The French Connection

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Popeye Doyle: All right, Popeye's here! Get your hands on your heads, get off the bar, and get on the wall!

The tale of NYC cop "Popeye" Doyle and his partner, "Cloudy" Russo. One day, they stumble upon a huge shipment of heroin from France. The trail leads to notorious drug kingpin, Alain Charnier. Car chases ensue.

A classic piece of seventies Hollywood cinema, The French Connection made a star of Gene Hackman and also starred Roy Scheider. Based on the true story of the two cops who would stop the drug trafficking between France and the US, it was a huge success, both financially and critically. The film won many Academy Awards, for Best Film Editing, Best Actor (Hackman), Best Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture. Thus it would come close to winning the Big Five, but lacked a female main character.

A Spiritual Successor, The Seven-Ups, was released in 1973, starring Roy Scheider as another New York City cop leading a special organized crime task force. It had the same producer and composer of The French Connection and also had a high speed car chase. A sequel, French Connection II, came out in 1975 which has "Popeye" Doyle traveling to Marseilles in pursuit of Charnier, finding himself a Fish Out of Water in the French city, and being forced into heroin addiction by Charnier's henchmen. Unlike the original, the sequel's plot is entirely fictional. Then there was Popeye Doyle, a 1986 Made for TV Movie featuring Ed O'Neill in the title role.

Tropes used in The French Connection include: