A very disturbing development happened a few weeks ago that is still being processed by the film community. The version of "The French Connection" streaming on the Criterion Channel was found to contain a very clunky edit of about six seconds, to excise racial slurs. Soon after, it was discovered that digital copies of the film sold on Itunes and other platforms contained the same edit, including copies that had been previously purchased. It's not clear who is responsible for this offense (probably Disney, who owns the rights to the film through the Fox acquisition), but keep in mind that this has happened to an R-rated film that contains frequent violence and profanity, something clearly not meant for family viewing. And keep in mind that this is also the Academy Awards Best Picture winner of 1971. If this can happen to a fifty year old, highly lauded classic, it can happen to any film.
This comes on the heels of the great Disney content purge of 2023. Disney has become the latest streamer to tighten their belts by removing content from Disney+ and Hulu, including several titles that are inaccessible on any other platform. Shows like "Willow," and Danny Boyle's "Pistol" don't have physical releases, and aren't available for digital purchases either. To the dismay of the creative community, their shows and movies are in danger of disappearing into the digital ether permanently. "Willow" was a high profile release that was only on Disney+ for six months, and creator Jonathan Kasdan was still gunning for some form of continuation back in March. On the other hand, at least "Willow" was actually released, unlike other streamers' shows that were completed and then permanently shelved for tax write-offs. I'm still stewing over the second season of AMC+ show "Pantheon" that we're never going to get to see.
Fan response has been interesting to gauge. The physical media collectors have taken the opportunity to say "I told you so." Their collections are beyond the reach of the censors and the wishy-washy streamers. Their digital equivalents, the data hoarders, are also busy filling drives and backups with the best copies of their favorite media that they can find. Piracy arguments are getting heated again, with some creators conceding that if the only way to watch something is to pirate it, it's time to sail the high seas. All the industry watchers are nervous, as the sad mistreatment of content is just one symptom of the great streaming bubble burst and further instability in Hollywood. Disney has announced that there will be further purges, and the worst is probably yet to come.
As for me, I feel like I might be stuck in denial. I seriously doubt that all the pulled content is going to stay gone, especially the better titles. I look at this situation and I think that this feels awfully familiar. I've watched plenty of older media fall off the face of the earth, only to be resurrected later once the demand for it rises. As an old Muppet fan, I remember "The Storyteller" series finally being released on home media a decade after the show was canceled, first on VHS tapes and then on DVD (I bought both). The same thing happened with "The Black Cauldron," the most notorious bomb in Disney's history. You have to pay a hefty fee to get the Blu-ray through the Disney Movie Club, but it is available. Disney+ was supposed to be our ticket to a permanently open Disney vault, but that's clearly not the case. The demand isn't as strong as they thought it would be, so we're all just going to have to go back to the old mindset of tracking releases and availability, the way we did before the streaming era. Gone right now doesn't mean permanently gone. It never has.
Content being removed from streaming is unfortunate, but it's also not especially surprising. It costs money for the streamers to maintain these big libraries, and if the content isn't generating revenue, it makes no sense to keep them around - just like television. There's so much content online right now that no one could possibly watch all of it, and we've known for a while now that there are too many shows being made and too few viewers. Cancellations always hurt, but this kind of correction was inevitable. The media that people actually want will come back around eventually. It may take a decade or two, but I doubt that we've seen the last of the "Willow" series. It did have its fans, after all.
As for "The French Connection," well, I guess this has been another lesson that we can't trust the studios when it comes to the fidelity and preservation of media. If you don't have a physical or digital copy of a piece of media without DRM, you don't have it permanently. Any digital purchase that includes DRM is only a license, and it's been demonstrated that it's an easily revocable one. When the Ultraviolet movie locker site shut down a few years ago, users lost movies that weren't available through other platforms, or had to jump through hoops to maintain their libraries. I'm still happy to rent via digital platforms, but I've never bought anything that I intended to keep.
To put it plainly, I just don't trust them.
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