Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle in The French Connection (1971-R)
By George Anastasia, Glen Macnow
We’ll admit it: The French Connection is a movie more about the cops than the bad guys. The film that earned Gene Hackman a Best Actor Oscar largely spotlights the exploits and foibles of Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle, a driven but reckless New York City narcotics detective.
But taken from the other side, it’s a damned good story about the mobsters. Popeye’s target is Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey), a suave heroin importer from Marseilles. The French Connection traces how Charnier tricks a naïve friend into smuggling a large stash of drugs through the Port of New York, lines up a buyer and attempts to put $32 million of smack onto the streets.
Okay, maybe we’re reaching just a little to call this a gangster movie. But The French Connection so vividly shows how drug trafficking worked back in the 1960s that we felt we had to include it here.
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