The French Connection

It reviews better than it plays — admired more than it is enjoyed.

• “This tough, brilliant crime film features Hackman as the indefatigable Popeye Doyle, who passionately hates drug pushers.”

  Staff (Not credited), TV Guide Magazine · 100

• “There is only one problem with the excitement generated by this film. After it is over, you will walk out of the theater and, as I did, curse the tedium of your own life. I kept looking for someone who I could throw up against a wall. [8 November 1971]”

  Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune · 100

• “Friedkin's hand-held documentary style was the perfect vehicle for the film's pumped-up verite.”

  Andrew Collins, Empire · 100

• “An electrifying achievement, drawing its high-voltage forward momentum from the collision of semi-documentary procedural, with its based-on-real-events verisimilitude, and downbeat rogue-cop revisionism.”

  Budd Wilkins, Slant Magazine · 100

• “The French Connection is routinely included, along with "Bullitt," "Diva" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark," on the short list of movies with the greatest chase scenes of all time. What is not always remembered is what a good movie it is apart from the chase scene.”

  Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times · 100