The French Connection
“Doyle is bad news—but a good cop.”
William FriedkinCast
Gene Hackman 
Fernando Rey 
Roy Scheider
Credits
Written by: Ernest Tidyman
Plot
In New York, the tough and obsessive detective Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle and his partner Buddy Russo follow a hunch that leads them to a French heroin smuggler, Alain Charnier. The pursuit includes a famous chase beneath an elevated train. William Friedkin's 1971 thriller, with Gene Hackman, has a raw documentary style, and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
Sinekatalog’s take
William Friedkin's police thriller is raw, grimy and relentless. Gene Hackman's obsessive Popeye Doyle drives the film, and its elevated-train car chase remains one of cinema's great action sequences.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.
Ratings
IMDb: 7.6 / 10 (152,910 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.
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