The Friedkin Connection

The Friedkin Connection

 The Good, The Bad and The Really Ugly

 by Morgan P Salvo 

I truly thought William Friedkin had a much more illustrious career.  Yet when I look back I find he has his share of some real truly great films and some horrific duds


.

The French Connection
Gene Hackman deserved his Academy Award for his role as Manhattan homicide detective Popeye Doyle who furiously tracks down a heroin ring. Boasts one of the best car chases of all time (for the time) rivaling Steve McQueen’s Bullitt.

:

The Exorcist

 The movie that has scared audiences around the world for decades still does today. The tried and true version stays close to the best seller by William Peter Blatty and gave us our first glimpses into demonic possession not to mention a little girl cursing, growing legions on her face, spinning her head around and puking green bile into a priest’s face.

Sorcerer

The most overlooked film in history. This is a remake of the French film Wages of Fear with an international cast headed by Roy Schieder about fugitives from the law driving dynamite across treacherous terrain through South America. This is NOT an evil magician movie as people thought. Sorcerer was named after one of the trucks used to transport the dynamite, but was just too misleading. Containing Schieder’s best performance ever, with a throbbing soundtrack by Tangerine Dream the dazzling filmmaking and editing are mesmerizing while the jaw dropping suspense causes unruly tension. This is one of the best movies I’ve ever seen. It’s in my top ten list movies of all time and the poster hangs on my wall. It is a masterpiece.

 

 

Cruising

Al Pacino stars as a cop who goes undercover in the S&M gay community to catch a serial killer. Very disjointed to say the least and a big hit in Europe. But after viewings over several years it still feels too arty and messed up but the strange ambiguous ending makes sense and is pretty good. Pacino’s performance is also strange and it’s pretty damn funny to see him snort poppers and dance with men at a club.

  

 

 Bug
 This flick put Michael Shannon on the map with one of the greatest performances of all time. Perfectly showcasing the beautifully demented script by Tracy Letts, A well-written psychological mess, this is an elaborate guessing game as to what’s real, imagined and/or manipulated. A flagrant study on the psychosis of loneliness and madness, this is all about paranoia and surreal to the hilt.

The Guardian

I am probably the only person who likes this flick.  This is one of those nanny-gone-wrong flicks with a twist: she’s a druid and wants to sacrifice the child to the tree god/monsters. Lots of slime in this one.

The Boys in the Band

Based on the play of the same name this was one of the first openly gay themed stage performance and flicks of the time. It’s all about a birthday party that reveals dysfunctions and bad attitudes stemming from the intake of way too much alcohol.

Decade Under the Influence

A very cool “must-see” documentary about the anti-establishment flicks of the 70’s. Rebellious and heavily creative, this was a time when producers, directors, writers and actors all went at it with the same integrity. A time long forgotten at this point. Friedkin is one of the most animated and vocal interviewees.

 
To Live and Die in LA

Great cast yet intensely lame and riveting at the same time. A hell-bent Secret Service agent ( CSI’s William Peterson) will stop at nothing to bring down the counterfeiter who killed his partner. A revenge flick that defines the 80’s and plays out like homage to Sam Peckinpah and Grand Theft Auto.

The Hunted

Truly a WTF were they thinking movie, Pitting acting giants Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro, one a deep-woods tracker the other a trained assassin, both survivalists duking it out in the wild … ridiculous from start to finish. Filmed in Silver Falls, Oregon.

Jade

Critics hated this detective cheesy axe murderer yarn. I think it has to do with an inherent communal hatred for David Caruso or the teaming with Paul Verhoeven’s screenwriter pal Joe Eszterhas. Great chase scene where an angry Caruso gets stuck in traffic during a Chinatown parade. So bad it’s good.

 













The Birthday Party

Teaming with playwright Harold Pinter they bring to life the big screen version of Pinter’s vision about a lodger in a seaside boarding house who is menaced by two mysterious strangers who berate him by asking idiotic, unanswerable questions and then throw him a party. Thanks to Robert Shaw, Patrick Magee and Danny Nichols for they absolutely rule.