My favourite Friedkins were not The Exorcist or The French Connection. I've seen both multiple times, but my top three remain Sorcerer, Cruising, and The Hunted. Just in terms of personal pleasure I receive from the films, you understand -- not asserting the greatness of The Hunted over The French Connection, or anything ridiculous like that. Though Sorcerer is one of the best films made by anyone anywhere, a remarkable piece of cinema. See if if you haven't. And The Hunted -- while I've read people dismiss it as a First Blood knockoff, and can sort of see their point -- has some great work from Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro, some amazing Pacific Northwest locations, and some very fresh bits of filmmaking. There was a blu-ray release of it awhile back, if you've missed it. Great knife-fight choreography, too.
There was a brief window where I was getting Friedkin posts in my feed on FB. It's possible we interacted once, around the theatrical re-release of Sorcerer, but I forget. I left a few comments. I was really glad that film got reconsidered and restored.
Have his book, too, which came out around that time. It's a good read. Amusingly, he makes no mention of The Guardian at all -- his evil tree film. It's one of those few horror films Erika has seen but I haven't; what I did see of it -- the first five minutes or so -- was, how to put it politely, unconvincing. I turned it off so as to spare myself the embarrassment; presumably he didn't write about it for similar reasons.
I felt bad for him that he ever had, because of The Exorcist, his arm twisted to make other horror films, which is what The Guardian feels like (those first few minutes, anyhow). I never did watch that exorcism documentary he made -- his previous film -- for just that reason. Is it worth seeing?
Killer Joe was certainly fun. Does everyone realize that the guy who Matt Damon takes for a traumatizing drive in Ford vs. Ferrari is the author of the play that film is based on? Bug, too. Two other very enjoyable Friedkins.
TBH I have mixed feelings about exorcism movies in general. I am almost always entertained by them, but the whole idea of demonic possession is so, uh, goddamn backwards that I don't know what to do with it. I mean, I was raised Catholic, right? There are things I think useful and interesting about Christianity, but the concept of demonic possession is not among them. Exorcism movies ultimately are like movies about global voyages where the threat of falling off the edge of the earth is taken seriously.
But though I will watch the odd exorcism film, I don't actually care much for The Exorcist, these days. The opening stuff with Max in Iraq is great, but once the pea soup starts flying, I tune out. It seems like some sort of conservative political pornography ("kids these days," yadda yadda). Jason Miller is great in it and there are nice moments throughout but overall I just can't stick with it, the feeling of my eyes hitting the back of my head gets too distracting (though not because of the concept of exorcism, but because the subtext is just so fucking right-wing/ conservative). And it's not the only film of his that is politically suspect: Rules of Engagement is well made and interesting but it's ultimately so over-the-top in its Islamophobia that, bonk, there go your eyes again, better get that checked.
But the fact of his having made a few movies I consider kinda politically contemptible on some level somehow only serves to underscore how remarkable a filmmaker he was. He contained multitudes.
BTW if you wonder about Cruising, which got attacked as homophobic, you should read Robin Wood on the film in Hollywood From Vietnam to Reagan (a noted queer film critic who greatly admired the movie). There's a PDF of the whole book, in its expanded later edition, on Google Drive that I was able to find online; if that link works, start around page 42, where the film is first mentioned, then keep going for about 20 pages. I guess the hope that an extended cut of that would surface is dashed with Friedkin's death, but it was never a very big hope. It's still very worthy of re-consideration.
Trivial note, speaking of queer cinema and Friedkin: Ryszard Bugajski, director of Clearcut, admired Friedkin's gay-themed The Boys in the Band quite a bit. We talk about that on the commentary on the Severin box set, though I forget now if the comments that I recall were apropos of that or Midnight Cowboy, which we also talked about; they could apply equally to both films. But Bugajski was impressed to see American filmmakers making films about America that were both accurate and CRITICAL of their own country, which was not really done in Communist Poland (but which he himself would do, of course, with The Interrogation and later with General Nil, The Closed Circuit, and Blindness). If you have the box set and are a Friedkin fan, maybe you'll find that part of the commentary interesting to listen to? (Not sure where it is, but listen to the whole thing! I have yet to hear of anyone who has).
I am very glad Friedkin completed one more film, and what sounds like a major one.
RIP, Mr. Friedkin; thanks for the movies.
i saw the exorcist opening day at the stanley...i remember a long line up down granville st...i wanted to see it because i had loved the french connection...brought up in an athiest home i knew nothing about demon possession and exorcism...the movie scared the shit out of me...the first time...the second time a couple of days later i realized the scares were mostly generated by cheap tricks like the telephone ringing real loud on the soundtrack...i found the performances overwrought...this time i found the movie to be hilarious...puking in a priest's face made me imagine the three stooges as exorcists...curly possessed and puking in moe's face...not scary at all...what scares me is the fact that some people really believe this insane explanation for mental illness...confirms my belief that religion is ridiculous...when i went to see the sorcerer i was expecting more crazy religious exploitation...instead i saw a truly great movie...friedkin redeemed himself in my eyes...i saw cruising at denman place cinema...the theatre was filled with men in black leather looking just like extras in the movie on screen...i pretended i was al pacino undercover in my black leather jacket...i know i liked it back then but have not seen it since and don't remember much about it...i do remember it was very dark...in tone and literally...lots of night scenes in dark clubs streets...i saw to live n die in la in '85...didn't like it much then...saw it again recently at viff...back to the 80s fest...i hated it...seen it all before in a much better movie...the french connection...new york in the 70s trumps la in the 80s...hackman and scheider trump who ever played the two good/bad cops in to live n die..(didn't like dafoe either...he didn't begin to impress me until platoon...also hated him in streets of fire...a real stupid mtv video pretending to be a movie...a strike out for walter hill who has made some really good movies that i really liked)...plus the stupidest most unbelievable car chase on film...blue chips is an entertaining nick nolte sports movie...i saw killer joe on home video...i liked it but will never really judge a movie i haven't seen on the big screen...every movie is just a tv show when watched on a tv...
ReplyDeleteYeah, the fandom for To Live and Die in LA seems excessive to me. It would be fine as a Michael Mann movie, maybe. Tried several times but just don't care. And cool that we are kind of the same re: The Exorcist!
ReplyDeleteI keep trying re: Streets of Fire but it's definitely not a film I love like some people I know. Kind of the beginning of the end for Hill, really - has he done anything good since? (Trespass was not flat-out BAD but that's not the same thing). I tried The Assignment, just to see Michelle Rodriguez with a big, swinging dick (the plot = Sigourney Weaver performs an involuntary sex change on a fugitive hitman, who then comes back for revenge. It's such a batshit premise I hadda see it, but I would never watch it a second time).
I actually have an extra DVD of Cruising that you can have. Holds up pretty well. I don't guess you're coming to David's thing in New West tonight but if you are lemme know and I'll tote it along.
Early Dafoe-wise, I recommend Kathryn Bigelow's co-direct (first film!) The Loveless. Biker movie with Robert Gordon -- moody li'l thing but enjoyably packed with attitude. https://tubitv.com/movies/100004368/the-loveless
pondered m in nw..but the drive at rush hour took me a couple of hours once...rush hour traffic on the connector and the bridges is nuts...or i would have to take the train to waterfront and then all the way across town again to new west...so no i won't be there...chances of seeing cruising on the big screen again are slim so sure i'll look at it on dvd...i liked the loveless and roadhouse 66 on video...fun midnight movie grindhouse drive in type entertainment...chuck e weiss has a couple of tunes on the soundtrack for 66...that was a happy surprise for me to hear...i liked defoe in both movies but not like now...he is now one of those 'if he is in a movie i want to see it' kinda guys...
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