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One of the most influential movies in history, William Friedkin’s 1971 crime thriller The French Connection was the first to hook moviegoers on the then-new Hollywood drug war. It starred Gene Hackman as NYPD detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle and Roy Scheider as his partner Buddy “Cloudy” Russo, in pursuit of wealthy French heroin smuggler Alain Charnier.

The film has been a major influence on the genre, particularly in its formal elements. Director Friedkin’s use of a largely hand-held camera and cinematographer Owen Roizman’s austere, non-diegetic style are key to the film’s sense of authenticity.

It was also one of the first films to use a montage, which helped convey the chaos and desperation of the situation. Its most famous sequence is a car chase under an elevated train, where Doyle nearly shoots a woman and her baby before finally catching up to Charnier on the station steps.

Another important aspect of the movie’s realism is its absence of dialogue. While most cop dramas tend to be heavily dialogued, The French Connection presents long stretches of action without any words at all, and the score by avant-garde jazz composer Don Ellis helps create a tension and movement that elevates the proceedings.

The chases, though, are what really make the film work. The cops walk, run, drive, stake-out, and ride subways for much of the film, with their quarry afoot in almost every shot. They don’t brace their suspects, don’t interview them, and rarely do they even get to talk directly to them.

They don’t have to. Their quarry is a man who’s just as likely to be a pusher or an informant, and they aren’t interested in talking about their case. They’re just going to go after him.

In fact, the only time a detective talks to his target in The french connection hello ep Connection is when they’re taking him to court. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.

Despite being a neo-noir thriller, The French Connection also has an element of romanticism in it that isn’t often found in this kind of movie. The French Connection’s relationship between Doyle and Cloudy is portrayed in a way that could be considered an unrequited love story, but the characters have a good deal of chemistry together.

That said, the two men are not terribly close. Popeye is foul-mouthed, bigoted, and quick-tempered. He’s also stubborn and incorruptible, but he seems to be more interested in the money than in the people he’s trying to help.

If you were to watch The French Connection today, you would likely think of it as a very anti-cop movie. You would probably find the cops incompetent and the legal partners unqualified to do their job. You would be tempted to call it an anti-hero movie, but I don’t think that’s the intention at all.