The French Connection is a 1971 American action-thriller film directed by William Friedkin. The screenplay, written by Ernest Tidyman, is based on Robin Moore’s 1969 non-fiction book The French Connection. It tells the story of New York Police Department detectives Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo, whose real-life counterparts were Narcotics Detectives Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, in pursuit of wealthy French heroin smuggler Alain Charnier. The film stars Gene Hackman as Popeye, Roy Scheider as Cloudy, and Fernando Rey as Charnier. Tony Lo Bianco and Marcel Bozzuffi also star.
At the 44th Academy Awards, it won the Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (Hackman), Best Director (Friedkin), Best Film Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay (Tidyman). It was nominated for Best Supporting Actor (Scheider), Best Cinematography, and Best Sound Mixing. Tidyman also received a Golden Globe Award nomination, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award for his screenplay. A sequel, French Connection II, followed in 1975 with Gene Hackman and Fernando Rey reprising their roles.
The French Connection is considered to be one of the greatest films ever made. The American Film Institute included the film in its list of the best American films in 1998 and again in 2007. In 2005, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
Like, share, and subscribe to Grindhouse Movie Trailers for more of your favorite horror, science fiction, fantasy, and cult movie trailers!
An online archive of some of the best high quality horror, science fiction, fantasy, and cult trailers in cinema history. We believe that the trailers, teasers, and TV spots available here represent a lost art form in cinema. In other words, they just don’t make like they used to!