One of the most prized possessions in my quite modest collection of film memorabilia comes from our 2013 Mad Monster screening of the 1973 masterpiece, The Exorcist. It’s a simply designed but beautiful poster featuring a priests cassock sprayed with green paint and it features two autographs…
That night at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, we organized to have the movie’s star Linda Blair in attendance with its Director, the formidable William Friedkin.
To celebrate its 40th anniversary Billy (as his friends call him) had agreed to come out to promote his new book at the time: The Friedkin Connection and to talk about the film. Billy also had some very specific sign off requests related to the display of the movie, it seemed that he didn’t just go out for any screening of The Exorcist and we had better make sure that ours was to his satisfaction.
In the build up to the event we communicated about various things and I have to admit I was not only in awe of him and his incredible legacy of work, movies that include The French Connection (1971) and the amazing, Sorcerer (1977). I was slightly terrified. Of course his reputation had preceded him. Stories from the making of The Exorcist frequently talk of how Friedkin was ruthless on set, firing guns off camera to get shocked reactions. Instructing a crew member to yank harder on the harness attached to actress Ellen Burstyn to provide a terrifying response in one of the most harrowing sequences in cinematic history. Slapping an actual real life Priest across the face to elicit tears in the film’s finale just so he could get his shot. The behind the scenes stories are the stuff of legend. Needless to say, William Friedkin’s techniques for making The Exorcist probably wouldn’t go over too well in 2023.
When I first met him, I knew I was going to like him quickly. We walked from his car to the theater. He immediately let out a grumpy rant filled with colorful language about the Q&A he was scheduled to do. Stating he would rather just talk than have someone moderate. ‘Whatever you want Mr Friedkin’ I responded sensing that this was not a guy to say no to. I appreciated this tough no bullshit approach, It was a refreshing alternative to flakey fake L.A industry folk that I had been dealing with up until that point
“Is Linda here?” Was his next question.
“Errmm not yet” was my reply
“Well she better get here soon, I’m going to be in bed by ten”.
I hoped Linda was going to show up soon too, as time was ticking and Billy, who had already shown up professionally early, was one hundred percent going to be at home in his bed by 10pm whether Linda was there or not.
Just the week previous he had gone to the Aero theater in Santa Monica for another screening of The Exorcist. At the Q and A, after the movie he had reportedly told the entire audience to demand their money back as the picture was not up to his standard. As I found out when booking the movie to play, Mr Friedkin would only attend if his colleague from Warner Brothers signed off on the print and the specific screen it was to be shown on. Knowing this, had put me on edge as I genuinely wanted everything to be up to his satisfaction. Luckily I had arranged the Q and A to take place before the movie so Billy would be home, comfy in his slippers before the movie settled in its Georgetown location. After all he wouldn’t stay to watch it…Would he?
The night was memorable for many different reasons but one of my main takeaways from the event was that when it comes to movies, William Friedkin knows what he is talking about.
Of course after the pretty raucous Q and A which Linda did make it to…Just! Billy decided he was going to watch the first ten minutes of the movie from the back of the auditorium. Five minutes in he stormed out with a rather sheepish looking me, grinning at his side.
‘Looks good right?’ I asked, sensing what was to come.
‘Looks like shit!’ was his immediate response.
I was left speechless. I had done everything that was asked of us and wasn’t sure what the issue was. Our head projectionist that night was fortunately on hand to talk with Friedkin about the ‘blacks and depth of blacks’ on screen. After a spirited discussion which included Billy writing things down on a napkin it seemed that he had been given a satisfactory explanation. Then he was gone, into the night. I looked at my watch, it was 9:47pm, I hoped he lived close by.
It would be another five years before I saw Mr Friedkin and this time, it was again for a screening of The Exorcist. This was not my event but one put on by the Turner Classic Movie Festival to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the film. It would be the first time though that I had seen the movie on the big screen. Of course I had watched it plenty of times before. My initial introduction being a black market pirated tape picked up from a collectors Film Fair in the United Kingdom. You see, when I was a kid in Britain in the 1980’s there were a few movies that were not available on VHS. Part of a crackdown on censorship and supposedly violent content. The infamous Video Nasties list.
The Exorcist unbelievably was illegal, had been since 1979. The movie didn’t receive a home release until twenty years later in 1999. As a young cinephile who also was made to attend a Catholic church service every Sunday I was understandably obsessed with horror movies.
The Exorcist was literally the holy grail of these supposed video outlaws and I was going to see it no matter what. Even on that grainy, jumpy, highly illegal version (which definitely would not have been approved by William Friedkin) supplied to me by a man from Scotland. The movie was undeniable. At the age of thirteen I had finally seen one of the most notorious movies ever made and felt like my transition to full on cinephile was complete.
Fast forward back to the 45th anniversary of the film also at the Chinese Theatre. I sat and watched more enraptured than ever before, on the biggest of screens. When the movie finished and the house lights went up William Friedkin made his attendance known by giving one of the most fascinating Q and A’s I have ever experienced. Talking in detail about making the movie and never publicly discussed before, the real life serial murderer Paul Bateson who appears briefly as a lab technician in the film. How he visited Bateson in prison to interview him before eventually using aspects of Bateson’s story for his 1980, Al Pacino starring movie Cruising. When Friedkin speaks the passion and intellect are evident and by the end of the discussion there was a feeling in the audience that all of us had experienced something special.
Saturday April 15th 2023 and once again Friedkin, is set to appear at the Chinese for the 50th anniversary of the film and once again I feel compelled to be there.
You see, for me The Exorcist easily sits comfortably in my top favorite movies of all time. I actually consider it to be one of the greatest films ever made and I do not get tired of watching it. As British film critic and self titled Exorcist expert Mark Kermode so eloquently puts it… The movie is different every time I watch it. So viewing this 50th anniversary screening I am struck again by how well it plays. It’s not just the performances of a cast working at the top of their game. It’s not just the story that grips from the opening and doesn’t let go until long after the credits roll. It’s not the incredible effects work, that apart from maybe a shot here and there, feel like they haven’t aged a day. The Exorcist is more than a movie, it’s a cultural moment that has lingered in the public’s consciousness and been passed down for generations. It has frequently been copied but never equaled, it has been parodied and sampled, examined and reexamined and still reveals secrets on every viewing. After fifty years one thing is for sure… The Exorcist has lost none of its power.
At the ripe old age of 87, William Friedkin is as mischievous as ever. Striding across the stage for this recent Q and A, every member of the nearly thousand strong audience rose to their feet to salute the man who brought the cinematic masterpiece they had just witnessed to life. Opening with jokingly threatening to sue Warner Brothers and ending with a passionate speech about his love for Citizen Kane (in his opinion the greatest movie of all time). William Friedkin feels apparently that he never made a movie as good as the Orson Wells classic from 1941. He also feels that there is little reason to go to the movies these days shouting out to the audience for recommendations; he promptly lays his mic down on the floor and rolls his eyes when given some that apparently don’t meet his admittedly high standard. He has a point. Rarely do we see a film that grips us in the way The Exorcist does, probably because it’s not just a horror movie. As pointed out to me by Billy on that first screening a decade ago, The Exorcist is not a horror movie as he sees it. It is a movie about Faith. Mr Friedkin should perhaps have more faith then in the fact that he has his very own Citizen Kane right there in front of him. The Exorcist is not as he so modestly puts it, a ‘good picture’ it’s a near flawless one that fifty years on irresistibly affects audiences in a way few cinematic experiences are able to.
I suspect throughout this year there will be a number of big screen showings taking place to celebrate this half a century milestone. So do yourselves a favor, reacquaint yourselves. Check out the incredible documentaries… The Fear of God by Mark Kermode and Friedkin’s own Leap of Faith which talk in detail about the making of this masterpiece. Go out of your way to catch this movie on the biggest screen possible and sit back in awe, because despite it’s age, and subsequent slew of demonic possession imitators there truly is no movie quite like The Exorcist.
