Happy 50th Birthday to Six Classic Thrillers from 1971

From New York drug busts to brutal revenge in Newcastle, these thrillers look better than ever fifty years on.

1971 was a red-letter year for thrillers. Whether the thrills concerned police, stalkers, mobsters, serial killers, or deranged truck drivers, these are six of the best, all celebrating their fiftieth birthday.

William Friedkin’s riveting police thriller won Best Picture at the Oscars, and deservedly so. Featuring a stunning central performance from Gene Hackman as ruthless, brutal cop Popeye Doyle, fine support from Roy Scheider as his partner, and a splendid villain in the form of Fernando Rey’s fiendishly clever drug smuggler, The French Connection remains a tough, gritty masterpiece fifty years on. Ernest Tidyman’s spare screenplay (adapting Robin Moore’s novel) correctly eschews pretty much anything resembling a personal life in the lead characters, with everything you need to know about them inherent in the action. Owen Roizman’s vivid location cinematography is another big plus.

The suspenseful sequence where Doyle is outwitted by his quarry on the metro is justly celebrated. The L-train pursuit is even more celebrated, and constitutes one of the greatest car chases in screen history, alongside the one in Bullitt and Friedkin’s later underrated gem, To Live and Die in LA (1985). Although the film created many of the cop movie cliches seen today, here they still seem fresh, especially given the unexpected, uncompromisingly nihilistic finale.

Another cop deploying dubiously violent methods first hit screens in 1971, in the form of Don Siegal’s classic Dirty Harry. The part fit Clint Eastwood like a glove, and after Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western trilogy, it cemented his iconic tough-guy image. Harry is an amoral detective whose…

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Carter Tinsley is a writer, entrepreneur, and productivity coach. He lives in Auckland, New Zealand with his wife, two young kids, and a voracious cat. He’s on Twitter @trainertinsley, and you can…