Censorship Corner: THE FRENCH CONNECTION

From Douglas Helm's 6-6-23 GIANT FREAKIN ROBOT article entitled "Gene Hackman’s Classic Crime Movie Gets Censored By Criterion":

A censored version of Gene Hackman’s classic 1971 The French Connection is currently in the Criterion Collection, as reported by Word of Reel. The censored scene in question, which doesn’t appear in the version whatsoever, contains two ethnic slurs in dialogue spoken by Hackman’s Popeye Doyle character. In the scene, Doyle says “You dumb guinea,” and “Never trust a [slur].”

Although the cut scene is minor, it is an interesting choice to censor it considering the context it gives Gene Hackman‘s character. Hackman plays an NYPD detective in The French Connection, and Doyle is frankly an unsavory person, so it’s not surprising that a cop from the 1970s would be racist. Taking the scene out probably makes Doyle seem like more of a good guy than he actually is.

To read Helm's entire article, click HERE.

From Jordon Ruimy's 6-6-23 WORLD OF REEL article entitled "Disney Might Be To Blame for ‘The French Connection’ Censorship":

Three days ago, the censoring of a six-second sequence in William Freidkin’s “The French Connection” was reported by Hollywood Elsewhere.

The gist of this nixing had to do with Gene Hackman’s gritty cop character, Popeye Doyle, uttering the N-word. This was spotted on the Criterion Channel stream of Friedkin’s 1971 classic.

Well, apparently, the rights holders to the film are none other than Disney. Criterion had nothing to do with the censorship. It is presumed that the sequence was removed by Disney, which bought the film’s original owner, 20th Century Fox in March of 2019.

So the theory now is that Disney probably went in and censored it, but, you know, for your own good....

To read Ruimy's entire article, click HERE.