The French Connection is a 1971 American neo-noir[6] action thriller film[7] directed by William Friedkin and starring Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider, and Fernando Rey.

The screenplay, by Ernest Tidyman, is based on Robin Moore's 1969 nonfiction book about narcotics detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso.

It tells the story of their fictional counterparts, New York Police Department detectives Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and Buddy "Cloudy" Russo, in pursuit of wealthy French heroin smuggler Alain Charnier (played by Rey).

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.

Title cards describe various characters' fates: Weinstock was indicted, but his case was dismissed for "lack of proper evidence"; Angie Boca received a suspended sentence for an unspecified misdemeanor; Lou Boca received a reduced sentence; Devereaux served four years in a federal penitentiary for conspiracy; Charnier was never caught.

National General Pictures was originally set to produce the film but dropped it, and Richard Zanuck and David Brown offered to make it at Fox with a $1.5 million budget.

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.

Friedkin had seen Luis Buñuel's 1967 film Belle de Jour and been impressed by the performance of Francisco Rabal, who had a small role in it.

[11] The plot centers on drug smuggling in the 1960s and early 1970s, when most of the heroin illegally imported into the East Coast came to the U.S. via France (see French Connection).

[14] On April 26, 1968, a record-setting 246 lb (111.6 kg) of heroin was seized, concealed in a Citroën DS and smuggled to New York on the SS France ocean liner.

[21][22] Henri Devereaux, who takes the fall for importing the film's drug-laden Lincoln into New York, is based on Jacques Angelvin, a television actor arrested and sentenced to three to six years in a federal penitentiary for his role, serving about four before returning to France and turning to real estate.

Director of photography Owen Roizman wrote in American Cinematographer magazine in 1972 that the camera was undercranked to 18 frames per second to enhance the sense of speed; this effect can be seen on a car at a red light whose exhaust pipe is pumping smoke at an accelerated rate.

Other shots involved stunt drivers who were supposed to barely miss Doyle's car, but due to errors in timing, accidental collisions occurred that were left in the film.

[26] Friedkin said he used Santana's cover of Peter Green's song "Black Magic Woman" during editing to help shape the chase sequence.

[27] The scene concludes with Doyle confronting Nicoli at the stairs leading to the elevated train track and shooting him as he tries to run back up them, as captured in a still shot used in a theatrical release poster for the film.

[33] 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.

"[34] 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.

"[35] 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.

"[36][37] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times called the film "every bit as entertaining as Bullitt, a slam-bang, suspenseful, plain-spoken, sardonically funny, furiously paced melodrama.

But because it has dropped the romance and starry glamor of Steve McQueen and added a strong sociological concern, The French Connection is even more interesting, thought-provoking and reverberating.

"[38] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post called it "an undeniably sensational movie, a fast, tense, explosively vicious little cops-and-robbers enterprise" with "a deliberately nervewracking, runaway quality ...

"[39] In his book Reverse Angle, John Simon wrote: "Friedkin has used New York locations better than anyone to day," "[t]he performances are all good", and "Owen Roizman's cinematography, grainy and grimy, is a brilliant rendering of urban blight.

These violent sequences are almost all presented racily and amusingly, stressing Doyle's 'lovable' toughness as he manhandles and arrests petty criminals, usually adding a quip like 'Lock them up and throw away the key.

The site's critical consensus reads: "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.

[68] In 2012, a new Blu-ray transfer of the movie was released whose color timing both Friedkin and Roizman supervised; the 2009 edition's desaturated and sometimes grainy look was corrected.

[69][70] In 2023, media publications discovered that a version of the film available on digital platforms such as Apple TV and the Criterion Channel had been altered to excise a scene that contains racial slurs.