The French Connection · reception & legacy

1971 · William Friedkin

How The French Connection has been received, argued over, and remembered.

The arc

A massive hit on release — it won Best Picture (the first R-rated film to do so) and made Gene Hackman a star — and unlike many early-70s winners it never really fell out of favour; if anything it's now the go-to exhibit for how gritty and morally murky mainstream Hollywood once was.

What's debated

Fans still argue over the abrupt, ambiguous ending — masterstroke or anticlimax? — and over whether Popeye Doyle is a great antihero or a film that's too comfortable inside an ugly cop's head.

Its footprint

The car chase under the elevated train is the yardstick every subsequent car chase gets measured against, and 'Ever pick your feet in Poughkeepsie?' remains a beloved bit of cop-movie non-sequitur; the film made fresh headlines in 2023 when a racial-slur scene was quietly cut from streaming versions, sparking a censorship debate.

Where it stands

A load-bearing pillar of the New Hollywood canon — the 'you must have seen this' entry point for 70s American crime cinema.

★ Did you know? The two real detectives behind the case, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, both appear in the film — Egan plays Popeye Doyle's own supervisor — and Gene Hackman was far from first choice: even newspaper columnist Jimmy Breslin was screen-tested for the role before Friedkin settled on Hackman.

Named by the director

Influences William Friedkin has publicly named — the director's own word, distinct from the inferred lines of influence.

Z (1969) — Friedkin repeatedly said Costa-Gavras's Z showed him how to shoot The French Connection — like an 'induced documentary', handheld and caught on the fly.
Costa-Gavras — Friedkin credited Costa-Gavras's docu-thriller approach as the key model for the film's raw, journalistic style.
Bullitt (1968) — Friedkin and producer Philip D'Antoni (who produced Bullitt) openly set out to top its car chase — the elevated-train chase was conceived as the answer.