Popeye Doyle is the all-time NYPD MVP.

A five tool player, he kills feds, he gets other cops killed, he says slurs, hates all minorities (Italians included), and leads the league in nickel-bag narcotics arrests, black people harassed, and using his badge to get laid.

The power of great location shooting.

this is dirty as hell and the criminals are so sleazy I love it. there are too many locations that I would hang out in to count! I think that if I were living in nyc in the 70s I would totally have done shady shit by the docks

Man, I hate all the CGI bullshit these days. More movies should attach cameras to the front of cars and illegally drive them down major roads at 90mph. smh

I once chased an elevated subway train with my car like Gene Hackman (going way over the speed limit, hitting other cars, running into things, etc.) because I thought I saw Jerry Seinfeld riding inside. Turns out it was just an ad for Seinfeld. Live and learn

84/100

Cinema as volatile documentation, ready to explode at any moment. Its streamlined, relentless brilliance comes from its clear-eyed setup and the subsequent payoff of the mystery and those in pursuit. In terms of form, it's evident how influential all of it is. One obvious example is Mad Max: Fury Road, especially in how it throws an audience into an unique environment while never being told anything directly. It's all visual, shooting out gestures and clues but never spoon-feeding any information to the viewer. And like George Miller's recent masterpiece, The French Connection is a shot of adrenaline first and foremost, beginning with the prospect of action and ending with the elegiac aftermath.

The way minorities are treated in this is just terrible. Those poor French people, no wonder they're always so anti-American.

just can't get over how uncomfortably close Roy Scheider's name is to Rob Schneider

First viewing since high school!

Tough, ugly, and mean, like its protagonist. Love the movie's refusal to give you anything more about Popeye Doyle - a real piece of shit! - than what's in front of you. Love that it's one of the rare movies that shows New York City as it actually looks (wonder if the Safdies drew any inspiration from this). Love the gut-punch ending.

Crazy that this won Best Picture - and with a readymade Best Picture winner like The Last Picture Show right next to it on the ballot! I'm glad Friedkin didn't kill anyone while filming the car-chase.