On The French Connection's Censorship
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 24 ก.ย. 2023
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The recent passing of New Hollywood auteur William Friedkin had me thinking of The French Connection, my favourite film from the great director's body of work. Unfortunately, thinking about The French Connection also got me thinking about The French Connection's censorship. First discovered streaming on Criterion Channel, a new version of the film which deletes a brief dialogue exchange has been in circulation. In this video essay, I discuss that cut and why it's significant.
Filmography: letterboxd.com/eyebrowcinema/...
Works Cited:
"'Who Censored The French Connection?' is a Case Only Popeye Doyle Could Solve." Glenn Kenny, Decider. 2023. decider.com/2023/06/20/who-ce...
"The French Connection has been censored and fans are furious." Elizabeth Audrey, NME. 2023. www.nme.com/news/film/the-fre...
"Don't Censor Racism Out of the Past." Thomas Chatterton Williams, The Atlantic. 2023. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/arc...
"The French Connection and the Trouble with Streaming Censorship." Stephen Daisley, The Spectator. 2023. www.spectator.co.uk/article/t...
"Why Disney Is Cutting Back on DVDs After 'Guardians of the Galaxy'." Brian Adgate, Forbes. 2023. www.forbes.com/sites/bradadga...
• Disney+ Splash Edited ...
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• Disney Censorship Comp...
Music Featured:
Running Waters by Audionautix
Subterranean Howl by ELPHNT
Setup With An E by Small Colin
Both Flanks by Small Colin
Fingerprint by The Mini Vandals
Love Him by Loyalty Freak Music
A Gradual Descent into the Chamber of Darkness by Scott Lawlor
Lost Highway by Au.Ra
The Six Realms by I Think I Can Help You
The Take Down by DJ Williams
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Stock film footage: Film leader is run through a projector. Actual film transfer, not a digital creation. Courtesy of www.beachfrontbroll.com.
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The French Connection being censored on the year William Friedkin died is gross.
And an exploitative exorcist sequel. It's like the industry never understood Friedkin to begin with
I did not know William had died until I saw this video. To think, only this afternoon I said 'He is still alive...'
That's what makes the 70s really interesting. The protagonists weren't the nicest guys. Yet, they were interesting enough to get you invested.
Doyle: "Never trust a ni**er." Cloudy: "He coulda been white!" Doyle: "Never trust ANYONE." In three lines it's emphasized that Doyle is racist with no self-control, Cloudy is more measured and balanced, and "Never trust anyone" is Doyle's mantra for being a cop. We find out all we need to know about the characters without a shitload of yakety-yak backstory clogging it up. And, yes, hang on to your physical media, folks!
It's also really authentic dialogue. I've known guys like Popeye, that's just the sort of thing they'd say.
Also, maybe Doyle WANTS people to think he's overtly racist, so that nobody knows (or believes) when he's working with black people as insiders on the street. But yes, I agree with those three lines, and that everyone is missing the point of the interaction.
It's also just good advice. You don't see that in movies anymore.
Honestly Roy Scheider is such an underrated actor
This brand of censorship will get worse... MUCH worse. It's the corporate way of doing things. We have to point it out. We have to criticize it. We have to raise our voices. Masterpieces like "The French Connection" MUST be preserved for future generations.
Exactly
Not even just masterpieces, all art needs to be preserved as it was upon its original release, if anything just as a historical document of what life was at that time.
@@samuelbarber6177 Absolutely.
Someone really should make an essay about people's zero tolerance of bad words when they're perfectly fine with much worse actions.
“Remember kids, you can have awful violence, just as long as you don’t show a nipple.”
I know it’s more about nudity, but I think the spirit is there.
That reminds me a line from "You Only Live Twice" - from the novel, not from the movie.
"A violent people without a violent language! I must write a learned paper on this."
_South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut_
“… remember what the MPAA says. ‘Horrific deplorable violence is okay, as long as nobody says any naughty words’!”
I'm reminded of the end of this one segment on Mad T.V. with character Bibleman trying to keep kids away from violent video games before concluding with "And remember kids, if you want to see violence, read the bible."
There is a difference between a bad word and a racial slur that has historically been used to insult and dehumanize a whole race who were brought to another country as slaves. But yeah I don’t agree with the censorship of the French connection.
This is why I started buying physical media of these re edited films. The upside is there are hundreds of VHS and DVD and Blu-ray of this film use on eBay.
I completely agree! I still have my VHS collection as well as DVD, and will not get rid of them. (I also have some laserdiscs!)
There's another bit of censorship in the current digital version. Not a cut scene, but a change in subtitles. After Charnier talks with Boca in DC he meets with Nicoli on a plane in a conversation in French with English subtitles. According to the original subtitles, Charnier refers to Doyle as, "That bastard who followed me to the subway." But in the current version, the subtitles read, "That man who followed me to the subway." That's another censorship change for the worse.
For most of the film, Charnier comes across as a suave, polite, dignified gentleman who's affectionate to his girlfriend. But that subtitled, "That bastard," says a lot about his true character. He's not the gentleman he's coming across as, he doesn't respect a "worthy opponent", he's not a nice man. He's a ruthless crimelord, and anyone who seriously interferes with him- like a cop better at tailing than all the other cops- is just a "bastard' to him. The fact he gets along so well with a psycho like Nicoli is a hint to his true character. "That bastard," confirms it.
Excellent read of that line and its significance.
I’ve been living in London and watched the film on Disney+ without a VPN shortly after the controversy over the censorship came out. I was flabbergasted to see that Disney+ itself didn’t censor that moment but apparently the Criterion Channel’s version did.
Wow. Good point. I hope Criterion withdrew the cut version, this is a real blemish in their copybook.
Their SALO release is amazing (and uncut).
In the theatrical version of Dirty Harry I recall the psycho using THAT word in order to get beat up better by the black dude he hired in order to frame Callahan for police brutality.
Excellent essay. Who do Disney think they are trying to protect? Any half intelligent adult can figure out that Popeye Doyle may be the protagonist but that doesn't mean he's the hero.
Disney is protecting itself.
From what? Lawsuits? That’ll never happen
The best part is they didn’t even bother replacing it with anything like TV used to do, they just cut it.
“I’ve about had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane!”
This reminds me of the book "Cloud Atlas" where in a future timeline one character says that "Movies" were now called "Disneys". Congrats on the awesome video!
Never trust a corporation.
I should point out that your "shoot an unarmed suspect in the back" comment at 13:50 is missing context. The whole pursuit is started when Nicoli shoots at Doyle and hits a lady pushing a stroller that's in front of him. This is mirrored when Doyle almost hits a lady pushing a stroller with the comandeered car during the pursuit. Doyle doesn't see what happened on the train. We, the audience, see that Nicoli shot two other people on the train. He shot the police officer and the conductor. We also see that Nicoli dropped his gun when the train crashed at the station. Doyle doesn't know that. He has every reason to think Nicoli is still armed.
he didn't see a gun in his hand. he can't assume he's armed and then shoot him in the back. cops shouldn't be doing that.
@@tjpotvin I know this may come as a shock to anyone born after 1980, but it was legal for cops to shoot fleeing, unarmed suspects until 1985 when the SCOTUS ruled it unconstitutional (Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1). Doyle was legally in the right in that era, and ethically, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who would fault him for shooting a man that had been shooting at him and just had killed two citizens.
What you said about the Looney Tunes collectors edition setting the standard for re-releasing archaic media is absolutely spot on. I never put it together exactly why, but I always thought of that golden box set every time I think about how they so often “do it wrongly”, today.
I was two minutes and fourteen seconds into this video when I realized you were talking about "The French Connection" and not "The French Dispatch". I'll be watching the rest of this video from the Dunce's corner, if y'all don't mind.
Also a great movie!
This is so strange. I'm not sure about in other countries, but in Canada, The French Connection is on Disney plus without this censorship. Just watched it about a week ago and this scene was fully intact. It's also messed up on so many levels to censor this kind of thing. Firstly, because of the integrity of the film as a piece of art. But also because even if the film was portraying a racist message, that's a part of history that people need to be aware of. Maybe with a warning. But covering that up is like hiding it. That's extremely messed up in my opinion.
This is a classic case of a film showing racism, the film is not racist in itself. Friedkin describes Popeye Doyle in his director's commentary as an obsessive racist. Gene Hackman a Liberal hated saying that word, he didn't really like the character of Doyle. Thank the maker, Disney hasn't got its hands on Blazing Saddles. And remember how we used to laugh when they changed the swear words in the TV versions of films, Scarface being the most hilarious example.
“Yippy kie-yay, Mr Falcon!”
Hang on, I got another one:
“I have had it with these monkey-fightin’ snakes, on this Monday-to-Friday plane.”
@@samuelbarber6177 America is like a giant chicken waiting to be plucked - Tony Montana.
One of the best was when Lethal Weapon was first shown on TV. Originally when Riggs gets shot and falls through the plate-glass window, he says to Murtaugh: "Oh, Roger, now I'm PISSED!" When it was first shown on TV it was changed to "Oh, Roger, now I'm MIFFED!"
This is what happens when you meet a stranger in the alps!
This whole thread of TV edits is very amusing.
For what it's worth, the uncensored version is streaming on Disney+ and BBC iPlayer in the UK.
Very well put together video. Absolutely agree, it always gives me a little stab whenever I find myself in a shrinking media section of a store. Buy physical media while you can, folks!
9:46 Correction: Song of the South did get an official home video release, albeit on certain markets and on VHS and possibly LaserDisc.
My research said it hadn't but admittedly I did not look super deep/
@@EyebrowCinemain all fairness, Song of the South is a can of worms in itself, and since it's not the focal point of this video, that omission is not particularly glaring.
What I find funny is that whenever Song of the South is mentioned it's always pointed out how you can only get the movie via bootleg recordings, and yet I own an official VHS release by Disney for as long I can remember. Dubbed, but still.
That line is so key to the Oscar winning film. When black audiences heard Doyle say that in 1971, they cheered out loud! In their whole viewing lives of Dragnet and other copaganda, they were hungry for anything that frankly portrayed reality (in white cinema, anyway. Blaxploitation was rife with racist police). Did Disney censor the word because it's a forbidden word or because they didn't want to show a cop saying it?
Nobody was asking for this! They created much more controversy by cutting it - badly - than just leaving past classics alone.
Imagine if fellow Best Picture winner '12 years a slave' cut out all the racist language. Even the most left leaning people weren't asking for this censorship.
Moral of the story… It’s not what is said, but the context it’s in
Why on earth did they hack out those seconds of picture? Why not just mute the audio for 1/2 a second? This is bad censorship badly done.
That was the most old school way to do it. That’s what TV stations did before the whole, “this film has been edited for television.”
This was a terrific essay, really well observed and nice editing to match the narration, well done and thank you, you can be very proud of this.
Thank you kindly!
My grandpa was NYPD for 32 years, many of them in Narcotics. He was a part of the task force that raided the SS France in 1968 and seized almost 250 lbs of Heroin. My grandpa LOVED The French Connection. Not just because he was a narc and knew a lot of the real people in which the characters were based. It was a film that actually had its fingers on the pulse of city cops, especially detectives. It pretty well understood what made guys like my grandpa tick. To survive in that environment, guys had to establish a street presence. You were either an apex predator or you were dead. And my grandpa was the first to admit, the film was also uncomfortably close to home too. Sometimes the job did stop being about the drugs. It could, at times, become more about the hunt than anything else.
This is very well done, especially the comparison between TFC and Dirty Harry. You also touch on a point early on that I think is critical from a commercial standpoint -- while I don't necessarily like edits to classic children's media, it's at least rationalizable from the perspective of saying, "This was intended to be read/watched/etc. by children and, while that sort of language may have been accepted in the past, it no longer is, so we have to edit the work if we want teachers to still assign it, children's networks to carry it, etc., etc." TFC, however, is a "hard R" film regardless of the singular use of the N-word or not. And, while I get the idea that the edit may have theoretically had commercial motivations, it's distressing because it's very incredible that anyone's decision about whether to rent/buy the film is being affected by the presence of that word in the movie, let alone that any sort of boycott effort or other political action could be credibly aimed at Disney because of its presence, and there doesn't seem to be any evidence that anyone had publicly expressed that they were offended by it.
Great video. Stuff like this is why most of the movies I watch these days are either pirated or on DVD.
Also, it was cool seeing ravenous briefly pop onto screen, it would be cool to see your thoughts on that movie. It's one of my favourites.
thats the thing, people are talking scared about censorship on streaming services but in fact all older movies are now digitally preserved in some form, with multiple copies, often being available on pirating services. It's not great, not perfect, but its better than nothing, and better than inaccessibility of physical mediums for many obscurer films. The fact I can access thousands upon thousands of movies from the 70s however unprofitable they were, however they might've been canned by studios. The bigger issue is newer movies not having physical formats that can be pirated and streaming services just deciding to erase them from existence some times because they're not popular. I'm young, i dont have a dvd player, i move around a lot, so pirating is really the new world of movie-watching, it avoids streaming service censorship and paywalls.
I watched Ravenous for the first time a few months ago and thought it was great. Wonderfully gruesome movie with some fascinating characters and thoughtful commentary on manifest destiny. It's also a snow western and those just rule on principle.
Disney logic: overworking and underpaying employees good. Naughty words bad.
Brilliant video! Keep up the work
Great video. I’d not seen French connection in maybe 15 years. Decided to watch it following this video so put my old dvd on but the print and aspect ratio was off so decided to watch it on Disney+ (I’m in the uk) & the N-Bomb is included!
Keep up the good work
That’s why I have a 2tb hard drive with my entire movie collection
This is one of my favourite video essays. Ever
Maron's WTF interview with Friedkin is one of my all time favorite podcast episodes!
Excellent as always!
Very good essay as usual. I think all that was needed to be said about this particular subject found a place in your video. Also in the comments. Great work , bravo.
I just wanted to add my few cents about Dirty Harry. The sequel " Magnum force" explains misconceptions about Harry Callahan that audience might had after the first movie. He's skeptical about non-white people , but he's not a racist - he gets a Asian girlfriend and black sidekick. He also fights with cops that are above the law in this one . He states that he doesn't want to be above the system , he just fights back at the system when its unintentionally protecting the criminals not the innocent.
I do believe that the theme of all "Dirty Harry" movies is about the struggle between the law and justice , that sometimes it's not the same. Harry Callahan is definitely a good guy , the movies want us to sympathize with him breaking the rules , because he in many ways represents us - the audience . He is rough , but more of a "clean " hero than Doyle who is far more morally ambigous character , maybe even on the dark side .
Anyway , thanks for the video and thanks for reading.
Censoring these cinema classics is the same as book bans or book burnings... and I've had ENOUGH!!! Protect the arts, people!!!
Ya know, limey and mick are also slurs lol. You probably just removed the words in that scene one at a time until yt allowed you to post it but it's funny those are the ones they allowed through the filter
Slurs directed at white people are totally cool these days.
@@rafaelalandradecmar
Just to say a huge “thank you”, for the spoiler warning at the beginning. I’m going to watch the film, and then come back (I was here initially for the Bond videos). Your videos are excellent and much discussate.
I just saw the full version on Disney Plus in Ireland - No censorship at all
I believe the censor was only in the United States
In a perfect world I’d be watching all of Thomas Flight’s stuff on physical media and not TH-cam.
Love French Connection! Gritty and immersive, it is quintessential New Hollywood. Breaking that immersion through censorship is painful to say the least.
Leave. Classic. Cinema. Alone.
Weirdly, I watched this for the first time (streaming or otherwise), a couple months ago. This scene wasn't censored.
HBO max just added the uncensored version
Nice
Well coincidentally I just watched this on Disney+ last night for the first time and came on TH-cam more for reaction to the ending than the dialogue but just so you know the movie was uncut .....
Superb as ever my good man
I remember watching the film on Disney+ around half a year ago (admittedly for the first time) and i didn't notice any blatant censorship or noticeable jumps.
Was this a recent change?
The change was first noticed when the movie was added to The Criterion Channel, back in June.
Disney+ in other countries have the unedited version. The censorship seems to be exclusive to America for the time being.
Just checked my purchased version on apple & it’s edited. Disgraceful. I expect Django unchained now to be only the titles so 3 minutes long
Is this the Canadian version of Roman from Succession narrating?
I watched The French Connection for the first time hours before his death and felt responsible
Good, you did this lol
*doing an impression of Robin Williams in Good Will Hunting* It's not your fault.
hahaha just what I needed Robin@@EyebrowCinema
It's been close to a year since this cut. Has Criterion or whoever cut that scene put it back? I just don't know if much has changed.
After watching it on Disney+ of all things and that word wasn't censored. Very odd that it's a censored version made available by Disney for Criterion but the version on their own platform isn't censored. And you're right the scene doesn't work without it, at least with a blatant jump cut. Great video man, Friedkin knew these dirty cops and gangsters in real life he never really looks down on them he just sought to accurately represent them as he also did in Cruising and Killer Joe. RIP to a legend.
I watched it today on disney+ and it didn't have any censorship (maybe a localization thing since i'm not in the US). It blew me away on how well paced a film it was: with 2o minutes to go I felt like I was still in the 1st act, it blew past me and I adored it
I am not someone who is averse to streaming. In fact, I’m subscribed to most of the major platforms. There’s definitely a sense of convenience with these services, what with having access to vast libraries of celluloid that don’t take up physical space I can conjure with just the press of a button.
However, it is situations like this egregious censorship of ‘The French Connection’ that make me grateful for my physical media collection that no amount of convenience can replace.
I probably need to see more of his work. So far I’ve only seen The French Connection and The Exorcist, and with all respect to Friedkin, I’m not a big fan of either film, though I probably should rewatch them as well. A lot of movies really do improve on a rewatch (plus I watched both on BBC IPlayer so who knows what version of each I saw).
Oh, on censorship? Yeah, screw it. Even if I’m not a massive fan of them, they shouldn’t be cut at so many years after the fact. I’ve never really understood censoring stuff anyway. I mean, if it’s already rated for 18 year olds then surely anything should be fair game, right? I also hate this with Director’s Cuts. Not Director’s Cuts as a concept, just more that so many Director’s Cuts become the default version. It’s surprisingly difficult to find the original version of Apocalypse Now, but that’s the version I want, Francis. What’s that line from Blade Runner about tears in rain?
And the worst part is that The French Connection isn’t even a Disney film. They got it decades after it was made.
Watch Sorcerer, idk if the slow pacing of those movies mentioned above are not your thing, I think the thrills of Sorcerer might be your thing, I mean its some insanely visual suspense, principally these dudes desperate to escape their situation take up a job driving a truck full of explosives across the jungle, and the sequences that follow are breathtaking. To Live and Die In L.A. feels more akin to a Mann film with its slickness and the setting in L.A. with rhythmic soundtracks and a pretty sick chase in the middle. Idk Friedkin might not be to everyone's taste, he really touches on specific sort of themes and tones that might be offputting or bleak to watch for some.
Saying what you don't like but providing no examples of what you do like leaves us with zero context or barometer of your taste and aesthetics.
@@OuterGalaxyLounge see, in the conversation about Friedkin, those are the only two movies of his I’ve seen and while they aren’t bad, I just found them to be not very engaging. I guess for comparison’s sake I could provide examples like Mean Streets or The Shining, each of which I preferred over the Friedkin films. It’s also partly that each film does get hyped up a lot, and well, if you go years hearing about how awesome something is, and then you watch it, it better be good or you’re probably gonna be disappointed, especially when one (The Exorcist) is so commonplace that virtually nothing that happens in it is a surprise.
Criterion is releasing Mean Streets on 4K in 2 months. If they censor that it’ll be a shame 😞
Thankyou!
It's so tedious having check & make sure that a film hasn't been censored or cut with no regard for context by the suits before you buy. Personally I have no interest in streaming anything & almost always go for the Director's cut (Alien is the only film I can think of, off the top of my head, where I actually prefer the theatrical release.) Love the channel good sir!
The Alien Director's Cut is interesting because there's scenes in there I really like, but overall I too prefer the theatrical.
I'd submit that the theatrical cut of Alex Proyas' "Dark City" is better than the director's cut (at least if you mute the opening narration in it).
The interesting part starts at 4:38. Before, it's just unnecessary introduction.
I watched The French Collection on Max (Formerly HBO Max) and it showed the scene in it's entirety. So idk if they fell to the pressure and fixed the edit or if Max got a different video file. It's weird.
Thanks man. It's important to spotlight censorship.
It is possible that Friedkin made this change. Much as he released an alternate cut of The Exorcist to appease William Peter Blatty...not because he thought the extended version was better, but because he thought Blatty deserved to have his version of the film. It's no secret that Gene Hackman was very uncomfortable about using the racial slur, and encouraged Friedkin to remove that dialogue at the time they were shooting, because he didn't want to do the scene as written. Friedkin prevailed, but perhaps, late in life, he may have considered this Gene's version, and worth releasing. That's all entirely speculative, naturally, but if it were a cut made by Friedkin, I think that would have been his rationale for doing it, based on his track record. It's certainly more likely Disney's doing, but I don't think we can entirely eliminate the possibility that Friedkin was involved.
I Guess It's only in America, since in Mexico the movie stands unaltered, altough I don't know for for how long
It is sort of interesting to listen to people with modern perspectives talk about these films. Kind of like reading Brave New World at points.
This is a superb analysis of Dirty Harry and The French Connection. I am one who saw them both when they were released within a couple of months of each other in the fall of 1971, and like Eyebrow Cinema immediately saw one was a celebration of fascism (Dirty Harry) while the other was an observation of fascistic behavior (The French Connection). Harry is presented as heroic, Popeye is shown as a legally endorsed sociopath, whose story plays out in a scenario more resembling real life. But there is another profound difference in the characters, and that it is the actors playing them. Clint Eastwood is not veering too far from his own personality (and politics) while Gene Hackman is giving a major league bravura acting performance (in real life, Hackman is nothing like Popeye Doyle). Twenty years later, they would repeat those character archetypes in the same film: Unforgiven. But for me, The French Connection holds up viewing after viewing, while the last time I saw Dirty Harry was in the cinema back in 1971. At the time I enjoyed it, but I knew I was being emotionally manipulated, and never saw the need to watch it again.
Just watched the film on Disney+ yesterday with the scene fully intact. I live in Germany so I guess it's just a matter of time until the version will be censored here. You made a compelling argument for physically buying films instead of relying on streaming. I wasn't aware of this issue before.
The French Connection is one of my all time favorites!
Lets not forget that The French Connection was based on a true story, and the actual police officers being depicted were employed by the film makers as consultants. They not only approved of the final film, but were friends with Friedkin until his death.
I can't wait to see the new streaming version of Joe.
It will open with Susana Sarandon walking through the streets during the opening credits and cut immediately to the end credits
My first time seeing censorship happen was when they had Back to the Future trilogy playing on Nickelodeon and they dubbed over swear words like replacing shit with shoot. This was something like 15-17 years ago.
It’s still uncensored on Disney plus here in the UK.
Thanks for the 👍🏻
I'm so disappointed with what feels like a wave of censorship being brought to us. Like this, and the examples by Disney that you posted.
I've been very vocal about the video game, Skullgirls getting censored in a similar way. I've tried to rally the community to fight against it, with absolutely no luck.
A good chunk of the community actually supports it, which baffles me. Even if you think it's problematic, it shouldn't be censored.
I've made a petition, but it's had no luck so far. Hopefully, it changes in the future.
Really appreciate this video. I was aware of this issue when it first started getting reported on, but didn't pay too much attention to the debate because I saw one too many "it's those darn woke lefties" arguments for my liking. And I like how you go beyond just a simple "they censored a classic movie" argument to analyze the portrayal of dirty/loose cannon cops in the early 70s.
While I am sure it's more for a simple commercial reason, I partly wonder if Disney is doing this because they view streaming as the "next TV". These odd changes (cutting out dialogue from French Connection, digitally extending the hair in Splash) seem just as odd as some of the overdubs done for television. And yes, we had dubbed, modified, or edited versions of movies for TV, but (to my understanding) those changes were done strictly for television broadcast and we could always get the original version of a film on physical media or (until now, I guess) streaming. This is entirely hypothetical, but if streaming does become the "next TV", media companies can modify or edit films or television shows they own and argue that is specifically for streaming. In a time when physical media is, to the wider public, becoming obsolete, these edited versions will unfortunately become the only versions available, though.
Why I love Magnum Force as a film is because it's a direct response to the first Dirty Harry movie. In the first film, Harry fucks around, and in the second film he finds out.
So glad I've still got the DVD I bought in middle school
i just watched the french connection on disney + so i could see this video. it seems as though it's been added back, for some bizarre reason so i'm not entirely sure if disney is behind it now. idk, that's just a theory
The censorship is exclusive to the U.S. for the time being, which is another reason this whole thing is peculiar.
it's extremely odd that on portugal's disney+, the scene is still there. the n-word is uncut. is this just disney, or part of a bigger problem?
Finally a comparison of Dirty Harry and The French Connection. They were like East Coast/West Coast counterparts when they came out in 1971. Eastwood and Hackman only shared the screen once with each other though in Unforgiven
The original version is on HBO Max right now
Valuable and insightful perspectives....recited, perhaps, at a tempo best tolerated at 1.5X speed?
I saw TFC with William Friedkin in attendance at the academy theater in 2022. This was the censored version of the film. Friedkin did a Q&A beforehand and stayed for part of the screening. He left early (I believe just because of his health and age) but I’m pretty sure he stayed past the censored scene. He didn’t say anything about the censorship during the Q&A. Not sure if he knew about it or agreed with it or not, but he was there in the theater when that version aired. Just fyi
Good video
'Tis why I will always keep my DVDs.
some people don't have the depth of thought to grasp with complex or grey characters, and we're living in Harrison Bergeron. i thought we weren't supposed to erase our racist history. every time i've read/heard the word used by a character in a story, it has added meaning, context, and subtext to characters and settings. in the age of postmodern deconstructionism, where tons of television shows are populated with incredibly unlikable protagonists like Always Sunny in Philadelphia, i cannot understand why examples of racist behavior seemingly need to be removed from media.
I wound up accidentally buying the 2011 Blu-ray edition twice. I bought it years ago, watched it a few times, then forgot I had it when I moved, and wound up buying it from a Wal-Mart bin for a really seductive price. So now I have 2 uncut copies and...I'm very okay with that.
Physical Media Forever. Dual-Format 4 Life.
I saw it a couple of years ago on Disney+, and the scene was in it then.
2084: "Every record has been destroyed or falsified, every book rewritten, every picture has been repainted, every statue and street building has been renamed, every date has been altered. And the process is continuing day by day and minute by minute. History has stopped. Nothing exists except an endless present in which the Party is always right.”
I still can’t decide if I like The French Connection.
I watched it this week on Disney Plus (UK) and it was not censored.
I really really hate to be the "make another shining video" person, but I'd love to see your opinion on Collective Learning's shining theories. Some of them seem odd or far fetched imo, and some are just theorizing for the purpose of theorizing
I did talk about The Shining recently in a (very long) video essay on Kubrick's Adaptations. I can't say if I address any of Rob Ager's theories in that video but if you're just looking for more Shining commentary that might scratch that itch.
The narrator missed is the growing frustration that these movies expressed about the breakdown of society in 1971.
May I say, Jo Don Baker used the n word in Walking Tall once or twice and Bruce Dern used it twice in The Cowboys. Funny, what Dern did to Wayne's character gets him more hate still to this day over the other thing.
You know, I know I should view all cases of censorship like this as equally bad, but there’s a specific of rage I feel at acts of censorship that require a complete ignorance of even basic media literacy to justify. It seems to say that whichever corporation behind the decision is either genuinely stupid or actively contemptuous of viewers, and I can’t tell what’s worse.
I’m sorry to differ with you sir... but I have 3 copies of Song of the South that were released outside of North America. Two were released in the UK and one is from Japan. They all play in my VHS players which are standard VHS players sold in North America back in the day.
The Japanese released tapes were accidentally released and briefly sold in three retail outlets in the US but were very quickly recalled. One of those outlets was in Phoenix, Arizona and I suspect that’s where my Japanese release is from because I found it in an Edmonton Alberta thrift store for $2.
The UK releases were originally manufactured by transferring it from the Japanese VHS master and the Japanese version was originally transferred from the Japanese laserdisc master.
They all are fine, playback quality wise.
My UK copies were likely purchased in Europe by Canadians on holiday as I also found them in Edmonton thrift store.
I saw the movie as a kid, likely on The Wonderful World Of Disney or in a theatrical re-release in Toronto.
I was born in 1965 and back then everybody that wasn’t White had special names, even the Irish...
Norm MacDonald said it best about removing the ‘N-word’ from works of art in a long rambling joke using the example of Twain’s Huckleberry Finn novel. MacDonald was on The Dennis Miller radio show or something and it is available here on YT. I won’t ruin the joke, but it’s not only funny, it really holds the light up to the whole thorny issue.
In any case Disney’s always been Evil right from the original thieving of Mickey Mouse. Removing words ain’t going to erase the past for Disney, America, or humanity.
And just so you know, I don’t have my three copies of Song of the South up on display on some proud to be a racist shelf or something. The three VHS ciopies are part of my 5000+ VHS collection which makes up the smaller part of my 20,000+ home media collection (15,000+ DVDs). I have mental problems but am able to watch uncensored cinema.
It would take me an hour to find my Song of the South copies if pressed as most of my collection is boxed up in storage.
Thanks for making videos eh.
24:25 now I want to see a video of your blu ray collection
My cats would make that difficult haha. Maybe one day though.
@@EyebrowCinema 🤞
7:28 - I have an uncensored copy myself.
I just saw it on Disney+, a great film; there was nothing cut as I distinctly remember the rather unprompted racial slur.
The edit seems to be specifically in America for the time being.
@@EyebrowCinema Oh, I see. Odd though.
Damn you’re a good writer.
What do you think about French connection 2