One of the most daring filmmakers in the world, the late great William Friedkin is interviewed about his life and career in this insightful, nostalgic, and oftentimes very funny documentary. Courtesy of Quiver Distribution.It still hasn’t truly hit me yet that William Friedkin passed away this year. This only happened in August, and the legendary filmmaker of hits like The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973) lived to be 87. Quite the life, and I didn’t even know he was Jewish! (Probably because I only ever associate him with The Exorcist, a very, un-Jewish horror movie with priests instead of rabbis.) While rewatching FRIEDKIN UNCUT (2018), it’s like a fist punched me in the chest. This is an insightful but very sad movie to watch. Friedkin was a genius, not to mention incredibly sarcastic, vulgar, and absolutely hilarious. We may have not known him personally, but from his interviews, we know we’ve lost a great guy. In honor of the latest Exorcist movie, The Exorcist: Believer (2023), hitting theaters today, I want to pay tribute to this incredible artist.
I should note, first off, that Friedkin had nothing to do with this latest Exorcist movie. In fact, he publicly ripped apart all the sequels that followed his iconic film. That’s the great thing about Friedkin: his candor. This was a guy who did what he wanted with his art and never shied away from his feelings.
“Acting and directing is a job,” says Friedkin in the film. “Some schmuck who sits around here and says ‘I’m an artist’ is fu*king crazy!”
I always like to tell my non-movie buff friends that there is a “rulebook” in Hollywood that directors sometimes feel they need to follow, and then there are others who throw the rulebook out the window and do what they want. Critics may call them iconoclastic filmmakers. I just think they’re brave. Even if their films are borderline offensive or inconceivably intense (go watch a Lars Von Trier movie…), they are making a statement. Those are my favorite kind of directors, the ones who mute producers or noises urging them to change things. It doesn’t matter. It’s their art. Even if it doesn’t do well, it’s not the end of the world. They can just move on to the next film.
FRIEDKIN UNCUT, which we regrettably didn’t get to show at PJFM, is an Italian-made film by director Francesco Zippel. As we see in his movie, Friedkin was an international star, inspiring movie buffs from around the globe. FRIEDKIN UNCUT made waves at a few festivals, including Venice, before heading to streaming platforms. Zippel sits down with Friedkin, a formidable-looking man with high pants, his famous big glasses, and a cup of coffee, and simply chats with the filmmaker. The interview is intercut with clips from Friedkin’s films, the actors he’s worked with, and the directors he has inspired, along with a lot of cups of coffee. Matthew McConaughey, Ellen Burstyn, Quentin Tarantino, Wes Anderson, Willem Dafoe, Juno Temple, etc. So many people, and not one of them has something bad to say about him.
For the actors, Friedkin was great because of how laid back he was with them.
“Rehearsal is for sissies,” he says. “I’m not looking for perfection. I’m looking for spontaneity.”
If you watch any Friedkin actor, there’s no denying that the actors go for it like crazy. They go to dark places, so dark that you sometimes forget these are just characters. We all know little Linda Blair’s ordeal having to curse, levitate, and vomit pea soup as a possessed girl in The Exorcist, but then there’s Michael Shannon becoming convinced that the government implanted bugs in his skin in Bug (2006), a really underrated classic of Friedkin’s. There’s also Matthew McConaughey and Gina Gershon in Killer Joe (2011) where they…well, there’s a violent scene involving a chicken wing. That’s all I’ll say. (It’s an insane, NC-17 rated thriller, but absolutely AMAZING. I can’t recommend it enough.)
“He’s always looking for people to put themselves out there,” says actor Michael Shannon. “You have to go to that dark place. He’s very aware when something is phony.”
“Evil” and “darkness” are huge themes in a lot of Friedkin’s movies. If you watch Cruising (1980), one of his more controversial thrillers starring Al Pacino, you’re not just watching a detective thriller. You’re watching a film about a depraved serial killer brutally murdering men in New York City’s gay community. There’s nothing at all entertaining about it. Everything is based in an eerie reality in the movie. The murder at the beginning of the film is shocking, as it should be.
Even in The Exorcist, everything is so real. The terror doesn’t come right away. Friedkin avoids big special effects and music. He prolongs all of this, and by the time that little girl is doing you-know-what with that crucifix… You are terrified beyond belief. In The French Connection¸ when Gene Hackman is chasing the baddie in his car, that’s all real. Those aren’t background actors on the street. That’s not Hackman on a soundstage pretending to drive. Just thinking about scenes like these ones, I wonder HOW in the heck Friedkin got away with it.
“He doesn’t philosophize about evil,” says director Francis Ford Coppola. “He shows you evil.”
Alright, so this is getting dark. My apologies. Let’s take it back and talk a little bit about Friedkin’s upbringing. He was born in Chicago in 1935 to a Jewish family. He went to Hebrew school but was a pretty secular kid, although he does say he knows a little Yiddish. (It makes sense, given how many times Friedkin says the word “schmuck” in this movie.) He first got a job in television right when it was pretty new. He didn’t grow up particularly interested in film until he saw the one and only Citizen Kane (1941) when he was 21. (And if you’re not a movie buff and are reading this, just know that Citizen Kane is considered to be the greatest movie (or American movie) of all time.)
After that experience, he knew his passion. In 1962, his first movie was released on TV, titled The People vs. Paul Crump, a documentary about a 22-year-old black man sentenced to the electric chair for a failed robbery. Friedkin was so convinced that Crump was innocent that he showed his film to the governor of Illinois. He believed him too, and Crump’s life was spared. One word: WOW. To think that Friedkin’s first movie, a film barely anyone knows, made such a significant impact is so incredible.
After Paul Crump came The French Connection¸ which garnered five Academy Awards, including Best Director. And then came The Exorcist, a film I’ve probably talked about way too much in this post and could talk about forever because it’s one of my favorite films. (Sorry. I’ll stop.) Years later, Friedkin even directed operas. His final film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023), starring Kiefer Sutherland and Jason Clarke, just premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
There are plenty of other Friedkin movies you may find on his IMDB page that you’ve never heard of, maybe because they were commercial or critical flops. Regardless of his failures, Friedkin did what every director should do and not let a flop ruin the day. My favorite scene of FRIEDKIN UNCUT is where the director talks about a small mistake he had made in Killer Joe. In one scene, a character opens a car door, and for just a quick second, you can see the cameraman in the reflection of the window. Friedkin’s editors urged him to do more takes and re-do the whole scene.
“What’s the big deal?” was Friedkin’s reaction. It was just a second. Would this entire movie be ruined by that one second?
I hope I’ve convinced you already to A) check out FRIEDKIN UNCUT and B) give one of Friedkin’s movies a shot. Together, let’s never forget one of the most daring – not to mention funny – filmmakers of our time.
William Friedkin
1935- 2023
FRIEDKIN UNCUT is now available to stream on Tubi.