation in the lead. He was born to play Popeye Doyle, no one else could play that character. By turns, he is jolly, determined, obsessed and volatile. He has fine support from Roy Scheider, Tony LoBianco and Fernando Rey. A film like "The French Connection" benefited immensely from having technical advisors on hand, including the very two police officers whose careers this film is based. The car chase scene is one of the best I've ever seen. One of the ultimate masterpieces.

The French Connection is one of the best action thrillers ever made. The story is about two under cover agents who are investigating a big drug deal. The target was so intelligent and hard to track down. In order to obtain proper evidence against the target, the two cops follow him though out.One of the best chase sequence in the history of cinema was from this movie. The making of this chase sequence is so popular. Most of the incidents including an accident was real. One of the best action films that you don't ever miss. Highly recommended.#KiduMovie

The movie has gotten rave reviews since it came out and I never understood why. The 1970s were an amazing movie period, especially for big city, real life dramas and cop movies. But this does not hold up to the 1970s brilliance. The camera work is pedestrian and assembly line. The music is awkward. Ninety minutes of watching Hackman follow Sal around a very seedy NYC. I am suspicious that the movie was an elbow reaction to Blaxploitation movies of the time and particularly to Shaft. It has only white main characters and is brutally racist. This itself is odd being that the French were very ethnically progressive in the 1970s. Doyle seems indeed to be an anti-Shaft creation and all of the academy awards reinforce my belief that Hollywood was very threatened by Blaxploitation and by African Americans in general. The amazing acclaim it received from the academy seems to be overly eager in its praise and extremely over-rated to a suspicious degree. The car chase was just a marketing gimmick to validate the acclaim to mainstream audiences. But the plot is generally very weak. The racism is rampant and except for Hackman and Scheider, the acting is very limited. Just like the ridiculous nickname and the poorly worked bully act, the main character leads the viewers down several dead ends. I was genuinely rooting against Doyle the whole movie. Especially after the scene where his partner comes to his apartment to pick him up and finds that he had sleep with an underage girl. In fact, this movie reminds me of the many hundreds of weak NYC 1980s TV cop shows and I believe it probably was a template for them. The ending was just unbearably weak and unbelievable. It really should have been filmed in France and included some French actors, script and camera personnel. They also could have scored better music and utilized it more dramatically. There was some great music being made at this time. They probably didn't do this because, again, I believe it was only a Hollywood racist response to Blaxploitation and the mainstream success of Shaft. Cops employing obvious tails and staring into windows, bumbling, beating up minorities and living out of unmarked cop cars. It really just doesn't hold up anywhere. Unless you are looking for 1970s scenes of seedy Brooklyn, stay away from this one and watch Shaft instead.