William Friedkin's 1971 crime drama "The French Connection" has been stealthily edited on streaming platforms Apple TV and The Criterion Channel for containing racial slurs.
The movie follows the thrilling story of two New York City detectives trying to intercept a gigantic heroin shipment from France. Actor Gene Hackman plays the film’s main character, “Popeye” Doyle, who converses with his fellow detective in a scene about nine minutes into the movie, in which he uses the “N-word” after his partner has been stabbed by a black character.
The version of the movie that has been uploaded to Apple TV and Criterion has about four seconds removed, clearly cutting out the parts with racial slurs.
And the edit has created quite a controversy. Film critics and fans are saying it’s messed up the quality of the movie, and that it should never be okay to censor a “work of art.” Many fans are also blaming Disney, which has owned 21st Century Fox since 2017 and which has proven to have a never-ending track record of wokeness.
It is unsurprising that leftist infiltrated media would decide to make such a dumb decision that's clearly motivated only by the interest of virtue-signaling.
That’s why it is more important to view this kind of situation through a realistic lens.
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In a blog published on Book and Film Globe, journalist Michael Washburn criticizes the censorship of the slurs because he believes that it is important to understand the historical context of movies, and it's never okay to censor history. The movie was made in the 70s; it is quite realistic that two NYC cops could have used that kind of language.
“We can lead a long march through the libraries and bookstores and streaming channels, hack and slash, and toss works on bonfires until we expunge every single relic of dated attitudes and vernacular from the culture,” writes Washburn. “Or, we can simply accept that times have changed, and that works of the past are useful—warts and all—for helping us understand why we believe what we believe and how we can do better than many people in history did.”
Instead, Washburn recommends allowing history to be history, and encourages people to think with context in order to learn from history, not just censor it.
If the Left is really so worried about the potential trigger warning, then they should do a better job of rating the movie for appropriate audiences or add a content warning. There are much more practical solutions to instances like these than just outright censoring speech.
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