Sunday March 23, to commemorate the late Gene Hackman, I’ll be screening the 1971 hit film The French Connection featuring the actor in his most iconic role as Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle this Sunday March 23rd at 4:30pm at Queen St Brewhouse. Directed by William Friedkin (The Exorcist), the film also stars Fernando Rey, Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, and Marcel Bozzuffi. Based on Robin Moore’s 1969 non-fiction book of the same name, The French Connection is a gritty neo-noir thriller about two narcotics detectives in pursuit of a drug smuggler from Marseille, France.
In Brooklyn, New York City, two police detectives Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider) witness a Italian-American couple at a bar with gangsters involved in narcotics. They decide to follow the couple on a hunch that a drug deal is being made and learn that a shipment of heroin will soon arrive in Brooklyn. As they continued to follow the couple, and a lawyer who is actually the buyer, they soon linked him to a wealthy French heroin smuggler Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey). As Popeye and Cloudy get closer to Charnier, a deadly game of cat-and-mouse erupts on the streets of Brooklyn.
The book by Robin Moore is based on real New York City detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso biggest drug bust in 1968. A record-setting 246 lb (111.6 kg) of heroin was found in a Citroën DS and smuggled to New York via an ocean liner. The rights to the book were bought by 20th Century Fox, and director William Friedkin soon became attacted. After seeing Costa-Gavras’s Z (1969), Friedkin was inspired to make the film with cinematographer Owen Roizman with a documentary-like-realism. Friedkin’s approach led to one of the most memorable chase scenes committed to celluloid that not only lasted for 10 minutes but also features a real but accidental car collision.

According to director William Friedkin, he didn’t expect a film like The French Connection to be a contender at the Academy Awards. However, at the 44th Academy Awards, the film earned eight nominations and won five, for Best Picture, Best Actor (Gene Hackman), Best Director, Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Roy Scheider), Best Cinematography, and Best Sound Mixing.

https://youtu.be/NChucHghVn0?si=xyH7u376Qvxu-Z_Y