‘The French Connection’ Racial Slur Edit Causes Uproar and Debate

Released in 1971, The French Connection has long been considered a cinematic masterpiece, but a seemingly-abrupt and awkward edit is drawing the ire of the film community.

In recent days, viewers of director William Friedkin's Best Picture winner noticed that an early scene featuring a conversation between New York City police detectives Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle (Gene Hackman) and Buddy “Cloudy” Russo (Roy Scheider) had been altered. When watching on the Criterion Channel or iTunes, it's clear that the action jumps ahead a few seconds, removing a few lines of dialogue that sees Hackman's character using multiple racial slurs.

Disney, which owns the film's rights through its previous acquisition of 20th Century Fox, and Criterion have yet to respond to The Messenger's request for comment, but we have confirmed that the scene remains unchanged on Disney+ in the UK.

Film fans, critics, and writers alike are all criticizing the edit. Writer Drew McWeeny tweeted that it's "super-sh--y" and "stupid" to censor dialogue from over 50 years ago. “Cultural context is an important part of media literacy," wrote curator Alexander Woell, adding, "Historical revisionism is not the answer.” Woell even shared a clip of Schieder discussing the reaction he noticed when watching the scene in a theater. "A mostly Black audience applauded," he said. "I thought, 'Oh my goodness, this is what they knew whitey was thinking anyway, and now somebody has finally said it in a movie!'"

An interview with Hackman touching on the use of the racial slurs has also resurfaced amid the debate. "The character was a bigot and anti-Semitic," Hackman explained. "It was difficult for me to say the N-word. I protested somewhat, but there was a part of me that also said, 'That's who the guy is.' I mean, you like him or not, that's who he was. You couldn't really whitewash him."

For now, it appears like someone has tried.