William Friedkin’s 1971 movie The French Connection is now hailed as a traditional of the crime style. Sadly, it is undoubtedly additionally a product of its time. Whereas utilizing slurs is rarely okay, it was undoubtedly extra socially acceptable as a complete again within the Seventies. Consequently, they’ve proven up rather a lot often in older films. Generally, they’re even utilized by protagonists or individuals we’re purported to in any other case join with. That’s the case with Gene Hackman’s cop character, Popeye Doyle, in The French Connection.
The movie is a fictional account of a real-life case, the place a plot to smuggle medication into New York from France was uncovered. It additionally options probably the most well-known automobile chases within the historical past of cinema. It includes Doyle, in a automobile, chasing an elevated prepare throughout New York Metropolis.
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In a key scene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle makes use of the n-word — and though the precise specifics of who eliminated it or why have but to be uncovered, followers have found that the model of the movie presently streaming on the Criterion Channel, has excised this slur. (Followers have additionally found that the print of the movie presently accessible on Apple’s iTunes retailer is censored as properly.)
Criterion is usually recognized for restoring and streaming traditional or culturally impactful films in variations supposed by their filmmakers — not the type of place you look forward to finding a censored print of a movie. Ever since Disney acquired twentieth Century Fox and the Fox movie library, the corporate has managed the rights to The French Connection, though it’s not but clear whether or not they have been those liable for eradicating the offending phrase from the movie.
Maybe what we’re seeing here’s a form of historic revisionism that seeks to disclaim a problematic previous within the pursuit of extra money. Whereas it will be higher if Hollywood by no means had a part the place this was okay within the first place, that is not the case. However those that don’t acknowledge historical past are doomed to repeat it.
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