Most critics strongly favour The French Connection, with praise clustering around its documentary-style police work, street-level realism and Gene Hackman’s performance as the obsessive Popeye Doyle. The car chase is widely admired for its tension and physical immediacy, though the reviews also stress that the thriller works beyond that sequence. Several critics find a social critique in its depiction of urban decay and a brutal detective whose methods complicate any straightforward notion of heroism.
The spread is wide, but the dissent is concentrated in one review rather than a broader split. Variety admires the pace and performances while finding some elements gratuitous; Time Out rejects both the celebrated chase and the realism, judging the latter clumsy and showy. Its central objection is the film’s lack of critical distance from Doyle’s brutality, precisely where more favourable readings find moral ambiguity.