Wow. Disney+ changed the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark… pic.twitter.com/JWWLTs9CYt

— Jesse McLaren (@McJesse) June 9, 2023

Glenn Kenny tweet (5.7, 7:53 pm) responding to those who’ve been trashing Criterion for passing along Disney’s censored French Connection stream without warning or comment: “You [guys] really have no idea what’s going on. I’m reporting this story, and will have [it] finished next week. You’re way off base here, as will be demonstrated.”

HE to Kenny: Criterion vandalized Adam Holender‘s original Midnight Cowboy color scheme with a vulgar teal saturation, and I’m an asshole for pointing out the obvious?

Are you telling me that Criterion’s greenish Cowboy capture [below] is the more natural-looking of the two? God’s blue sky is greenish turquoise in the Criterion. Has anyone ever seen a sky that looked this putrid?

Are you reading what Tooze is saying? He found the color-tint desecration of Midnight Cowboy to be somewhat off-putting and what-the-fucky, but then he “got used to it.” He decided to succumb to the greenish teal re-imagining because Criterion served it up and they know best, right?

Look at the main title image comparisons above — the browner, dustier, desert-tan version from the 2012 MGM Bluray is obviously more natural than the greenish Criterion version beneath it…c’mon! Look at the color of Jon Voight‘s shirt below this — blue in the older shot, blue-green in the Criterion. Look at the kitchen dishwasher — more or less natural looking in the MGM Bluray version, soaked in muddy green in the Criterion.

A little more than three years ago Criterion screwed up in a similar way when they horizontally compressed Brian De Palma’s Dressed To Kill while adding a greenish-yellow tint to the color. A public outcry led to a correction. Will fans of this legendary Best Picture winner go along with Criterion’s greenish-teal re-do, or will they grab their pitchforks and torches and march down to Criterion’s Manhattan headquarters?

“Westerners Cannot Kidnap Other Moviegoers on ‘Mermaid,'” Global Times article, 5.26: “Some American leftists are imposing their own politically correct values on Chinese audiences, expecting them to embrace the film the same way as Western audiences have.

“This expectation is unreasonable since Chinese don’t have such political correctness, as the country’s modern history is more about being invaded by Westerners rather than colonizing or oppressing black people.

“Instead, China has always maintained [status quo] relations with Africa and has never needed an ‘atonement’ mentality prevalent in Hollywood.”

Hence it became apparent a couple of days ago that The Little Mermaid is more or less a dead fish in China and South Korea, primarily because of “racist” pushback among journalists, social-media users and Average Joes and Janes.

As far as those two territories are concerned, Mermaid has become Disney’s very own Bud Light misfire.

CNN’s China desk reported that the woked-up Disney reboot has “bombed with moviegoers in China and South Korea amid racist critiques in some quarters over the casting of Black actress Halle Bailey as main character Ariel.”

Everything is cool in the U.S., however, with Mermaid pulling down $118 million domestic over the four-day Memorial Day weekend.

But Chinese fans have rejected Bailey’s casting over her non-traditional appearance. Pic had scored 5.1 out of 10 on Douban, a longstanding Chinese movie review website. On Maoyan, a Chinese movie review and box-office tracking site, one user lamented that “the fairy tale that I grew up with has changed beyond recognition!” An instagram user in South Korea reportedly complained that the movie had been “ruined” for them, adding “#NotMyAriel.”

In Japan, where the film will open on 6.9, an online forum user reportedly wrote “don’t trample on my cherished childhood memories and the image of Ariel.”forum user wrote.

In an editorial published on 5.25, the Global Times said it had “caused a debate about representation in entertainment and highlighted the challenges of adapting beloved, traditional tales.” It added that Disney’s casting of Bailey was part of an overall “politically correct” effort to “force inclusion” of minorities represents “a lazy and irresponsible storytelling strategy.”

Having recently been given a legit email address for French Connection director William Friedkin, I’ve just sent him the following:

“Greetings & salutations from Jeffrey Wells of Hollywood Elsewhere. I hope you’re feeling hale and hearty and doing well.

“Cutting to the chase, herewith are two very important questions about the recently discovered removal offer a brief Act One sequence in streaming versions of The French Connection (Criterion Channel, iTunes, etc) as well as in a DCP shown at Santa Monica’s Aero theatre on 5.12.23.

“The deletion of this sequence was apparently the doing of The Walt Disney Company, although it may not have been. It was apparently motivated by the speaking of a racially ugly and vulgar term by Gene Hackman’s Popeye Doyle character

“One, did you sign off on this deletion? According to an HE comment-threader, Criterion has issued a statement that the currently censored cut of your 1971 film, provided to them by Disney, represents a “Director’s Edit” and was therefore apparently (or at least may have been) approved by you, the auteur behind this Oscar-winning film.

“Is this true? Did you, William Freidkin, request and/or convey approval of this deletion to Disney, the rights holder? Was this your call?

“Or was this censoring decided upon by Disney with your approval or disapproval being a moot point?

“Two, if you DID convey your approval of this edit to the powers-that-be at Disney, could you please explain to me and the tens of millions of fans of this film why you would approve such a thing, nearly 52 years after TFC’s theatrical release?

“And if you DID NOT approve of the censoring of The French Connection, could you please convey your reaction to Disney’s apparent decision to remove the sequence in question?

“Thank you and cheers to you and your wife.”