The French Connection

The French Connection

By William Friedkin

  • Genre: Action & Adventure
  • Release Date: 1971-10-09
  • Advisory Rating: R
  • Runtime: 1h 43min
  • Director: William Friedkin
  • Production Company: D'Antoni Productions
  • Production Country: United States of America
  • iTunes Price: USD 14.99
  • iTunes Rent Price: USD 3.99
7.5/10
7.5
From 1,823 Ratings
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Description

The French Connection is William Friedkin's gritty, Oscar®-winning police drama where two tough New York City cops try to intercept a huge heroin shipment coming from France. Police partners Popeye Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider) put a candy store under surveillance based on a hunch that something fishy was going on. Eventually it turns out that the proprietors are involved in one of the biggest narcotics smuggling rings on either side of the Atlantic, and the cops go to work. Popeye Doyle is a short-tempered alcoholic bigot, but he is nevertheless a hard-working and dedicated police officer. Doyle's nemesis is Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), a suave and urbane gentleman who is a criminal, and one of the largest suppliers of pure heroin to North America. As money troubles begin for the hoods they decide to kill Popeye and Buddy to give them enough room to bring in the heroin.

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Reviews

  • CENSORED!!!! DO NOT BUY!!!

    1
    By Jeff Edward
    The studio has done a vile and evil thing by editing art and history. This is despicable and unethical. Protest and do not buy until they change it back to its original intended form.

  • DO NOT BUY - Edited version

    1
    By devlinmgc
    While this movie is an all-time great, the studio has recently edited it to remove a conversation containing a racial slur. Obviously I don’t approve of the slur, but I also don’t approve of studios editing material to so they’ll be more acceptable to audiences 50 years after their release. The movie is the movie. Put a warning at the beginning if you want, but don’t alter it.

  • five star movie iTUNES edits this version!

    1
    By Clarenceson
    a few seconds when Doyle tells Cloudy to never trust a (N word) and when Cloudy replies he could have been white and Doyle says never trust anybody.... HAVE been edited out by iTUNES. this brief exchange, central to both characters is essential and thankfully still on the blu ray versions... SHAME on iTUNES for their PC edits!

  • Censored version

    1
    By Tony Agustin
    A shame Apple has censored this movie. The scene where the two detectives are bantering in racist tones before heading out to the Chez Lounge is gone. The edited cut is sloppy and I do not recommend buying or renting from Apple at this time if they are allowing the censoring of controversial films.

  • Good old school movies. From the 70s.

    5
    By Kenny calpin
    Good movie.

  • 20th Century fixed the transfer!

    4
    By Lance Smith
    For years the digital version of this movie was derived from a 2009 negative transfer that shifted all the colors pastel, introduced color bleed, and strange noise artifacts that made a good film unwatchable. Now thankfully, the digital version has finally been updated to the much improved 2012 transfer that is approved by both the Director William Friedkin and original Cinematographer Owen Roizman. It restores the films gritty colors and natural film grain that this early 70’s movie always had previously. Recommended viewing.

  • An Amazing Classic!

    5
    By Solid X 3000
    This is one of the best Gene Hackman movies I’ve seen and one of the best movies in general and really enjoyed the story, suspense, action, and the acting was outstanding. This movie was really well shot. 🤩👍👍 Now just got to see French Connection 2 🍿

  • DUMB DETEC

    1
    By CLUTCHBOR
    That is one dumb American (the cop) & the sad thing is his offspring are just as dumb & devolved yet they remain. Like giant Rats.

  • The ultimate gritty cop movie

    4
    By Furutan1
    This film defined the gritty detective genre for the next twenty years, hearkening back to the intense B-movies of the 1950s but with more grime. It also features an anti-hero who is definitely not likable, which makes it a perfect role for Hackman at that point in his career. If you are into this kind of film, this is the one to watch. Not only did this win the Academy Award, but it ducked more NYC permits due to its guerilla photography than any other studio feature film in history. Interesting note: The role of Simonson was played by Eddy Egan, who was the real-life "Popeye" on whose exploits the film was based. Egan's real life partner played the cop who was accidentally shot by Hackman. One other note: this film features the all-time most astonishingly awful string section of any soundtrack in history.

  • Terrible Remaster - DO NOT BUY

    4
    By Michael Zuniga
    As of Feubrary 2018, this version of The French Connection is sourced from the incredibly shoddy 2009 remaster, and therefore looks terrible. Plenty has been said about the bad picture quality, just search for French Connection 2009 remaster and you'll see. The studio has since done a new remaster in 2012 that looks worlds better, but for some reason the version on iTunes is still the bad version. 5/5 for the movie, 0/5 for the picture quality. Avoid this like the plague, buy the blu-ray.

Movies by William Friedkin

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