The n-word has been cut from The French Connection by the new puritans. Where do we draw the line?

It is not so long ago that, in this nation, censors hacked American movies so gracelessly those entertainments ended up accidentally aping the jump cuts beloved of the French New Wave.

William Friedkin, director of The French Connection, is a great fan of that movement, and his 1971 cop thriller shows its influence. American pundits were, however, recently surprised to see a jump cut they hadn’t previously noticed. Roy Scheider, playing detective Buddy Russo, walks wearily from the interior of his precinct house towards the front door where Gene Hackman, as the indestructible “Popeye” Doyle, waits abrasively. The film then cuts to a medium shot that finds Scheider all the way across the lobby.

You got that a lot in Ireland before the nation grew up. But not for the same reasons.

After some prodding, it was confirmed that the version streamed on the Criterion Channel cut an exchange in which Doyle, a habitual racist, makes glib use of what we shall here call the n-word. It seemed the edited version was identical to that used on other streaming services in the US. It gets worse. All digital versions sold for home ownership in that nation are now the bowdlerised cut. In an excellent dissection of the story for Decider, Glenn Kenny explained that the only way to see the uncut version in the US was “via a Blu-ray issued by Fox in 2011″. He continued: “This Blu-ray now commands a price of about $150.”

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No adult watching could come away with the impression that blanket approval was being offered for all his behaviour

The irony for domestic observers is pointed. A few clicks reveal the version streaming here on Disney+ includes the offending exchange between Scheider and Hackman. True, the issues are no longer to do with sex and violence, but we have – in one case anyway – an inversion of the situation as it existed until the end of the last century. It is easier to see the full unexpurgated cut in Ireland than it is in the US. Well, that is where the Puritans flourished.

It has proved hard for researchers to confirm who is responsible. More than a few pointed the finger at Disney, which took control of 20th Century Fox, producers of The French Connection, in 2021. But Criterion told Kenny that “according to our licensor, this is a ‘Director’s Edit’ of the film”. Queries to Friedkin have so far proved unfruitful.

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There has been little attempt to defend the cut. Doyle is, from the start, shown as bigoted, intemperate and unreasonable. No adult watching could come away with the impression that blanket approval was being offered for all his behaviour. The cut damages, albeit briefly, fine work by the late Gerald B Greenberg, who won his only Oscar for editing Friedkin’s film. But, even if this weren’t true – even if the intent was dubious and the montage already choppy – it would still be an act of retrospective prissiness.

Content warnings are an imperfect prophylactic, but they allow works, both pulp and classic, to play as they were originally presented. Future viewers of Mad Men may wonder why, of all the near-pathologically amoral behaviour Roger Sterling exhibits over 92 episodes, the one act that generates a content warning on (currently) Amazon Prime is his performance in a blackface vocal quartet. Or they may not. They may think that entirely appropriate. At any rate, the warning permits episode three of season three to play uncut. Sling something similar in front of The French Connection. It is no more obtrusive than a note from the certification office.

If ever there were an argument to hang on to physical media then the current case is making it. “Content” is being wiped

There is a larger worry here. It is still not uncommon for broadcast television to screen trimmed versions of potentially offensive material. We may be uneasy, for example, when the BBC excises an objectionable word from The Germans episode of Fawlty Towers. But that remains a one-off. It is a performance.

The situation with The French Connection is different. As film and TV enthusiasts move away from physical media – VHS, DVDs, blu-rays – towards streaming services they hand the pruning shears back to distributors and exhibitors (sometimes now the same people). For the majority of viewers in the US, a streaming service will be their first port of call when seeking out The French Connection. Heck, I recently watched it on Disney+ because I couldn’t be arsed to get up and walk 5ft to the DVD shelf.

If ever there were an argument to hang on to physical media, the current case is making it. “Content” is being wiped. Older films were already hard to find on those services. Now, the powers that be are chopping up what few classics remain. So cherish your DVDs until they become as obsolete as phonograph cylinders. Make friends with a fellow who can maintain your player. The digital Fahrenheit 451 might soon be upon us.