To Absent Friends - William Friedkin

 

William Friedkin

1935-2023

Academy Award winning film director William Friedkin, or "Billy", as he was known to his pals, died earlier this week at the age of 87.  In the 1970's, Friedkin was hailed as one of the up and coming directors in Hollywood.  

Early in his career, he made several documentaries and directed some episodes of various TV series.  He made a couple of fairly well received feature films in 1968 and 1970, "The Night They Raided Minsky's" and "The Boys In The Band", but he struck it rich in 1971 when he directed "The French Connection".   Based on the true story of a couple of New York City cops who busted a major heroin ring, the movie won five Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Gene Hackman), and Best Director for Friedkin.  He followed that one up in 1973 with "The Exorcist", a horror movie about a young girl possessed by the devil and the priest who exorcised the demon.  "The Exorcist" was an enormous box office hit.  It was nominated for nine Oscars, winning two (Screenplay and Sound), and was nominated for Best Picture, Director, and three acting nominations.

"The French Connection" and "The Exorcist" were among the biggest box office hits of the decade, but, as the obituary his the New York Times put it, Friedkin was never again able to obtain the critical and commercial acclaim of those two films.  Among the more interesting looking subsequent works of his was a 1997 TV Movie remake of "12 Angry Men" that starred, among others, Jack Lemmon, George C. Scott, and James Gandolfini.  IMDB tells us that this is available for rental via Amazon Prime, and I might have to check it out.  He also directed a film version of the play "The Caine Mutiny Court Martial" starring Kiefer Sutherland that is due to be released "sometime in 2023".  That will be one to watch out for as well.

But I write this Farewell to Friedkin mainly to be able to post  THIS SCENE,  Hackman's Popeye Doyle commandeering a car and chasing a subway train beneath the elevated New York City subway tracks.  Seven and one-half minutes that comprise the greatest "chase scene" ever in motion pictures (sorry about that all of you Steve McQueen "Bullitt" fans). 

RIP William Friedkin.

Directing Hackman in "The French Connection"

With Linda Blair in "The Exorcist"