Reception Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars and ranked it one of the best films of 1971. Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote: The French Connection "is in fact a very good new kind of movie, and that in spite of its being composed of such ancient material as cops and crooks, with thrills and chases, and lots of shoot-'em-up." Variety wrote: "So many changes have been made in Robin Moore's taut, factual reprise of one of the biggest narcotics hauls in New York police history that only the skeleton remains, but producer Philip D'Antoni and screenwriter Ernest Tidyman have added enough fictional flesh to provide director William Friedkin and his overall topnotch cast with plenty of material, and they make the most of it." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded the film four stars out of four and wrote: "From the moment a street-corner Santa Claus chases a drug pusher thru the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, to the final shootout on deserted Ward's Island, The French Connection is a gutty, flatout thriller, far superior to any caper film of recent vintage."Siskel, Gene (November 8, 1971). "French Connection" . Chicago Tribune. Section 2, p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.
Reception Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars and ranked it one of the best films of 1971. Roger Greenspun of The New York Times wrote: The French Connection "is in fact a very good new kind of movie, and that in spite of its being composed of such ancient material as cops and crooks, with thrills and chases, and lots of shoot-'em-up." Variety wrote: "So many changes have been made in Robin Moore's taut, factual reprise of one of the biggest narcotics hauls in New York pol.ice history that only the skeleton remains, but producer Philip D'Antoni and screenwriter Ernest Tidyman have adde:d enough fictional flesh to provide director William Friedkin and his overall topnotch cast with plenty of material, and they make the most of it." Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded the film four stars out of four and wrote "From the moment a street-corner Santa Claus chases a drug pusher thru the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, to the final shootout on deserted Ward's Island, The French Connection is a gutty, flatout thriller, far superior to any caper film of recent vintage."Siskel, Gene (November 8, 1971). "French Connection" . Chicago Tribune Section 2, p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.