William Friedkin’s thriller remains as riveting and determinedly adult today as it was on release in 1971, coldly scrutinising the processes of both the police and their quarry.
Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman), a hard-bitten, bigoted New York narcotics detective, single-mindedly hunts down an urbane drug dealer attempting to import heroin from Marseilles.
Brutal and relentless, the film is essentially an extended chase sequence, given a human heart by Hackman’s Oscar-winning portrayal of a deeply flawed man whose unwavering belief in his own instincts drives him, and those around him, to a bloody Pyrrhic victory.