Sunday, October 10, 2021

The Exorcist (1973)

 'The Exorcist' is a landmark film, a phenomena at the time of its release, and adjusted for inflation still Warner Brothers most profitable film ever. The movie has long secured an iconic place in film history, it's part of the canon and a movie I'd frankly been intermediated by. I watched it recently for the first time as part of the podcast, I'm glade I finally got to it. Needless to say we speak of it at some length in the episode we recorded, so I'm going to limit myself here. 

'The Exorcist' is really a film of its time, it's got that 70's pacing, director William Friedkin was not in a hurry. The exorcism doesn't being until around the last 30 minutes of the movie, and early on the film has a disjointed quality, as there are three major narratives that only really come together pretty late on in the proceedings. 

It's a horror film of course, there are shocking moments, one near the end literally made my jaw drop, which doesn't happen for me often. But it's also a character piece, ensemble, but with Jason Miller getting pride of place. Strong performances all around. This is something that will warrant a revisit, very impressive. ****

No comments: