Chris Christie is, of course, like many politicians, a transactional opportunist, but of all the declared candidates for the Republican presidential nomination right now, Christie is the only one to call a spade a spade as far as Donald Trump‘s sociopathic conduct and mentality are concerned.

All the other candidates are too afraid of alienating the MAGA voters — only Christie is manning up by saying “this guy is really truly bad news.”

Steve Schmidt: “There’s a lack of appreciation about how quickly democracies, indeed our democracy, can fail….one side is completely delusional and fantastical, generating constant propaganda all the time…we’re in the middle of a backlash…we are living through a backlash…if an extremist movement took power once, it can happen again, and if it does again, our demoocracy as we’ve known it will be over.”

Two or three years old. Blown water pump, late ’60s, Bakersfield, watermelons…before cell phones…Chevron gas card…fried chicken, corn on the cob, “keep the faith,” etc.

On Friday (6.9) HE commenter “The Multiplex” reported the following: “For what it’s worth, in Disney’s DCP asset list the currently-streaming version of The French Connection is listed as ‘2021 William Friedkin v2.'”

HE reply: “May I ask precisely where you read the term ‘2021 William Friedkin v2‘? I thought it might be at the tail end of the currently streaming version on the Criterion Channel. I checked and it’s not. I also Google-searched “2021 William Friedkin v2” + French Connection…zip.”

And yet this info is seemingly fortified by a statement from The Criterion Channel, passed along by “The Connection” in a 6.9.23 HE story titled “HE to Friedkin re Censorship Fracas.” CC’s statement said that “according to our licensor [Disney], this is a ‘Director’s Edit‘ of the film.”

If this is legit info, the obvious implication is that after a half-century of The French Connection being presented in its original form, ugly racial dialogue and all, director William Friedkin has woke-censored or otherwise desecrated his own film.

I am personally horrified by this possibility. But if this has indeed happened, there can only be one response from the film’s worldwide community of fans and scholastic admirers, and that response is “what the living hell, Billy?” Followed by “please tell us you didn’t approve this!”

Because deleting the racially offensive scene in question is worse than “Greedo shoots first” or Steven Spielberg changing those government agent guns to walkie-talkies at the end of E.T., which he later apologized for.

If Friedkin initiated or approved the deletion, he did so not because he had a creative change of heart (which is always a bullshit move to begin with) but in order to appease the woke scolds — a mob clamoring for a transitional political-cultural statement that suits their current agenda — and nothing more.

Friedkin knows (or at least he used to know) that art is made of sterner and more endurable stuff.

Still, the idea of Friedkin being the chief culprit doesn’t make sense if we consider what he said on the occasion of The French Connection‘s 50th anniversary, or a year and a half ago.

In a 11.11.21 chat with Forbes‘ Simon Thompson, Friedkin said the following about making his 1971 classic:

“I had both Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider ride around with Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, the real cops their characters were based on. They mimicked what they saw, which is what I wanted. I had seen all that behavior months before, and they were seeing it fresh before they did the film. Gene did not want to go that far. He thought the guy was really racist, but I didn’t — I thought it was an act that he was doing to survive in the street. Gene actually found the character very tough to play.”

“[And yet] Friedkin says that if he were to remake The French Connection today, not much would change. His goal was to portray policing as he saw it and leave it to audiences to decide for themselves, not to valorize or critique it. Still, amid national conversations about police reform and police brutality, he wouldn’t be eager to tackle the subject matter again.

In an 11.7.21 EW.com article, Friedkin was quoted by Maureen Lee Lenker as follows:

“I don’t think I’d make a cop film today,, but if I did, it wouldn’t be much different. And I would try to capture the action and the dialogue that persists and exists today. You’d be amazed how very close it is to what it was. I don’t celebrate that behavior, but I’m fascinated by it.”

How could Friedkin have said the above and approved a deletion of the scene in question?

I asked Friedkin on Friday if he could please explain what’s going on. Nothing so far.

Glenn Kenny has stated that he’s researched and is writing a forthcoming article that gets to the bottom of things, or at least which allegedly absolves The Criterion Collection from responsibility in this mucky matter. I just checked Criterion’s streaming of The French Connection this morning, and it still offers no warning about the missing footage. Until such a warning appears, The Criterion Collection is most definitely not off the hook.

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.”