Gritty, downbeat and, in Hackman’s “Popeye” Doyle, fronted by one of the most unlikely heroes that cinema had seen, this was one of the great films of Hollywood’s most creatively uncompromising period.

[The film] is neither a documentary nor a grim slice of life but simply entertainment -- violent and bloody, yes, but still the kind of action and suspense stuff that kept the pulp fiction magazine alive for years and still intrigues most of us.

It's not what I want not because it fails but because of what it is. It is, I think, what we once feared mass entertainment might become: jolts for jocks.

Rightly remembered for a pivotal car chase...