There was never a movie star quite likeGene Hackman, whodied at the age of 95 on August 20, 2025. Hackman’s stardom was a miracle ofthe New Hollywood, a moment when audiences were hungryfor actors who more closely resembled themselves,as opposed to the matinee idols ofHollywood’s golden age. Yet Hackman’s popularity wasn’t just a function of his everyman looks, but rather the everyman rage that was boiling just beneath. His screen persona was solidified inThe French Connection,which won him the first of two Oscars and was successful enough to spawn a sequel,The French Connection II.Hackman’s performance as Popeye Doylespoke to the anger that was riling up the country at the timeand revealed the superpower that would make him a star for the rest of his career.
‘The French Connection’ Spoke to Both Sides of the Counterculture
Based on a true story,The French Connectioncenters on NYPD narcotics detectiveJimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Hackman) and his partner, Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Schedier). Popeye and Cloudy are in hot pursuit of Alain Charnier, aka “Frog One,” a French heroin smuggler (played by SpaniardFernando Rey) hoping to make a big score in the states. DirectorWilliam Friedkin, who at the time was best known for making theSonnyandChermusicalGood Timesand the big-screen adaptation ofThe Boys in the Band, adopted a documentary approach to tell this ripped-from-the-headlines story. Friedkin shot in the gritty streets of 1970s New York,utilizing handheld cameras and substituting wheelchairs for dolliesto capture a you-are-there reality. The film’s centerpiece, a car chase with Popeye pursuing one of Charnier’s lieutenants as he rides an above-ground subway, was largely filmed usingnot-so-legal production methods. That naturalism extended to the performances, from Hackman and Scheider to the many nonprofessionals Friedkin employed (including the real Popeye Doyle,Eddie Egan).
When it was released in 1971,The French Connectionwas one of many titles that upped the ante on cinematic violence,a trend that began with 1967’s blood-soakedBonnie and Clyde(also starring Hackman).Dirty HarryandShaftcentered on detectives who weren’t afraid to bend the law to catch criminals;Straw Dogsseemed to advocate for vigilante violence against home invaders and rapists, whileA Clockwork Orangefeatured a main character who gleefully invaded homes to commit rape; andSweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Songvalorized a wrongly accused Black man seeking revenge against crooked white cops.These films sparked discussions about the glamorization of movie violence at a time when viewers got an eye-full of bloodshed every time they turned on the nightly news to see footage of the Vietnam War.The French Connection,which won the Oscar for Best Picture, transposed that newsreel reality to the crime movie genre, but its most revolutionary creation was the character of Popeye Doyle, who felt more like a real cop than any played byFrank SinatraorRichard Widmark.
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Popeye Doyle, like Dirty Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) and John Shaft (Richard Roundtree), had the unique distinction of appealing to both the anti-war countercultureandthe anti-counterculture backlash. Doyle was a dirty cop, racist to his core, willing to shoot a suspect in the back as he was running away. This spoke directly to the “silent majority” that had sweptRichard Nixoninto the White House on a campaignpromise of restoring “law and order” to a nation that had been taken over by radical protesters.Yet at the same time, Popeye Doyle was a product of that radical left, an anti-authority iconoclast who did things his way, no matter what “the man” said.
‘The French Connection’ Paved the Way for Hackman’s Best Performances
The list ofgreat Gene Hackman performancesis almost too lengthy to list, from his ’70s heyday ofScarecrow,The Conversation, andNight Movesto his late-career renaissance ofHoosiers,Mississippi Burning, andUnforgiven(which won him his second Oscar).Many of his best roles were infused with a white-hot anger,even some of his comedies: just look at his roles as a flailing B-movie producer inGet Shorty, a staunchly conservative senator inThe Birdcage, or a rascally deadbeat dad inThe Royal Tenenbaums. There was always an indignant rage ready to boil out of him in these parts, even when he flashed a smile. One can hardly forget his career as a Navy officer going head-to-head withDenzel WashingtoninCrimson Tide, or his villainous turn as Lex Luthor inSuperman.But of all these performances, Popeye Doyle was the one where that anger was unleashed to classic effect.
The French Connection
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