BFG Podcast #106: 'Rise of the Beasts,' 'The Idol,' and censoring 'The French Connection'

Book and Film Globe Podcast by Book and Film Globe

Episode notes
BFG delivers another great podcast episode this week. Host Neal Pollack welcomes guest Michael Washburn to discuss the curious recent decision by The Criterion Channel to edit out a sequence featuring a racial slur from the 1971 Oscar-winning film, 'The French Connection.' Neal ties this decision into recent efforts to bowdlerize popular classic works of British fiction. And Michael points out that the film deploys that language to show that the main character, Popeye Doyle, is flawed, to say the least. They both agree that there's really no way to apply consistent standards of what's culturally acceptable across all films at all times. A really strange and ultimately cowardly act by Criterion, which, as the standard bearer of film culture, should kn ...   ...  Read more
Keywords
rise of the beaststhe idolthe french connection