William Friedkin

I don't know if To Live and Die in LA is a good movie, but it is a great movie. Also, possibly the first mention of Michael Jordan in pop culture? Had the events of the filmed played out differently I could see it as a prequel to Heat, with the Peterson character a younger version of the Pacino character. As it is, Mann or not, it would slot well between a screening of Thief and Heat, for lots of reasons.

There are a couple of shots in the car chase that I have no idea how they captured.

i think its good also, i mean theres definitely enough competence and elements that work to argue for it as the tale itself

but yeah its the everything else that make it the magnificent beast it is

JiC otm. lots of this movie is bad, silly, or nonsensical but it also a blast

i think it is good and great. the parts that are bad or silly can often be chalked up to a particular '80s badness (though some particular lines of dialogue should have stayed written down and subsequently crossed off). i'm willing to forgive the silly shit.

it's such a competently crafted film with such a quiet invisible shift from "good guy agent chasing insane crook" to "insane agent chases his own death wish" that the shift has occurred and the movie's walls have closed around you by the time you notice it, it's a frog-boiling-in-water story in that regard. the greatness comes from the unrelenting march towards its goal with no room for anyone the audience can identify with at the end and its very sharp suggestion that action movie heroes are psychos with zero regard for anyone but their own glory, and their righteous mission is just an excuse for really cool action shit. i'm not saying it's a critical take on the genre (though maybe it is???) as much as it's an interesting twist on the genre.

(though some particular lines of dialogue should have stayed written down and subsequently crossed off)

You pulling my dick???

yeah i bet if you listed those lines id be totally in love with each of them tbh

BTW the Michael Jordan reference in the film is one where he disses Jordan by saying Quintin Dailey is better, which is interesting bc QD was mainly notorious as a player for complaining about not getting attention compared to Jordan, being a general shithead, up to and including having committed sexual assault in college and subsequently having been protested by various groups upon his NBA arrival. Dailey was a solid third year player when MJ was a rookie but Jordan was already obviously a guy who was going to change the game and dominate.

He does call Jordan a "great fuckin' ball player."

I mean, have you seen Cruising and Sorcerer? moments of lowbrow craziness are common

not to mention the hideous 10 minutes I saw of The Exorcist

I really enjoyed seeing The Boys in the Band again. I can see why it was dismissed in the late 70s and in the 80s as representing an earlier era of self-hatred, but I think it's easier for someone gay to watch it more dispassionately now. I loved the plot of the clueless straight man dropped into the middle of a gay party. Lots of reviews have compared it to Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, but the over-the-top self dramatizing jokey quality of it makes it feel less self-serious to me. The set, an apartment apparently on East 65th St, was beautiful. And the acting, from the entire original 1968 stage cast, was for the most part really good I thought

I read somewhere that Friedkin has said it's a favorite, one of the few films of his that he still likes watching

It’s weird to me that saying The Boys in the Band is superior to Cruising is now basically the contrarian position.

there are still gay men like that btw

Omar so, so otm

really enjoyed seeing The Exorcist again after so many years

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dXb5UuRrPA&feature=youtu.be

I hadn’t remembered that the ending of Cruising showed Pacino’s character looking directly, coldly into the camera through the mirror while shaving. Seeing it again, that was chilling

Friedkin on Joe Dante's podcast was fun/depressing times. Dude whining about Japan and Germany having overtaken the US economy and reacting all "you must respect the office!" when Dante let loose with one of his usual boomer Drumpf jokes. Imagine a madman like that, and one who's lived through the 1970's, believing the office of the president of the USA deserves any respect.

from every interview i've seen with him friedkin seems like he was/is a wildly abusive director

Yeah, I think he almost cost Ellen Burstyn a vertebrae or something like that.

That said, Cruising is a malignant masterpiece.

yeah I think he's kind of a master but he's also pretty clearly a nutcase

I remember his adap of Pinter's The Birthday Party being very solid.

Sydney Tafler is great as Goldberg but I'm not convinced by the film as a whole.

That said, Cruising is a malignant masterpiece.

― i carry the torch for disco inauthenticity (Eric H.), Wednesday, June 30, 2021 6:51 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

quite a messy masterpiece also. ending is quite fudged

It's too bad the lost footage has never been recovered.

I just saw Cruising last night and don't know what to make of it. The review in a book called Movies on TV from 1981 is a further puzzle:

The basic narrative idea is that our growing discomfort with Pacino's convincing integration into his new environment and our growing fear that he may be developing some homicidal impulses of his own -- both are inextricably linked to our growing exhilaration of our release from fear as Pacino's savvy and power increase. Lurid, brutal, dehumanizing, but it does succeed in searing the audience.

I'm not even sure that this first sentence holds up as a description of what the film is trying to do, much less what it manages to accomplish. Friedkin seems to make decisions at the individual scene level to increase the audience's suspense, excitement or disgust without taking into account how this affects the film as a whole. Robin Wood called the results incoherent.

I think that first sentence is a pretty good description of what the film is trying to do

Maybe that was the idea, but I never felt either appalled or excited by Pacino's progress through the film - he's not even an anti-hero, he's a null.

Friedkin had a birthday yesterday; he's 87. This clip is amazing.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE LEGEND MR. WILLIAM FRIEDKIN. #WilliamFriedkin

ONE OF MY FAVORITE MR. FRIEDKIN INTERVIEW MOMENT AS HE TALKS ABOUT DIFFERENT ACTING METHODS BY DIFFERENT ACTORS (Tommy Lee Jones, Benicio Del Toro and Nick Nolte)@RufusTSuperfly @firstshowing @coenesqued2 pic.twitter.com/CsefIVehlj

— . (@realsagarbhat) August 29, 2022

I don't like it nearly as much as "Wages of Fear," but it's a ripping, cynical adventure all the same.

OTM. "Wages of Fear" is much, much deeper.

Interestingly, Friedkin denied that "Sorcerer" was a remake. To which, LOL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4mgIDVwdD-M

Can't help but feel bad for the guy having to give up his spankin' new '71 Tempest sedan to Popeye to destroy in the chase.

He did so much remarkable work for television. This music video is unbelievable

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP0_8J7uxhs

Hah -- I was coming here to post the Branigan video.

He also appears at the end of Wang Chung’s “To Live and Die in L.A.” video!

Good interview: https://www.vulture.com/2013/05/william-friedkin-interview.html

It turns out that the only things of his I’ve seen are The Exorcist (when I was far too young) and The French Connection (in the past decade).

I've never seen Deal of the Century, starring that glamourous duo Chevy Chase and Sigourney Weaver.

There's your cocaine noir

Underrated: "The Hunter." Kind of "First Blood"y, iirc. I remember people making a (small) big deal at the time because it was one of the few action movies where characters actually got tired from fighting.

Handful of classics/masterpieces, handful of impressive minor films (like "Bug," maybe the first time people took notice of Michael Shannon on screen?). And then there's "Jade."

right on, The Hunted. That's a good one. i think it's a pretty exceptional thriller, kinda no frills, TLJ and del Toro are both really good.

French Connection gets better over time, Exorcist is still great, Cruising is really something. To Live and Die in L.A. is another masterpiece, I still have friends who haven't seen it and when i convince them to do so they're usually absolutely blown away. they don't make em like that anymore, ever.

I own TLADILA, Cruising, The Hunted and Sorcerer — the first 3 on DVD, the latter on Blu-Ray. They're all amazing. French Connection is solid with a few moments of greatness, but it's not nearly as bugfuck as his best movies. I've never seen The Exorcist. Bug was too terrifying to watch more than once.

Killer Joe is hilarious and brilliant.

Deal of the Century is one of his worst, and surprisingly visually flat. Script is by Paul Brickman, who wrote the wonderful Citizens Band for Jonathan Demme and wrote/directed Risky Business and Men Don’t Leave, and I adore both of those to death

French Connection has the best soundtrack. Even better than Sorcerer. Don Ellis on fire!

French Connection really does get better with repeat viewings, i think it's closer to something like Bullitt in some ways, and Philip D'Antoni produced both. I appreciate how they almost accidentally discover this huge criminal operation. It feels closer to real police work than some other films, something it also partially shares w/Bullitt. It's almost as downbeat as TLADILA, maybe moreso. Feels more tragic.

I was very lucky to see the original 1987 cut of Rampage at the New Beverly a few years ago. Profoundly sad and distressing film

You know, without posting spoilers for those who haven't seen it, I can't think of a thriller that yanks the rug out from under the viewer the way To Live and Die in L.A. does. I mean, the first time you see it, you'll fall right off the couch.

That’s one I’ve meant to see for a long while. Gotta see if it’s streaming somewhere…

Ha, didn't know this re: Rey & The French Connection:

Fernando Rey was cast by mistake; William Friedkin wanted an actor he remembered seeing in Belle de Jour (1967), and the casting director thought it was Fernando Rey - who was hired. Only upon arriving at the airport to meet Rey did Friedkin see that it was not the actor he had been thinking of; he also learned, to his great dismay, that Rey was Spanish and spoke no French. Once at Rey's hotel (the same one he stays at in the film), Friedkin called the casting director, who realized he had confused Rey's name with that of the correct actor, Francisco Rabal. Friedkin considered firing Rey, but changed his mind once it was learned that Rabal wasn't available and didn't speak any English.

French Connection II is astonishingly underrated. The late 10 minutes are like edging to a great, well-deserved orgasm

And Rabal would turn up in Sorcerer.

Rabal's French in Belle de Jour is dreadful fwiw