Rating: 
Summary: Totally over rated!
Review: Why did it win 5 oscars? With a main character that never stops to think about anyone else. A soundtrack so intense it hurts you ears. Half the dialogue is shouting or arguing!Half the film seems to be set either in their car following somebody, or them walking about - still following somebody. The car chase is OK, but it's so long it loses any intesity it ever had! Overall it's an OK film, butexpect anything amazing.
Rating: 
Summary: "Gimmie this!"
Review: You would think that a film that earned 5 Academy Awards, including Best Picture of 1971 and Best Actor (Hackman), would have been digitally remastered on DVD long ago. The film concerns NY Detectives Popeye Doyle (Hackman) and Buddy Russo (Scheider) and their uncovering of a heroin ring that goes a lot farther than New York City. The action scenes (car chases and especially intense foot chase in the conclusion) are first rate. Hackman and Scheider are great as partners. I urge fans to push for it's ultimate release on DVD along with the French Connection II and The Seven-Ups.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely the best!
Review: Why do you think it won 5 Oscars, huh? Because, you had an excellent cast of two Americans and a couple of European imports, an intense director, incredible material to adapt, and a very good screenwriter known for hard-hitting cop movies. In the end, it walks for with Best Picture, Director (Friedkin), Actor (Hackman), Screenplay (Ernest Tidyman), and Film Editing. That is impressive, especially with such compition as "The Last Picture Show," "A Clockwork Orange," and "Nicholas and Alexandra." This film is an absolute treasure -- one for your library collecton of Best Picture films (like I do at home)!
Rating: 
Summary: Well-crafted but flawed
Review: The French Connection is considered groundbreaking because of its hard-boiled and gritty style, virtually unseen in crime dramas at the time, and the elements that compose the film have now probably become something of a cliche. If anything, the film should be noted for being the first to claim that piece of originality. But the film isn't perfect or as great as critics said because it does have its fair share of problems. I'll go with the flaws first. My main complaint is the musical score. It took me a while to figure out that banging sound in the background was supposed to be the score, and boy is it annoying. It really distracts and gave the film a less riveting feel than it probably should have. There's also the strange pacing, which goes from slow to fast at a moment's notice. There are also some confusing camera angles that give the film a semi-documentary feel, which sometimes feels appropriate and at other time inappropriate. The ending is also a little awkward, though my complaint about that is actually minor. It may sound like I'm letting the film have it, but there are a lot of redeeming qualities the film features. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider are absolutely superb and they create characters more likeable than I thought possible. There's also the famous car chase, with Hackman chasing after an assassin on board an elevated train above the streets of Brooklyn. It's an exhilarating 6 minute setpiece that ranks as one of the top ten best car chases in film history (The tops belong to The Road Warrior, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Ronin). William Friedkin can create riveting tales, and while The French Connection may not be his best work (I'll save that for The Exorcist), there's no denying the occasionally audacious successes the film makes.
Rating: 
Summary: Possibly the most overrated film in history!
Review: This movie is terrible! This movie deserves one star for the greatest car chase in film history & the other for Gene Hackman's performance. "French Connection" is very uninteresting & boring at most times. It is not an intelligent movie & the characters are weak.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding!
Review: Brilliant. Contains one of the three best chase scenes ever filmed (the other two occuring in Bullit and French Connection II). I absolutely love the ending to this movie. Indeed, as a another reviewer points out, it was haunting (same for the ending to French Connection II). Gene Hackman's performance is flawless. This is just another fine example of the amazing filmmaking that occured between the years 1969 and 1975. Awesome, pure, unfettered, and raw. Ahhh, if we could only have movies like this made today ...
Rating:
Summary: One of the Best Action Movie of All Time!
Review: This film is an ultra-realistic depiction of 'real' police work on the streets. Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider are great toguether as Popeye Doyle and Buddy Russo. William Friedking directs with brilliance and grit. One of the best (if not the best) car chase films ever made redifined editing for decades to come. A low-key score, on the mark performances, brilliant directing and a great screenplay combine to make this one of the best action films ever and the best cop film. A Must-See. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 10!
Rating:
Summary: Simply The Greatest Cop Film Of All Time
Review: French Connection is indeed one of the greatest American movies ever made. Not one minute of this film isn't brilliant. Friedkin's direction is great, Gene Hackman is superb, and the car chase is the best ever filmed. Every cop film to come since this has ripped it off in someway. This film expertly shows the vague line between the cops and the bad guys. Friedkin shows NYC as a backdrop without petrifying the background. This film is one of the toughest, grittiest works of art I've ever seen. The ending will haunt you for days. Trust me, after this movie, you will have a new favorite in the crime-drama genre. After this movie, you will leave with a new view on the differences between the " good guys " and the " bad guys ". Let's face it, William Friedkin is a damn genius!
Rating:
Summary: A WONDERFUL CLASSIC
Review: I SAW "THE FRENCH CONNECTION" WHEN I COULD HEAR. AFTER THESE MANY YEARS, I WISH THE CAPTIONING INSTITUTE WOULD PROVIDE CLOSED-CAPTIONS FOR THIS CLASSIC. PLEASE PASS THIS REQUEST IF POSSIBLE. THANKS.
Rating:
Summary: Timeless, Greyish and Well Structured Police Story
Review: There is a scene at the beginning of this classic movie wherein everyone seems to be having a great time in a bar when from nowhere a sort of stop-time moment occurs when dectective Popeye eyeing some locals knows for dead-center certainty something major is wrong. From there it is only a matter of piecing together (like the ubiquous and sinsiter car) the plot. This gritty, seemingly greyish and astonishingly well-edited movie offers a powerful glimpse into the mechanisms and travails of international corruption
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