R.I.P. William Friedkin, acclaimed director of The Exorcist and The French Connection
Friedkin also directed To Live And Die In L.A., Sorcerer, Bug, and many others. He was 87.
Aux News William Friedkin
William Friedkin—the Oscar-winning director of such films as The Exorcist and The French Connection—has died. The news was confirmed by his wife, former producer Sherry Lansing, per The Hollywood Reporter. He was 87.
Friedkin was seen as one of the most influential and interesting filmmakers of his generation (most of whom were largely active around the 1970s). He stood out for his ability to elevate genre films and infuse a layer of “fear and paranoia, both old friends of mine,” into the proceedings, per his 2013 memoir The Friedkin Connection (via THR), that stuck with viewers for a long time after. As former The A.V. Club contributor Tom Breihan summed up in 2019, “The Exorcist is a terrifying, repellant, physically exhausting, expertly made movie, and its massive, overwhelming box office success is frankly baffling.”
While Friedkin’s early work included 1967's Sonny and Cher starring The Good Times and 1970's The Boys In The Band (which recently received a 2020 remake), it wasn’t until 1971 that he achieved his first mainstream, critical success with crime-thriller The French Connection—a film that AFI has since named one of the 100 Greatest American Movies Of All Time. Friedkin was named best director at the 1972 Oscars for his work on the film.
Not resting on his laurels, the director followed this effort up with perhaps his best-known and “most challenging” film: 1973's The Exorcist. Beyond spawning multiple sequels (including the upcoming reboot The Exorcist: Believer, currently set for October of this year) and a TV show—none of which Friedkin ever watched, according to The Guardian—Friedkin’s original adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s 1971 novel was a box office slam dunk in its own right, earning over $425 million worldwide on $12 million budget. The film was also the first—and still one of the only—horror film nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.
Friedkin’s later credits include 1977's Sorcerer (his favorite of his films, according to The Guardian), 1980's Cruising, 1985's To Live And Die In L.A., 1987's Rampage, and 2006's Bug among many others. His last film was 2017's The Devil And Father Amorth, a documentary about a real-life exorcist in Italy.
21 Comments
Oof. That’s a big one.“Sorcerer” is my fave too, with a runner-up being the underrated “The Brinks Job”.
“Sorcerer” is an amazing film.The only criticism I have for it is the title, which is just a baffling choice.
Yeah I adore this film, but I agree, the title might be the worst I’ve seen for a movie, both because it seemingly conveys nothing of what the film is about, and also because considering Friedkin’s last film was the Exorcist, titling a film like Sorcerer is definitely going to cause viewers to make some assumptions about what the film is (and is not). It should’ve just been called The Wages of Fear.I’m also not a huge fan of Roy Scheider in the lead. He’s just not a leader actor for me. He doesn’t carry that movie like one needs to. I really wish Friedkin had been able to get Steve MacQueen like he wanted.
Counterpoint, I’m a huge fan of Scheider and for me he works way better than McQueen would have. He’s not supposed to be a hero, they’re all terrible people hiding out at the arse end of the world.
I’m glad Friedkin lived long enough to see Sorcerer get re-evaluated as the masterpiece it is.
Sonny and Cher starring The Good Times Actually just “Good Times”, no “The”.We just got news of him making his first narrative feature in something like a decade. Which means I just missed my chance to see a first-run Friedkin movie in theaters during his lifetime.
I don’t think The Exorcist’s success is baffling at all. It hits every target – true evil, body horror, child in jeopardy, religion, human frailty – right in the center.
Right. Not at all baffling. The novel sold 13 million. And, as you say, it had an irresistable recipe. Imagine, an 11 year old girl chattering like a nasty old devil. But then the film. at least, can be seen as a critique of the single, career mother and the abuses of the patriarchy (abusive men, religion). I remember the 70s well, when some mothers could not cope with their daughters’ growing indpendence and literally called them “possessed.”
The only problem is that there are a lot of people then (and even today) who seriously believe in demonic possession and try to have their obviously mentally ill children or whatever seen by a exorcist and not by a medical professional. This movie fed into this even if not intentionally, the same way that Jaws led to people killing sharks thinking that they were doing the world a favor.
To Live and Die in LA was insanely ahead of its time. We’re presented with an apparent hero in the Dirty Harry mold as a “cowboy cop” who isn’t afraid to break the rules if it means taking down the bad guys…and then he’s slowly revealed to be a reckless idiot who is the direct cause of many of his own problems. And where even many films about gritty, morally ambiguous cops would chicken out at the end and say “Actually, they’re the good guys in this situation so you should still root for them,” this one truly takes the idea all the way to its logical conclusion. Plus, it has a killer car chase up there with the one Friedkin had already given us in The French Connection.
Love, love, love To Live and Die in L.A. – his most underrated film. And I don’t care what anyone says, Wang Chung’s score is nothing but banger after banger.
Plus Grissom running!
Yeah, To Live and Die In LA is nearly perfect. And I love the chase – it’s like someone told Friedkin “well, you’re not going to top the chase in French Connection” so he just went ahead and did.I think later he recut Rampage, his serial-killer-on-trial movie, to reflect his own changed mind on the death penalty. Never saw the later cut, but the first one… it didn’t work because the killer (based on Richard Ramirez) and his crimes were so, so chilling, so arguing for his life to be spared fell flat with me.Anyway – that’s the one film of his I didn’t like. I haven’t seem them all though. I include Cruising as a good one, by the way – it was slammed by the gay community when it came out, with reasons.. but it was a solid mystery exploring a subculture. I didn’t see it as the homophobic screed it was taken for by many.
The Devil and Father Amorth is not his final film. The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial is premiering at Venice.
He was almost always a more interesting director than his movies with his individual choices being typically better than the sum of the whole. “The French Connection” is one of those movies that seems like it’s better than it really is. “The Exorcist” doesn’t work at all for me and is little more than a more clumsy, graphic episode of “Night Gallery” (“Rosemary’s Baby is sooo much better). The car chase in “To Live and Die in L.A.” was amazing and exhausting in a movie theater and the film itself was an invigorating synthesis of seventies and eighties film aesthetics .“Sorcerer” is probably his best work and one of the more interesting examples of late New Hollywood excess although you won’t thank me for recommending it (but go watch it).
He was a smart, perceptive guy and like Guirellmo del Toro he curiously had far more interesting things to say about films, especially older movies, than his own work would indicate. I read an interview with him about a year ago. He seemed upbeat and sanguine about his career and legacy and optimistic about the future of movies. Rest in peace.
“Bug” seems to be highly divisive but I think Shannon and Judd are great in it and his direction is so intense.
I think the polarization is entirely down to it being sold as a straight horror film instead of what it really is.
I just rewatched To Live and Die in LA a couple weeks back and it sure does hold up nicely. Friedkin was a wild man, not the most loveable of people going by the Exorcist production, but damn could he make a gritty film. French Connection really didn’t make any part of New York look good and it was years before Taxi Driver. Definitely a fella who’s hard to forget.
Any tips on where to find To Live and Die in LA? Streaming if possible?
One of the greats; his career had its down moments but he’s got at least four solid masterpieces in there, and his late career had the two Tracy Letts features which are both really good.