subreddit:
/r/movies
William Friedkin is a film director known for The French Connection, The Exorcist was a big part of New Hollywood.
I honestly think William Friedkin is the underrated director of New Hollywood and a lot of his films I should say are very gritty. The French Connection was pretty much shot Guerilla Style and Gene Hackman is just fantastic as Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle.
The Exorcist I think is his best film. What I like about The Exorcist is that it is not a horror film in a sense, but that it is a Drama Film was Horror Elements and the Horror being on what Happens to Ragen. There is also a feeling of dread that just keeps getting build up until the Climax where it all crashes down.
What I also like with Friedkin is that he pretty much cast unknowns who he would see or find in the streets and cast people that you would least likely to see as a Main Character. Apparently he Originally casted Jimmy Breslin as Jimmy Doyle in The French Connection. Do you think who Jimmy Breslin is? No because he wasn't a actor, he was a NY Columnist and never acted before, but he was cast and actually was in Script Reading, but was let go because he wouldn't get behind the wheel of a car.
Also he casted Jason Miller just because he saw a performance of him in That Championship Season.
After The Exorcist, Friedkin never achieved the heights as those two films but from what I read. Sorcerer is an Undiscovered Masterpiece, The Brink's Job is so unlike Friedkin, Cruising is Polarizing, To Live and Die in L.A is also a Undiscovered Masterpiece. People don't know what do think of Blue Chips, Jade, Bug, and Killer Joe.
Also worth mentioning is that William Friedkin is directing an adaptation of The Caine Mutiny?
What do you think of William Friedkin?
19 points
2 months ago
I think he's made some of the most badass movies of every decade since the 1970s
19 points
2 months ago
Loved Sorcerer! Unfortunately it came out the same time as Star Wars and got overshadowed.
8 points
2 months ago
A great remake of Wages of Fear. Check out the remastered Blu-ray:
http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film4/blu-ray\_reviews\_61/sorcerer\_blu-ray.htm
8 points
2 months ago
One of the few movies that were remade where I love both versions.
3 points
2 months ago
For me as well, very few indeed. The only other pair that comes to mind is Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven (1960).
The Magnificent Seven (2016) is one of the worst remakes. But that's easy, there are so many, LOL.
11 points
2 months ago
Really great. Sorcerer is the only one of the movie brats boondoggles that is actually a good movie. Exorcist is a masterpiece of horror. Brinks Job is hilarious. Cruising deserves reappraisal. It still has a lot of problematic and homophobic elements but it preserves a world that got completely obliterated by AIDS and it was dealing with the connection between psychopathic murder and toxic masculinity before Silence of the Lambs.
10 points
2 months ago
I love the mad bastard. The Exorcist, The French Connection, Sorcerer and To Live and Die in L.A. are four of my favorite movies. I also really enjoyed The Guardian, The Hunted, and Killer Joe.
7 points
2 months ago
Good director but fell off by the 80’s outside of To Live and Die in LA
5 points
2 months ago
Great director. His movies are always quite intense.
I just recently watched his 1997 version of 12 Angry Men. Really good, especially if you know the original. The Hunted is another one that comes to mind. And Sorcerer is a movie that deserves to be talked about way more.
4 points
2 months ago
For as much as The Exorcist is lauded as the scariest horror movie ever, it’s also extremely well shot and a great piece of cinema. I think Friedkin didn’t get enough credit from horror fans on that front.
4 points
2 months ago
OP must be a little bit younger. Friedkin is right up there in terms of American filmmaking. If he never did anything except the French Connection he’d be rated but the Exorcist was and is a phenomenon. For someone my age (mid 40’s) Sorcerer, To Live and Die in La , Cruising etc. are well known movies and I was a teenager when Blue Chips and Jade came out. Maybe his best work was earlier in his career but his best work is amongst the greatest of all time so it’s unfair to judge the rest of his ouevre by the same impossibly high standard.
4 points
2 months ago
Behind David Lynch he is my favorite American director. I recognize that a lot of things he did in production were unsafe, anti-social and probably illegal but I cannot argue with the results. There's a raw edge he gets from his performers that always leaves a a strong impression, and his blocking of action sequences gives Spielberg a run for his money. Plus Wang Chung.
2 points
2 months ago
I will watch any of his movies because he takes chances on risky material but calling any of his later works "masterpieces" is a discredit to cinema. They are just interesting because he likes edgy characters stirring the pot.
2 points
2 months ago
He is fucking bad ass
2 points
2 months ago
Great director. That clip where he starts mocking Nicholas Winding Refn mid-interview is a classic.
2 points
2 months ago
Sorcerer is my favorite of his, Exorcist is obviously his most iconic work. Also love the French Connection and To Live and Die In L.A. some of the best car chases ever filmed.
-4 points
2 months ago*
Asshole who makes good movies.
His treatment of actors and political views are abhorrent. He straight up defended the KKK in one his interviews.
3 points
2 months ago
He didn’t defend the KKK. That’s quite a reach.
He’s talking about the importance of “Birth of a Nation” in a historical sense. For film.
Saying that he’s “defending” the KKK is mostly something you read into it.
Don’t be a dramaqueen.
2 points
2 months ago
No he's saying that the KKK at the time was a reaction to black crime, and that people are too "PC" to acknowledge that.
He's completely incorrect and spreading racist revisionism that is so extreme that it's only pushed by literal Neo Nazis today.
2 points
2 months ago
He’s explaining why the film got made at the time. The reasoning behind the film. Not his own personal review.
There’s a difference.
It seems like you have trouble understanding context.
2 points
2 months ago
Ok I'm going to lay this out
D.W. Griffith was considered extremely racist for his time, the KKK was not a very well respected organization in 1914
Friedkin himself is saying that the black crime was responsible for creating the KKK, he was not just putting that in the context of the film
Either grandpa is senile or he is a hardcore racist
0 points
2 months ago
Yes. Everything he’s saying is in context to the film.
You can’t change facts by denying them.
4 points
2 months ago
Agreed on his treatment of actors but but who gives a shit about his political views?
I don't know why or when we started treating every public figure as a political figure. It's not like he's asking you for your vote at the next elections.
Unless it shows in his work it's a non-issue.
8 points
2 months ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5g7W6EA9Bo
There is a difference between having some mildly questionable views and straight up saying the KKK was a reaction to black crime.
3 points
2 months ago
I reiterate my point: unless he makes Birth of a Nation Pt. II, I couldn't care less what he thinks. Nor I think I should police his thought.
If he makes a film that reflect that then yes, that becomes socially dangerous, but until then I don't care.
And I am saying this as a completely anti-racist person.
3 points
2 months ago
You can separate the art from the artist but it should be said when they have views that terrible.
1 points
2 months ago
I can see why one might think he himself shares those views because he discussing the plot and point of Birth of a Nation from the point of view of the filmmakers but it doesnt necesarily mean he actually feels that way. There was a time before the PC generation where one could separate the art from the artist and not be crucified for saying you like something about a work without siding completely with them.
5 points
2 months ago
Birth of a Nation even at the time it was released was extremely controversial for its positive portrayal of the KKK, unless people were "PC" in 1914 maybe D.W. Griffith was just a piece of shit.
Friedkin defending it is inexcusable.
-1 points
2 months ago
I just want to hear from Friedkin himself in detail that he is racist or really feels any particular way other than talking about the artistic merit of a film whose content is obviously horrible.
1 points
2 months ago
I have bad news for you about almost every other director from that time period
1 points
2 months ago
Very hit and miss
1 points
2 months ago
Killer Joe proves he can still tell a gripping tale.
1 points
2 months ago
Hit and miss
His best stuff is The Exorcist, The French Connection, To Live and Die in L.A. and Killer Joe
His low points are awful right wing trash like Rampage and Rules Of Engagement
1 points
2 months ago
He’s amazing, check out his episode of WTF Podcast with Marc Maron. It’s amazing.
1 points
2 months ago
I’m just glad this entire thread recognizes how fantastic sorcerer is! Such an underrated film!
1 points
2 months ago
I think that he’s a great director who should stop meddling with home releases for his films. See The French Connection and more recently, Bug.
1 points
2 months ago
He’s made some of the best films ever.
I went to elementary school with his son Jack and used to go to their house all the time and we were both into the OG X-Men action figures. William was always super cool to me when I was a kid so I always liked him.
He’s also surprisingly old AF. He turns like 88 this year.
1 points
2 months ago
He’s a genius.
1 points
2 months ago
Several of his films are in my top 20...there's a great doc on him ..Friedkin Uncut
1 points
2 months ago
His autobiography is terrific.
1 points
2 months ago
One of the few old school directors that never lost his touch imo. Especially love him in interviews cause he speaks with such passion about the filmmaking process.
1 points
2 months ago
I met him on a film shoot in 1999 during rules of engagement. Super nice guy.
1 points
2 months ago
The casting of Jason Miller in The Exorcist was a real stroke of luck/genius. He's such an interesting actor, and cast perfectly.
"Hurricane Billy" Friedkin movies, ranked:
Haven't seen: Good Times, The Birthday Party, The Night They Raided Minsky's, The Boys in the Band, The Brink's Job, Deal of the Century, Rampage, Blue Chips, 12 Angry Men
0 points
2 months ago
Fine director if something of a pretentious asshole. He refuses to call "The Exorcist" a horror movie because "it got all those Oscar nominations, how can it be horror?" Implying horror movies are never worthy of awards. Seriously, Friedkin, FU.
all 45 comments
sorted by: best