Original subtitles

5th year ago, as Christmas approached, Fungo realised they were informal than just

the seasonal surprise or two when they went to the picture house over the holidays.

On December 26, 1973, film history was made when viewers were treated to a series of

shocks that left a lasting impression.

An avalanche have never seen before effects and a script sent it on a biggest question's

life composed.

The battle between good and evil and the existence of the supernatural.

After half a century, the exorcist is part of the cultural landscape, with rumours,

remakes and references abounding.

These both revered as a classic and surrounded by myths and stories about its making and

impact.

Experts and critics are not even agreed as to whether it's actually a true horror film at all.

Now is the time to have another look and assess one of the most talked about films to spread

its flickering light in the darkness.

Boxing Day 1973 and the lines are not just around the block but down the street and around

the corner in every town and city where the exorcist opens.

And soon, the hype and publicity around the release of the movie becomes its own self-propelled

phenomena.

Somewhere between science and superstition, there is another world of darkness.

Nobody expected it.

Nobody believed it.

And nothing could stop it.

There are no experts.

You probably know as much about possession as most priests.

Look, your daughter doesn't say she's a demon, she says she's the devil himself.

I'm telling you that that thing upstairs isn't my daughter.

And I want you to tell me that you know for a fact that there's nothing wrong with

my daughter, except her mind.

You tell me you know for a fact that an exorcism wouldn't do it in good.

You tell me that.

The one hope, the only hope, the exorcist.

They'll come in and they won't be able to watch the home movie because it's just

too much for them.

And they'll come out after about an hour but they don't complain about standing in line.

I don't like it, I want to go home.

It's my heart beat you five.

I don't know, it doesn't bother me that much.

But I guess it bothers me.

It's like a time we see that we still can't hack it.

The sensation that the movie is causing creates its own publicity as it goes.

And the exorcist becomes that rarity.

A cultural event that crosses into the newspapers from the art section to the front page.

In an age without social media, it's all about word of mouth.

And the word on the street is that you have to see this movie.

The Milwaukee Journal, Blair, lands line up to have stomachs turned.

Interanto the star gives a whole page to the exorcist on one day with news photos of crowds

lined up in freezing temperatures.

The idea is that the picture is keeping the ambulances busy.

Later, the New York Times devoted a section front page headline,

Dispriculation, Mama Cows of the Exorcist.

Both in the US and in Europe, the exorcist is the news.

And for moviegoers, the experience of watching the film in a packed film theatre becomes

as important at times as the scenes on the silver screen.

The result is a box office bananza for Warner Brothers and a massive hit.

The highest grossing film of the year and any year before, beating gone with the wind at the

box office and certainly topping any horror film charts.

The exorcist ranks in the top 10 films of the 1970s, alongside the godfather, George,

and only star wars which beat everything that decade, bests it.

However, even a superficial viewing of the film confirms that the exorcist is far more

than a shock exploitation movie.

Of course, given its vintage, it contains absolutely no CGI.

And yet, it calls the reaction amongst audiences that has never been equaled since.

And then there's also the critical reaction.

But the Academy Awards of 1974, the film received no fewer than 10 nominations, 7 golden

globe nominations of which it won four, and countless four and five star reviews from

even some of the industry's toughest critics.

I'm Harry Francis Mench, the national theater here in Westwood.

I've been in this business 40 years now, and I've never go up through anything like this.

It's exciting.

Public love it, anyone.

Last week, in the rain, they stood as it was a sun today.

Mr. Freak in in Mr. Blady, felt sorry for the people.

They hired the caterers.

They give up 3000 cups of coffee each night until 6,000.

The public thought her is great.

I think it's a combination of factors.

And I think it's a combination of the content of the film, which was genuine.

You think this is 1973?

This is genuine the shocking.

So the subject matter is we've got a 12 year old girl who's possessed by a demon, who does

some things which are genuinely shocking.

Still, I've believed to the stage genuinely shocking.

The makeup effects are for the time really quite extreme.

So the content of the film is shocking.

There's the religious outrage aspect of it as well.

But you begin to see a number of reviews which say this film is amazing.

It's so scary.

It's so well done.

You're going to be blown away.

But don't go if you have a weak heart.

Don't take a children.

So that in itself is priming the pump.

Yeah, I think the film caught that kind of zeitgeist that feeling, like everybody.

I don't think anyone wanted to know something about the unknown.

And because it was made in such a serious straightforward way, I mean, really freaking

shot at almost like it's a documentary.

It's not a stylized film.

It's very gritty and real.

And I think people just freaked out because they felt like they were watching something

that really happened.

Well, when it came out, it was, I don't think America had quite seen anything like that.

Since the original Frankenstein and Dracula came out in 1931 and they're all these tales

of people feigning in the aisles and people, you know, having to run off to the lavatory

because they were so strongly affected by what they saw.

And again, it became a genuine cultural phenomenon.

It became wrapped up in its own urban legends.

You hear all these fabulous tales that people, you know, went to mass for the first time

in years after seeing it, that murderers confessed their crimes after being confronted

with this.

And those stories, you know, honestly, I've never fact checked any of them because it's

like I don't really want to know if they're false because I would much rather embrace

the mystique that a film that has that much power.

Also, the marketing campaign around the film breeds the hysteria and that's a model that's

been copied quite a lot since.

So when we hear reports of people fainting, people vomiting, nurses, standing at the front

of the auditorium.

We've heard things like this before, so we had William Castle in the 50s and 60s, the director,

who made sort of Schlockey horror films and used to have sort of wood, pull tricks in

the auditorium.

So we'd have fake nurses standing there.

We'd have electric shocks and you see it for a film, the tingler or do things like that.

But it was all fake.

His films weren't particularly shocking.

Well, this was different.

This was really, people were really responding to this film.

So it comes out in December in the States and people go wild.

And there are reports of hysteria around the film.

You've got Billy Graham saying that the devil is in the cellular, you know.

So the religious groups are taking on this film.

They want to fight with it.

So you've got publicity there already.

You've got reports coming out of the cinemas of people fainting, being carried out.

You've got reports of things happening on the set and around the cinema.

So church has been struck by lightning there cinemas.

So then the studio rubs its hands together.

It just get really scared me a day.

And it's nervous.

You remember what particular scene it was that the...

What did you remember?

What was it?

When she was in a room, my doctors came in and she was...

I guess it was when she was talking to the devil's voice.

Ugh.

Oh, I can't believe it.

But it wasn't just the marketing that made the accesses so special.

There's also an undoubted element of simple good luck in its journey as a production.

Far from being dogged by the infamous curse, there were some amazing elements of good fortune

at key times in its development.

Certainly the release of the film could not have come at a more opportune time.

Culture and society were changing.

The shadow of the Vietnam War was looming over the country.

The end of the 60s brought with it an end to flower power.

And a lot of the feelings of peace and love had been replaced by a darkness.

Most evident at Alamon and the violence of the Rolling Stone Free Festival has brutal death

at the front of the stage replaced the good vibes evident at Woodstock.

As Mick sang simply for the devil, the decade of peace and love came to a grizzly end.

The member of the audience was stamped and then beaten to death by held handchills.

And Mick really scared the poor little guy.

I can't start filming on the stage there and it's silly little Satan out of it.

I hit the side and he was a little out of his element there.

Even worse was waking up to the news that the Manson family had caused carnage in Hollywood

with the brutal slaying of Sharon Tate.

The disciples of Manson helpedfully carve crosses on their foreheads to show the world

where their allegiance is lay.

There was no doubt that if possession was on the menu, then it was closer to home than most people might have realised.

And Hollywood itself was changing.

Gone with the days of Mary Poppins, the sound of music and Camelot.

And in their place, the Godfather, Mean Streets, midnight cowboy and easy rider.

There was a new Hollywood and with a band of young raging bull directors with a new realism.

This year the judges of the Con film festival presented a story began in 1949.

And in the beginning was the word and one man, William Peter Blattie.

When the Oscars were being dulled out, he was up for best adapted screenplay,

adapted from his own book.

The winner is William Peter Blattie for the A-fastial.

I would like to thank Mr. William Bloom, who taught me the rudiments and the craft of screenwriting and Billy Friedkin.

And my late parents who came to this country on a cattle boat and who's loved and who's courage

brought me to this moment and to this place. You've honored them tonight and I thank you very very.

He grew up in New York and grinding poverty. Father left the family when he was quite young.

They begged on street corners. He had a really rough, rough childhood, but he was brilliant

and he wanted scholarship to George Town University. They gave one scholarship a year at that time

and the exam was seven hours long. So he won that and then while he was a George Town,

he kind of discovered his comedic genius. He began writing for all the plays and the skits and it was very

presidential. I would say when Billy was a student at George Town, one of his professors was telling the

class about an ongoing actual exorcism. And Billy said that he remembered thinking

somebody should write about that someday because that might help people who were struggling with their

faith. It was in this house on the outskirts of Washington, but a family battled with their 14-year-old

son's condition. He was exhibiting many of the symptoms shown by Reagan in the exorcist.

Contourions, talking in tongues, shouting of Senates, displaying weird markings on his body,

unnatural movements and inexplicable events. The family tried every form of medical

cure before turning to the church and two priests eventually conducted a series of religious

actions that culminated in the boy being cured. Now able to lead a normal life with the

exorcism attributed as being the cure. Blatti put the story away in his desk but never forgot about it.

And with his flair for comedy began a writing career that would lead West.

And then when he finally went to California, one of the first things he did with a friend of

his who was an FBI agent was to impersonate an Arabian prince because Bill was 100% Lebanese

and he wore a black suit, white shirt and tie in these black kind of Weasel-Eye sunglasses. And

he would speak this pigeon English with an Arabic accent thrown some Arabic words.

And it was hilarious so they pulled this spoof in Hollywood and they actually

they fooled a lot of people and story was in life magazine and then he actually went on the

Groucho Mark show. Groucho I'd like to have you talk to Arlene De Freya and a partner

as a special guest visitor from the Middle East Prince Kahirala, so parchment please and meet

Dr. Marks. Welcome, welcome to the show.

David Seeker-Guard and you will divide an extra $100.

All-landy prior, you've blown the Beverly Hills prize.

And you want to do?

No. And Prince, uh, Alley gives them.

Is that right?

I don't know, that's what it's like.

But it's his Prince Kahirala. Is that it?

I don't know, let's go this way.

And that's close enough, huh?

What's the idea the doctor asks is the cops have to you?

I don't know. You're on the land.

Yeah, it's just about. You know, let me say like putting my feet.

You're no more Arabian than I am. What do you think about that?

I'm a prince at heart, Groucho and actually my mother is an Arab.

You didn't. I was pretty obvious. He literally weren't a

Arabian prince because I know I used to have an Arabian horse and I know what they look like.

Well, who are you? Well, actually I'm Bill Blatt.

Well, well, from sheep's clothing.

In sheep's clothing.

Now, that's a very snappy art thing.

I do. I'm Bill Blattie and I was born in Brooklyn just a few blocks from American

Legion post number eight over four.

And actually, fooled Groucho until the end of the segment. And of course he was

brilliant. He answered every question correctly. And he didn't know the questions before hand.

$110,000, which was a lot of money in the day. And that's what enabled him to write the

exorcist. But for almost 20 years, all thoughts about the exorcist had left Bill Blattie's mind.

While he concentrated on building a successful career as a comedy scriptwriter.

Titles like John Goldfarb, please come home starring Shirley McLean and promised

her anything with her brother, Warren Beaty. And the classic shots in the dark,

produced by Blake Edwards, with Peter Sellers as Cluso. As well as a number of other

Edwards productions, such as Darling Lily, cemented Blattie's place in Hollywood.

But all good things must come to an end.

In the 60s, comedy kind of died and sort of a film noir was becoming popular.

And he was out of work. So he thought, well, all right, gosh, maybe I can pull that story out

and fictionalize it. At first he thought it should be like a documentary.

If I want, maybe I can fictionalize it. So that's what he did. And the the providential

parts just get more and more fascinating. Bill was living in Aspen at the time.

For some reason, he went to this New Year's Eve party because he had sent around the manuscript

of the exorcist and nobody wanted it. He could not sell it. So he's at this party.

And he meets one of the publishers. The fellow said, what are you working on? And so Bill told him

in the Eastern Wall Art published there? And that chance meeting at the end of 1968 was yet another

stroke of luck for the exorcist. It meant that the book was guaranteed a publisher.

True to Max Jeff Sword, the editor-in-chief who Blattie had met at the party.

His company, Banton Books, followed up with a $75,000 contract. And the exorcist

became a book that to date has sold 13 million copies in the USA alone and been translated into

over a dozen languages. But to begin with, it hardly sold a copy.

And then one Bill was doing a book tour. Nobody was buying the book. Nobody. So when he

would go into the book stores, the manager would say, hello Mr. Blattie, please don't sign any

books because if you sign them, we can't return them to the publisher. So that was pretty crushing.

So he went back to New York and he had pre-auditioned for the Dick Cavitch Show

weeks before. And he happened to be the four seasons with his agent.

God of call, can you be at the studio in 15 minutes? Apparently Robert Shaw, who was starring in

jaws at the time, was supposed to be one of the guests. But he was drunk in the green room so he

couldn't go on. So Bill ran all the way like six blocks to the studio and did Cavus said,

what Mr. Blattie, I haven't read your book, you know, and I don't believe in God. So tell me

about your book. So Bill had 40 minutes to talk about the exorcist and the following week it went to

number one on the New York Times bestseller list and from there it was just, it was history.

But even Peter Blattie was taken aback by exactly what that history would become.

Especially as in 1971 he faced the challenge as a first time film producer of putting a major movie

together, even if it was based on a best-selling book. If only he knew what was lying in store.

Today the exorcist is fully embedded in our culture and honored in all the right places.

At the Museum of Moving Image in New York, one of the stars of the film is in pride of

place as an exhibit.

The Museum of Music

Meanwhile, where the movie was made in the nation's capital, it is established its own

shrine to the film. I think my favorite is the opening shot, which was actually done from the rooftop

of a hotel in Roslin, zooming in across the key bridge of a long zoom. I mean it takes probably

it's probably 20 or 30 seconds and you don't know where it's going as you're watching. You just see

a bunch of buildings and you see the river and you see the key bridge and then when it finally

stops it's on the house and the steps. It's like come a little bit closer. Let me draw you into this.

There's something going on in this house and there's something going on on these steps.

The ceremony to commemorate the steps kind of married two of my greatest loves. One is Washington

and I also love the exorcist. If we somehow commemorated this location,

you know, this deserves to be commemorated. People are already going there.

I was at work and I got a phone call and up on my phone it said unknown caller.

And so I picked it up and said hello from Billy Friedkins office. I built it on the line

and then he was like, tell me about this idea that you have and I told him. I said I want to

put a plaque up. I want I want you and this film and this location to be recognized.

And he said, I'll do it only if William Peter Blattie will do it. I contacted Bill Blattie.

Bill Blattie said I'll only do it if Billy Friedkins does it. And I said, well, this is for

to it is because Billy said yes. So at that point it was all it just started to unfold.

Thanks for being a part of the event. We're going to honor two great artists tonight. William Peter Blattie

and William Freakin. And we will officially commemorate the iconic Exorcist steps you see behind me.

Let me tell you what this means to me. It means more than any of the awards that I've ever

won or that this film has won. Because you know, there's a lot of people who have won Academy Awards.

Mine is on a metal piece in my bedroom. It is only seen by my close family and friends. But

this monument that they're about to unveil will be seen by thousands, I guess. Ten's of thousands

of people eventually perhaps more that will come through here and that will associate the film

that we made with this beautiful and historic community. And I'm really proud of that and grateful.

And as I said to a reporter earlier, in time the Rockies will crumble, Gibraltar may tumble.

They're only made of clay. But these steps are here to stay.

This is a terrific moment in time for me to be standing in the shadow of a place that I still

think of as home. Might be love at Alma Mauder George now. As I receive what I feel

as high as the owner of a bestowed upon me. It was a big deal and there was a big buzz in the air.

Everybody knew that this was something special. And so many people in line came up and said,

you probably don't remember me, but I was playing tennis in the background of the scene

when Kinderman and Keras are walking around the track at Georgetown. That was me or, you know,

I was one of those Georgetown students that paid $5 to sit on the roof of the car barn

to watch Chuck Waters fall down the steps. Everybody had a story like that. Everybody did.

It's a big surprise to me that the film, thank you. God bless you. That the film still resonates.

I had no idea that it would. Three, two, one. The event was a major homecoming for

bloody and freed kin, but also that event had a poignant sea to it.

Bladdy was very moved. Friedkin was incredibly moved. The things that he said

as part of his remarks were just incredible. And it ended up being the last time that Billy

Friedkin and Bill Bladdy were together in person. And I didn't know that

was going to be the case at the time, but in retrospect it made it a lot more special.

And even Georgetown University, with a whole exorcist journey began for Peter Blattie,

has a memorial to the film. I think the legacy of the movie is just that it's

so tied to the university in the sense that Bladdy got the idea as a student. He wrote the book

using Georgetown University as the setting. He then wrote the screenplay. They filmed a lot of

the movie actually on campus. There were so many members of the university community involved in

the filming process. And then the fact that the students traditionally watched the movie

the Halloween every year, it's just very, very, very tied into the university. And quite close

bombs seem to actually have been established. I know that a number of the film crew actually went into

classes and talked about their jobs and the profession of filming. So the actors did the same thing

and that at the end of the filming process, the film crew and a number of university

administrators and some of the Jesuit on campus actually played a basketball game to raise money

for a university scholarship fund. The film crew advertised four extras in the student newspaper.

It caught my eye that the advert actually went odd on Friday and 13th. I thought it was very funny.

And over 300 students were actually cast more actually applied and they were paid. I think for

some of the students it actually was kind of quite a boon to be paid.

But the greatest memorial is in our culture. In both the all-pervasive nature of the

exorcist and the way that hardly a few months goes past without another movie or TV show,

paying tribute. What has survived this has to be time is the height of the phenomenon,

the cultural presence around the exorcist has never gone away. I'd be very surprised if you can

find me someone who's never heard of the exorcist, which shows how that film is transcended the

horror genre, which is possibly one of the most amazing things about it. The size of the audience,

it had an initial box office of 193 million, often 11 million budget. I think now it's at 441 million

with the subsequent re-releases, which puts it in the top 10 horror of all time. However, if you

just adjust it for inflation, it's juoking outward jaws for the top, grossing horror of all time.

I think it's a horror film that's completely transcended into popular culture, so we've seen it

parodied all over the place. It's something that isn't just a horror film, it's a cultural phenomenon.

The exorcist definitely in my mind is the seminal film, the erphilm, in the demonic possession,

subjohn. I think it's a film that's become, it's beyond classification. William Friedkin,

the film's director, and William Peter Blattie, the author of the book and the screenplay,

have always been adamant that it is not a horror film. They never set out to make a horror movie,

and that's hard for a lot of people to believe, but the way that Billy described it to me is that

it's a film and a story about a crisis of faith revolving around Father Carrus. It's not a

conventional horror film because it's very grounded and realistic in the way that it approaches the story.

It is a horror film in the sense that it's totally designed to freak you out. The whole movie is

designed to freak you out. It just doesn't use the usual thing that horror movies use.

It's all the scary stuff in it, it's quite subtle and creepy and it gets under your skin.

I mean, there's all the big shocking stuff, but the best stuff in the film is the crisis of faith,

and the mother worrying about her daughter and the daughter is going nuts and you don't know

what's wrong with her. Those are the really, those are the things that can under your skin, not the

head spinning in the projectile vomiting. The exercise was really never considered it as an

album, but it never at the time being a horror film. It was a way to sophisticated and elegant and

the story-teller and the storytelling was much more sophisticated than an average horror film.

I don't think Billy liked the idea of being known as a horror film.

Of course, you've got to remember that we have had a lot of sequels for this film.

To varying degrees of success, so we have 97 access to the horrific, which in some circles

is regarded as a very battlefield. The first film that came after the access to the heretic was,

of course, unintentionally hilarious and Billy Friedkin and Bill called it the heretic.

It was just dreadful. Reflecting on the excess of sequels, the thing that struck me about all of them is,

each of them seems to catch a different cinematic way. They seem to be very emblematic of it,

the actresses is definitely part and parcel of the new Hollywood in the film brats. This again is

by Phistomy Friedkin's masterpiece. It's an example of just how good that era and Hollywood

should it could be. Then we get to the sequel. It's utterly mad. It's barking mad. It's hysterically

funny in places. It was made by people who believed in their insane vision.

We have 1990, X3, which will impede a blaty directs and they go in a completely different direction around

serial, killism, all sorts of things there. Probably most famous for what is known as one of the

greatest jumpscares of all time where we have the white sheeted figure appear out of a doorway with

a huge pair of scissors chasing a nurse, the top of the greatest jumpscares. Then the absolutely

bizarre situation around the pre-court of the accessist where it comes out in 2004 and 2005 from

two separate directors. There's been a stage play that happened in the US and in the UK that

toured. There's been a TV show. As I've said, it's still in popular culture. People are still

parodying. People are still talking about it. Looking back at the creation of the Exorcist movie

over 50 years ago, the path to the finished film was almost as torturous as the struggle to get

the book written. As well as being lucky in creating the book, blaty had also been extremely clever.

It may now be classed as fiction, but the people and locations in the book are all based on places

he knew and lived in. George Town and its university meant a lot to blaty and also to the storyline.

It was emblematic of how anyone, even an urbane metropolitan family in the nation's capital,

could be affected. Blaty wanted a director who recognized the truth in the story. But Blaty was

set on someone he'd met just briefly and in a rather antagonistic setting. In September 1966,

Blaty Edward said called Friedkin. Edwards had the funding to turn a long-running TV series into a

movie and Friedkin's name was in the frame. At the time, a young aspiring director about tinsel town

in search of the right project to exercise his talent. But in the dark of the screening room,

Friedkin had told Edward's in straightforward terms and strong simple language that the script he had

for gun, which was based on a successful TV series, was basically a pile of dross and needed

rewriting completely. As he made his way back to his car in the parking lot,

Friedkin was stopped by one of the shadowy figures he had seen at the back of the meeting room.

William Peter Blaty introduced himself and explained he was in fact responsible for the script that

Friedkin had derided and that he sort of agreed with him. He also added that he admired him for

talking his way out of a certain job and for sticking to his principles. After Bill Blaty finished

the actresses, he always wanted Billy Friedkin to direct it. He had met Friedkin on a picture before

for Blake Edwards that Billy decided not to direct because he hated the script. And Blaty

who'd written the script was inclined to agree with him. So they became friends and Blaty respected

Friedkin for the longest time. When Blaty finished the book, he of course wanted Friedkin to

direct it. And that was just perfect. He said Warner Bros. didn't want Friedkin to direct it.

So to begin with, Blaty looked closer to home and spoke to Shirley McLean about the project.

William Peter Blaty was neighbors with Shirley McLean. She had also started in his film,

John Goldfarned, please come home about which the less said the better. And so he kind of

modeled the character of Fris McNeil after Shirley McLean hoping that she would star.

But things went on and she decided to make another picture called Obsession of Yordelaney.

She was also involved with Lou Greided's on point to try to get her film made.

That fell through completely. And so Blaty was a drift and needed to cast someone else.

Homeowners was essentially a television producer who had been doing patent plays.

He was contacted by his agent as these properties always fly around town and he was interested

in the exercise. He optioned the exercise and then did something which Blaty found out about later.

As soon as Monech optioned the exercise hoping to make it into a film, he sold it back to Warner Bros.

Etta Profit. Blaty claims that somebody broke into Monech's office and found the relevant

paperwork and that's how Blaty was able to get Monech's hands off of the book.

Blaty heard that Monech, despite his recent success with Butch Cassidy,

wanted to change the script and move the location from Washington.

So, fortune had swung back towards Blaty. He had regained control thanks to that bit of

Hollywood-skilled diary. Had a studio on board in the form of waters and by now the book had been

published and thanks to the Dick Cavitt Show was selling like hot cakes. The top directors began

to circle the project. First off the mark was Mark Ridal, famous for on Golden Pond,

who was working for Warner's on The Cowboys. The studio liked him because he was good at working

with young actors but Blaty really took against the idea and hated the workprint of The Cowboys

he viewed. Other candidates included Arthur Penn, who made both Little Big Man and Bonnie in Clyde.

He turned the studio down saying he didn't want to make another violent film.

Stanley Kubrick also turned it down. He didn't want to leave the UK to work on it and Mike

Nichols, the director of the graduate, had probably the best excuse of the lot, who said,

he didn't want to attempt to film that relied totally on the young actors' performance as to whether

it worked or not. But Blaty knew exactly who the right man was to make this film the right way.

With the book still at the top of the best sellers chart, he sent a copy to Friedkin,

who was on a pre-release publicity tour for his current work. A little movie called The French Connection.

When he first received it, Friedkin initially ignored the novel. He was just too busy with

tour appointments. But waiting in a San Francisco hotel for a dinner engagement, he began to read

he then cancelled his dinner date and continued reading all of that evening and well into the night.

By the time Friedkin had finished reading, he was totally hooked. He called Blaty at once and told

him he thought it was wonderful and that he would love to do it. Blaty was excited. He'd got his man.

But still, the studio was unrelenting. Time went by and is if by magic on October 7th, 1971,

everything changed. The French connection was released and Blaty called the studio heads and beg them to

go watch it. The following day, he got a call back from the head of production at warners.

Bill, believe us. We want Friedkin more than you do. He's our man.

Once again, that element of luck and crucially timing had come to the rescue and the project now

really began to move forward.

So why did Blaty want Friedkin so badly? What was it about his style and track record that he found

so compelling? Fifty years on, the choice seems inevitable and so obvious. But that's with the benefit

of hindsight and with the knowledge that in making the movie, Friedkin didn't put a foot wrong.

It is such an assured and confident example of filmmaking. One of the reasons was that Friedkin had

been almost the first person who had reacted to the book in the same way that Blaty had reacted

to the original accessism. Like Blaty, Billy Friedkin saw the accessist as far more than a horror film.

It was a compelling supernatural murder mystery with a moral theme and he wanted audiences to believe in it.

Speaking in 1979, he made that point clearly. The accessist is based on a true story. A case that

took place in the Washington area actually in Silver Springs, Maryland. In 1948 or 1949,

it was a case of the possession of a 14-year-old boy. That case was widely reported in the newspapers

of that day, especially the Washington Post, which did a series of long lengthy articles about

that case of possession. Bill Blaty, the creator of the exorcist, was an undergraduate at

George Town University in that area when this case took place and not only did he read the

newspaper articles at the time, but he later had access to a lot of very confidential material in

the archives at George Town University, which I also saw many years later, having to

do not only with the diaries of the actual exorcist, but of doctors and nurses who were in attendance

when this bizarre story occurred. And Bill Blaty worked for the better part of 20 years

formulating the novel that became the exorcist. It was, as I say, based on a true story and the

details in the actual case are every bit as mystifying and exciting and bizarre as what Bill

so brilliantly recreated in his novel and in his film script. So there was no reason to

hook it up, you know, as they did, for example, with the so-called sequel to the exorcist, which is

nothing but welcome. The exorcist itself is based on a true but highly puzzling occurrence.

So it had to be presented as realistically as possible.

Friedkin's work had been based in documentaries and that conversation with Blake Edwards about

Peter Gunn had shown Blaty that Friedkin was a man of principle and strength of character.

But Friedkin's background could hardly have been less or spacious.

Like Blatties, it was not comfortable or middle class. And also like Blaty,

without the influence of his mother, it might well have come to nothing.

She took into the local picture house in Chicago where he was captivated by the thought of

working in movies. The defining moment came when he went into see Citizen Kane and eight hours later

was still sitting in chanted as the final screening came to a close.

When William Friedkin was young, he was a street kid. He was raised by essentially his mother

because his father died early and he loved to roam the streets of Chicago, meeting people,

picking up scrap-driven information. He was very aimless and barely got out of high school.

In fact, he had to be held back as a bster. So he was what you called an auto-di-deck.

Anything he learned, he learned on his own, and he's never stopped learning.

Friedkin was somewhat rebellious, but he still had a wonderful ability to know people, to read people.

That's how he talked his way into a job as a messenger at a local television station.

And in fact, as his career went on in television in Chicago in the 1950s and early 60s,

he managed to rise through all of the different levels until he became a floor director.

And then one often shot something called the People vs Paul Krump, which was a documentary.

With that as a cool incard, he made some more TV documentaries as a freelancer in Hollywood,

before learning his craft on varying and very different projects.

The sunny and share vehicle, good times, which is surprisingly good, considering.

The boys in the band, and perhaps most importantly from a director's point of view,

working with a top-class writer and a really capable cast in Harold Pinters the birthday party.

It showed a compassionate and competent handling of what was really a stage play on location.

Nothing remarkable at the box office, but intellectually and artistically challenging,

and very credible for his reputation.

Is that your pity?

Are you fat?

I've got your conflate ready.

By the time the big break came, he was ready.

It happened to be his next project.

It was a cool place!

Which changed the whole ballgame for Friedkin.

The French connection.

All right, top-wise here, to hand on your hands, get off the bar and get on the wall.

What's my name?

Top-eyed Doyle. If he doesn't like you, he'll take you apart, and it's all perfectly legal,

because Doyle fights dirty.

And plays rough.

Doyle is bad news, but he's a good cop.

Oh, happy to see you.

French connection.

Those men nominated this year for the best achievement in directing.

Peter, by Donovanch, for the last picture show,

PBS Productions, Columbia.

William Friedkin, for the French connection,

Dantoni Productions, 20th Century Fox.

Norman Jouesson, for the Fitter on the roof,

Mary's Cati Productions, for the United Arts.

Stanley Cubric, for a plot work, Orange, a Hawke's film's limited production,

Warner Brothers, and John's Lesson Jure, for Sunday,

Ladi Sunday, a Josephiani production, United Artists.

And here it is, the winner?

No, Frank.

I know that we always alternate between presenters,

but I truly believe the winner would rather hear it from you.

That's a noise.

Okay, I'm very nervous doing this.

The winner is William Friedkin.

APPLAUSE

This is a tremendous honor, and I'm very proud to accept it.

I'm proud to have the people that help me to make the French connection.

The people of 20th Century Fox, the entire cast and crew,

especially Roy Scheider and Gene Hackman, for their fine performances.

Jerry Greenberg for his cutting, Owen Riceman for his photography.

But most of all, I would like to thank the man who made it all possible,

not only made it possible for the picture to be made,

but for me to direct it.

I owe it all to him. His name is Phil Dantonene.

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.

Empowered by the Oscar win.

Friedkin started working the exercise.

For his first task, Friedkin said about working on the script with Bill Blattie.

Bill did write a screenplay, which he gave me.

Bill hired me to direct this.

And that Warner Bros. Bill Blattie, I was his choice to direct the picture.

And he had written a screenplay, which he presented to me after he had hired me.

I didn't care for Bill's original screenplay.

I thought that it was not a faithful rendering of his novel.

I thought that he did take it far afield.

That was just my opinion. It wasn't his.

But what I did with Bill was to get him to start all over again from scratch and tell the story

in the script as he had told it in the novel.

We went back and as I think he would tell you,

became more faithful to the novel than he did in his first draft of the screenplay before

he ever called on me to direct it.

In fact, Friedkin handed Blattie an annotated copy of the book,

filled with his notes with particular sequences and speeches to leave in,

and what to leave out.

There were certain things that I would at this time call minor disagreements

that we had about what should be left out.

Whenever they came up, both of us had a full airing of our disagreements,

and I always prevailed because Bill was not a neophyte to this business.

He knows that the director who was calling the shots on the floor and with the actors and

in the cutting room has got to go his way.

The initial decision that Bill made to hire me was to put his faith in me.

And though we disagreed on a few things, he allowed me to prevail.

Now it was time for Friedkin to put his faith in others.

The most crucial decision was who was to play Reagan?

Well, we had to find a 12-year-old girl to play Reagan.

That must have been there was nobody around that you could say, well, she'd be good.

We auditioned over 500 girls.

I stopped counting after 500.

And Linda Blair got the part for one reason only, her incredible intelligence and sensitivity.

She was the brightest and most sensitive young girl that I've ever known and easy to deal with.

And she completely understood all the ramifications of this material at her age at that time.

And she was an A student, an honors student.

So she was totally pulled together.

And I felt that she wouldn't suffer any psychic repercussions as a result of making a film.

And the world wanted to be reassured that despite it all, she was still an angel-faced,

all-American cutie.

Linda is the brightest rumours that you were affected by a film.

And we're saying that it's an untrue.

But what is the situation? Did it deserve you in any way?

No, they didn't.

No, people I think just they felt that I'd have to come out kind of with problems or something.

That's how I started. I don't know.

But no, I've never had any.

Yeah.

No, I have.

In the case of Ellen Burston, the studio wanted any number of major stars to play her part.

But Ellen Burston called me when she had heard I was going to direct the exercise.

She called and said she wanted to be in it.

What I come and meet with her, I did, I met with her.

Again, I found her sensitive and intelligent and someone who had a complete grasp of what the story was about.

And so I didn't want a star.

I wanted Ellen Burston.

Very.

Max van Sito was always our first choice for Father Maryndt.

He has always in the films he made with him, my aburgment at least.

Representative certain strength of character and moral strength,

which he brings with him to almost everything he does.

Except he left at home when he did the sequel.

It's so called sequel to the actually says with the Harry tick or whatever the trailer will get in for a little later.

But Jack Madauran was our, my rest in peace was my first choice to play Burk Dennings, the director.

He was a brilliant, but little known actor from the Irish theater.

Jason Miller, that's that's the subject of another interview.

That's such a long story of how we got on to him.

I wanted an unknown for that part.

I didn't want any one of the several names that were proposed or who had proposed themselves.

I believe that the man who came on wearing the priest collar, performing this

axisism, had to be an actor that was completely acceptable to the audience as a priest.

I had seen his play in New York to make a long story short and the play was very powerful,

moved me, I then met the author and saw in him the physical characteristics of father

carous. It then turned out that Jason had at one time studied for the priesthood,

had gone to Catholic University and was trained as a Jesuit.

So all of those things began to add up. I did a screen test with him and liked it and he got the

part. It's one thing to assemble a terrific cast, but it's an entirely different thing getting

a great performance out of them. Freedkin was determined to do so and would result to virtually

any means to achieve that aim. Although William Freedkin is a very talented director of actors,

he kind of learned it on the job training. And so what he wanted to get responses from people,

sometimes he had to and a lot of other directors do this, create an atmosphere on the set where

by the actor would react as a character would react. Two instances in particular occur. One is that

he would sometimes bring in a handgun and fire it to start a le actors. Actors don't like this

because they believe they can startle themselves if necessary for a scene. And he got to the point

where he was firing it so often that one day Max Fancino came onto the set for his call. He turned

to the director of photography, Owen Royceman, I said, all right, Owen, where did Billy hide the handguns

today? The other instance of Freedkin, he was listening up performers from an actor,

happened at the very end of the film where Father Carrus has taken the tumble down the steps

and his close friend, Father Amale, asked to give him last rights. It was the wee hours of the

morning in Georgetown, Washington, DC. It was cold as a witch's, well, you know what I'm talking

about. And they couldn't get the shot because O'Malley, who was a priest, not a trained actor,

simply couldn't mustered tears the way he wanted to. So Freedkin told him,

build you trust me. Amale said, what a course I trust you. And Billy Freedkin hold off and sluged

the priest as hard as he could and said, roll him, action, and that's the scene that's now in the

movie. And afterwards, when it was over, Billy and Bill hund each other because the priest knew exactly

what Freedkin had to do in order to get the shot. And Billy was known to be a tyrant, not really

introduced. People very firmly. And sometimes not very respectfully. But whenever I would come and

see him, the editors who with him on the stage, would tell me afterward that we're always so

glad we're coming and visit because Billy is so civil and kind to you and enjoys your visits

so he's nice to us as well. And then once you leave, he goes back to being us up. So that was a

muse by that. Just as with the casting of the actors, Freedkin adopted a similar attitude to the

crew and production unit. He was not afraid to take a chance on un-tried professionals who he

considered had the right attitude. Oh, and Royzman, the DOP he had bled it on the French connection,

was a good foil for Freedkin. They were a formidable team, both basing their film making on

in-camera effects and a verite style of shooting. But equally, the DOP was all for experimentation

and trying new ways of shooting in a dramatic and powerful way, devising jib and crane moves

and even an above-steers' hoist to get a steady-coun style of shot in the days before steady-coun

was even invented. Meanwhile, in Dick Smith, he had a real genius in the makeup department,

who fully took on the challenge and a considerable opportunity the exorcist offered.

Fifty years on, his work is still a subject lesson to all aspiring makeup artists.

Both he and Freedkin profess to the less is more school of thought, and wanted to keep

Linda Blair looking as much as possible, like the innocent young woman, despite everything that

was happening to her. Also, like Freedkin, Smith had a TV background, and found the liberating

larger budgets allowed him to spend longer experimenting with various effects. He tried six different

looked for Linda Blair and screen-tested all of them. He finally settled on the self-abuse style

we all now know. After some trial and error, the special effects team run by Marcel Vecuta

Jr., produced extraordinary results using unconventional methods. Vecuta built the Reagan model,

complete with turning head, the revised set, and also showed that a bed could fly.

And even in the days before CGI, paranormal happenings were produced on cue,

wires, cantilevered lifts and pneumatic pumps were all put to great use in constructing

not one, but two versions of the bed, flying ornaments and crashing windows.

Incredibly inventive and remarkably skilled. Freedkin described Vecuta as,

the behind-the-scenes contributor who had the greatest single impact on the movie.

You know, you never had a horror film, although I don't think the actresses is really a horror film,

directed like a documentary. We've had many since then, like Blair Witch Project in certain

films like that, but nobody ever really brought reality to a horror film. The characteristics of

success at William Freedkin brought to the actresses were reality. Now, they only did

have the performances at a point where they could have been in a drama because it was played as a

drama. He also had every single effect that you see, happened at front of the camera.

It was only one optical effect, and that was the piece-oop spew. But otherwise, when things

floated, when things moved across the room, when things shook, when windows broke, when doors

cracked, when curtains blew, they were done in the optical printer. They were all happening right

there on the set. And that kind of reality and not only makes the audience understand

us something special going on, they held the actors at she of a level that was real for them.

Freedkin wanted a subtle, almost minimal score. He compared it to just a touch on the shoulder,

not being hit over the head with obvious or extra effect.

Freedkin felt he needed something special, childlike and haunting, for a special main theme.

He began scouring music lists and record libraries. Across the Atlantic, the prodigious performer

and composer he would choose had only just made his recording date.

Seen here making his TV debut on Old Grey Whistle Test on the BBC.

What's more, Oldfield was in sconce in what was known as underground experimental Prague,

and had recorded a whole album filled with one track, with no vocals and no sign of a hit single.

Freedkin found it when going through the Warner's music library on a yet-to-be-released white-labeled

disc. After one listen, he knew he had found the one, rather like his Linda Blair moment.

Chubilabelle's might have been an extremely left-field choice, but for the director,

that made it all the better. With no audience preconceptions and the unusual uneasy rhythm of

old-fields composition, it was totally in keeping with the nature of the film.

For the audience, it was otherworldly, mysterious, unsettling and would sell in enormous quantities.

It is in fact another one of the lasting legacies of the ex-sist.

The by-using Chubilabelle's, the record-label version of which Chubilabelle's was the first ever

record, run by Richard Branson, was yet to make any money whatsoever. The massive sales of

Chubilabelle's changed all of that, and it's debatable that without the ex-assist's influence,

Branson, Virgin, and those myriad Virgin companies like the airline might never have taken off.

When the editing was going on, Bladdy was locked out of the editing room, according to his side.

According to the other side, Bladdy had hepatitis and couldn't come to the editing room.

When Bladdy saw the first cut of the film, he loved that he thought it was perfect.

And then Friedkin acting on the advice of the people of Warner Brothers,

took a few scenes out which they thought were redundant or gave things away a little bit too early.

These were seen such as the stairwell conference between Father's Marin and Carrus,

a first examination of Reagan by the doctors, and a few other things like that.

Bladdy then saw it and says he doesn't think it's a great film anymore,

and he was soar for decades that Friedkin had made these cuts.

Finally, in the early 2000s, Friedkin agreed that they would go back in and they would restore the cuts.

Obviously, he was for a new issue on video. He did, and then Bladdy fell back into the

Fredkin cap and the two of them remained breast-friends until Bladdy's death.

The editing process was not without other conflicts as well.

Friedkin and his team worked right up to the deadline. A week before the much-vaunted boxing

day release, the film was still being tweaked. The director even went so far as to inspect where

the film was being shown and creating a style sheet with finely detailed notes for the projectionists.

The sound was also labored over, endlessly. Low-level sounds of wasps trapped in jam jars,

hampsters on wheels and pigs being taken to slaughter were all blended in with strange sound effects,

fingernails on blackboards, cries and whispers. It was immensely time-consuming and expensive.

The budget was exceeded, but the resultant sound was, and still is, very special.

Friedkin dispatched a viewing copy of the work to date to the anxious worn as execs in Hollywood.

And Warner Brothers, although they wanted to leave him alone, were also concerned when the budget

practically doubled. The budget of the film doubled because they had problems with the practical effects,

the cold room, the sep burn down the ones, you know, little things like that. But when he

finally got the film together and he showed it to the Warner Brothers executives, he had an assistant

Craig McKay, who was in the book, take the print to Warner Brothers from New York and screened it

for them for all the head people. And John Kelly, who was the head of the studio then,

had dead silence after they'd seen the first cut of the actresses. They had been given Friedkin

all sorts of trouble about the budget, about schedule, and they saw the film. There were silence for

three minutes. And then Kelly turns to this guy and says, you go back and you tell William Friedkin,

he can have whatever he wants, cart launch of the studio. The fellow called Friedkin and said,

the studio says you can have cart launch. And Billy, it was everlasting credit said, really?

Friedkin responded by setting up four cutting rooms side by side with a separate editor in each,

with each editor cutting different scenes. For 18 hours a day, Friedkin would prowl from one to the next,

ensuring that the cut was exactly as he wished it. As on French connection, he instructed his

editors to cut on the off-be, not where a conventional edit would be, so the audience subconsciously

felt uncomfortable and uneasy with the shot changes and the rhythm of the movie. Simultaneously,

Friedkin worked with Dan Perry in creating the opening titles. In the case of the actresses,

it was a matter of less and more where the elements that lived on the screen were just the

title of themselves. There was no graphics, there was no animation, only the title of themselves

and the music that accompanied it. So whatever character and texture and personality and emotion had

to be embodied in the type itself. In fact, Billy Friedkin asked me to be one of the

graders of the film. And so I went to the lab and he recorded the lab view every single print,

not just pieces of it and not at high speed. That regular speed to make sure there's no dirt,

no flaws and so on. So I was one of those graders and I viewed it probably 30 times,

only silent without soundtrack at the lab, but I knew so well the cut and what came next and so on.

It still scared of hell out of me. That's how powerful film was.

Friedkin and Perry also worked together on the advertising campaign featuring the iconic poster

shot inspired by Renée McGreet's painting, The Empire of Light, giving the exorcist its other

worldly and slightly surreal atmosphere. So Friedkin even managed to control the publicity as well.

Finally, with hours to spare and his final checklist in hand, Friedkin made a last minute tour

of the movie houses that were about to screen the film. And then, on December 26, 1973,

the exorcist opened.

50 years on, what is undeniable is that a whole generation of filmgoers and filmmakers

have been influenced by the creation of William Peter Blattie and Bill Friedkin.

Together, they created a piece of work that is of its time, blending the hallmarks of new

Hollywood with classic filmmaking and combining some of the greatest talents both in front of and behind

the camera. By insisting on filming in Washington and in New York, Friedkin managed to maintain

control of the production away from the suits in Hollywood. There was no decision making by committee.

The exorcist survives and has its power because it is not a horror film for a say because the

villain is not your normal villain. Satan is not Dracula or the wolf man or the Frankenstein monster

who can follow your home from movie theater. Satan's waiting for you in the closet you're under

the bed and that really disturbs people and I think it accounts entirely for the film's success.

That, of course, the fact that it's one of the most brilliantly made motion pictures

in cinema history. We have an innate sense that it might be real.

When you're watching movie like Halloween or your psycho or any scary movie you can think of,

yes, you jump and you're scared and it's terrifying but when the lights come up,

you recognize, oh, the odds of my running into a serial killer or or someone coming up out

of the grave are pretty small but there's something in the human person that recognizes whether

we want to or not that there might be something real there and that makes it terrifying. That makes it

terrifying. The lack of CGI actually helps the timeless quality of the movie. There are no

dodgy graphics or electronic effects that could date. The skill of the makeup and the special

effects team can stand untrammeled by any faddish animation tricks and stunts. But also,

it is simply a great synthesis of the skills of a director at the height of his powers

and an inspired author with his lifelong project. Billy Friedkin, a filmmaker playing to the

strengths of the writer and bringing out all the nuances and questions raised by Peter Blattie.

And even 50 years on, when Ellen Burston starts her walk from the campus to her home,

next to those four boating steps and my coldfield's tubular bell starts playing as she makes her

way through Georgetown, people by the kids in their Halloween outfits, the nuns in the billowing

habits and two priests grappling with their faith. I defy anyone not to feel the tiniest

twinge as those hairs start to rise on the back of your neck.

The odds are stronger than 50 years from now, we'll be watching the exorcist as it celebrates its

centenary. That is the power of the exorcist.