Guide Note

The French Connection is an Academy Award winning film about two New York City policemen and their attempt to stop a load of heroin coming in from France. In the film, actor Gene Hackman plays the tough-talking cop Popeye Doyle and Roy Scheider plays his partner Buddy "Cloudy" Russo. Directed by William Friedkin, the film helped shape the urban crime drama of the 1970s, most noticeably through its use of a famous, extended, and thrilling car and subway chase sequence shot underneath and upon the overhead subway tracks in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. The film was based on a real-life story by author Robin Moore entitled The French Connection: A True Account of Cops, Narcotics, and International Conspiracy.

Fast Facts

1. Released in 1971
2. Added to National film registry for permanent preservation
3. Won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay.
4. Ernest Tidyman also won a Golden Globe Award, a Writers Guild of America Award, and an Edgar Award for his screenplay
5. Estimated budget: $1.8 million
6. One of the first films to show the World Trade Center, then mostly completed

Gene Hackman won the Best Actor award for his performance, although the studio had originally considered Paul Newman and Jackie Gleason for the role. Ernest Tidyman, who won the Oscar for his screenplay adaption of Moore's book, also co-wrote the script for the 70s hit Shaft. Friedkin won his only Best Director Oscar for the film, although he was again nominated for the award for his work on the 1973 horror classic The Exorcist.