I am pretty sure it was around the release of the 25th Anniversary edition that I saw William Friedkin’s 1974 adaption of William Peter Blatty’s novel The Exorcist. At that time I used to go and see anything in the local arts centre or anything that caught my attention in the local cinema. The re-release of The Exorcist was on and I liked demons and devils – so I went.
[Spoiler Alert! This article contains information about the film’s plot]
I have discussed this film many times with peers whose opinions I genuinely respect and it has always received mixed reviews, few seem to love it as much as I do and those that do, have seen it on a big screen. I think there is a point that people miss, I think people get caught up in the hype and legend of American Christian groups boycotting the film, Linda Blair’s use of language and suggestive sexual positioning unsavoury for a 14 year old acting as a 12 year old, as well as Friedkin’s directorial cajoling and manipulation, that we might refer to today as abusive.
But in my opinion, The Exorcist is Friedkin’s masterpiece. Better than The French Connection (only just), Al Pacino’s closeted cop in Cruising or the action excesses of To Live and Die in LA. All Friedkin’s films have those visceral explosions of violence, outlandish set pieces and the gritty ‘realism’ of 70’s American cinema but none do it as well as The Exorcist. From a cinematography perspective that 70’s American style of generous wide shots with loads of empty space in the frame to very close up, shot on those grainy blue Kodak film stocks, is maybe what is so divisive about the film, it feels like a gritty thriller set around a possessed girl, a trio of priests and a police detective – not this hurtling descent into hell that everyone seems to want – and this is what makes the first act for sure – weirdly understated. Quiet suggestion that single mum and actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) is basically neglecting her daughter Regan (Linda Blair), that Regan has made a new friend ‘Captain Howdy’ through the Ouija board she just happened to find in the back of the cupboard in the house they are currently staying in, that Father Damian Karras has lost his faith because he cannot accept that God would allow his Mother’s decent into dementia, that conventional medicine cannot find a reason for Regan’s erratic behaviour – writ large and loud across the screen in one of my favourite cinematic moments when Regan undergoes a brain scan, the emotion of the young girl set against the sheer brutality of a spinal tap and her screaming drowned out by the grinding of the machine is more terrifying and emotional than the “Power of Christ Compels you” sequence.
Everyone in The Exorcist is in a bad place, maybe exclude Max Von Sydow’s aging exorcist or Father Karras’ only friend Father Dyer (played by actual Jesuit priest William O’Malley) who are actually good, and the film becomes a race for those to redeem themselves, not as it may seem to save Regan’s soul, possessed by mega demon Pazuzu.
Mum, Chris MacNeil, regains her daughter and realises her negligence, Father Karras welcomes his opportunity to sacrifice himself to save Regan’s soul when Pazuzu proves too powerful even for the titular exorcist (Max Von Sydow) and faith, belief and the balance of good is once again reset.
I find the end sequence of this film an unusually satisfying and moving pieces of cinema – Father Dyer meets lieutenant William Kinderman (investigating the suspicious death of Chris MacNeil’s Director friend Burke Dennings) they lament the death of Father Karras, engage in a short conversation about the nature of good and evil, revealing Kinderman’s shift from sceptic to believer and together cross the road, arm in arm in the tenderest and most caring event of the entire film.
The Exorcist is not a film about evil, it’s a film about faith, belief and goodness in all people – no matter their situation or life experience. The Exorcist should never be read as a blasphemous film promoting satanic beliefs but a rumination on how faith and belief permeates and guides all our daily lives. I am not a believer but this I assume is the thing Christians would refer to as “God”.
Neil Rose is Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for Film & Screen Arts at Arts University Plymouth and will be introducing the screening of The Exorcist on Friday 31st October at 6pm.
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