The
Exorcist
(1973, including Extended Director's Cut/first Warner Blu-ray Set)
Picture:
B+ Sound: B Extras: B+ Film: B+
PLEASE
NOTE:
The
Exorcist 4K
has been issued, but does not include most of the extras in this set,
or ones only on the old DVD set. You can read more about it at this
link:
http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/16336/The+Exorcist+4K+(1973/Warner+4K+Ultra+HD+Bl
The
Horror genre has become a wasteland of mostly bad B films (the B
begin very generous) and some A product that usually is as bad as bad
B product in recent years as it has become glutted beyond anything
anyone could have imagined. To make a film that stands out and
stands the test of time, you have to make a film that suspends
disbelief, is effective throughout, well made, consistent and if it
has good acting, that helps too. Hitchcock's Psycho
(1960) changed filmmaking forever, then Polanski's Rosemary's
Baby
and Romero's Night
Of The Living Dead
both arrived in 1968 and the last golden era of Horror began.
One
split that some writes have noted is that you had you low-budget
exploitation films and some of them (Texas
Chain Saw Massacre)
became classics, then there were the big screen Hollywood studio
films (The
Omen,
both of which the late Robin Wood compared in his priceless book
Hollywood
From Vietnam To Reagan... And Beyond)
that were 'A' product and sometimes hits that worked. The
horror/monster in the low-budget films were from, while the product
had the menace comes from overseas. William Friedkin's film of
William Peter Blatty's novel The
Exorcist
(1973) follows the A-level Hollywood route, but why has it endured
and stood out as one of the greatest Horror films Hollywood made in
the sound era, color film era and remains one of the most imitated
(almost always uselessly) films of all time?
For
starters, it is written as a drama, not a formula horror flick, so it
is already several steps ahead of its usually shallow imitators and
other wannabes that also happens to be a world of mature, grown
adults. That is lacking in almost every recent horror film of late.
Also, it is not a comedy, though some jokes come through in he
script, they work and make sense in the context of the film. The
characters are also well-developed; something the genre rarely has
time for. That alone makes all this a very well made film, but then,
the terror begins.
At
first, we meet the hard working, very likable Chris MacNeil (the
great Ellen Burstyn) who is a liberated woman, very successful in the
filmmaking (nod, wink) business and a good woman all around. She has
a happy, healthy daughter in Regan (Linda Blair) she is doing her
best to raise, but it is not always easy and it is about to get much
tougher. At first, Regan is not well, but then, it is apparent that
something is very wrong, beyond her, beyond anyone's understanding
and beyond anything any one has experienced before. She is not just
sick or ill or psychotic, but truly is possessed by a Satanic force,
maybe Satan himself.
This
is based on Catholic ideas and teachings, which rarely surface in the
genre outside of crosses against vampires, but is delivered in such a
full-fledged way that audiences had never seen anything like it
before and the particular ways the script (Blatty wrote the
screenplay from his own book) slowly takes apart the idea of the
happy family, deals with the sexual politics of feminism, liberalism
and is not just some reactionary formula film the genre would produce
en masse by the 1980s. It is smart, intense and as it moves forward,
it just builds up and builds up. I am impressed how well the film
endures all these years later and how many errors (mostly sloppy)
recent imitators have been.
Everyone
is so good in the film, including Jason Miller as the haunted priest,
Lee J. Cobb as the authority figure, Blair (even with Mercedes
McCambridge, the great big screen movie star who was also a brilliant
voice on radio dramas for decades, as the voice of the demon) does
well here, Jack MacGowran (Dance
Of the Vampires,
Doctor
Zhivago,
Lord
Jim,
Young
Cassidy,
et al in his last role) and Ingmar Bergman veteran Max Von Sydow as
the title character, Father Merrin. The chemistry is amazing and
dense making the dark situations seem that much darker and the film
actually juggles more than one kind of the return of the repressed
that resonates long after it first became a huge blockbuster.
Some
have noted that some of its success was in the middle of the fiasco,
but like the best films of the time, the film far exceeds that
context and remains a classic that often exceeds its genre. It is
not reactionary horror and terror, but the kind that slowly works on
the audience and Director Friedkin was at the early peak of his
filmmaking powers. The result is a classic that in some ways, the
audience still has not caught up with 37+ years. All you have to
know is that once it starts, it is a pure cinematic experience that
just gets better and better as you watch, like all classics. The
Exorcist
will continue to be so for a very, very long tome to come, especially
when Warner Bros. has given it such deluxe treatment here.
The
1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image is amazing in both the
Extended Director's Cut that originally arrived in 2000 and the
Original Theatrical Version from 1973. Director of Photography Owen
Roizman (who had lensed Friedkin's French
Connection
and other great films like Network,
the original Stepford
Wives,
the original Taking
Of Pelham One Two Three
and Play
It Again, Sam)
gave the film a uniquely dark look like no other Horror film had ever
delivered before and is so distinct that the imitators have never
come close. He and Friedkin color-timed both cuts and they easily
are the best versions of the film I have ever seen. Originally
released in prints from the distinct MetroColor labs, these men have
gone back and fixed the film frame by frame in such a meticulous way
that the brand-new look of the print makes the suspense all that much
richer.
It
is amazing how great this looks ands except for some grain typical of
some of the stock so the time, you would think some reshoots were
done somewhere here, but they were not. This looks like a print that
could have just arrived at a big screen, single screen theater of the
time, the kind that made total sense to do a 70mm blow-up of in 1979
and one that even looks like a lost print, stored in a vault that
somehow stayed in mint condition. This sets another high standard
for film restoration and preservation, especially for films from the
1970s, which are too often written off as poor when that simply was
not the case.
The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) lossless mixes are amazing upgrades (6.1 on
the Extended Cut, 5.1 on the Original Version), cleaned up from past
remasters and now free of some of the screeching, sometimes
ear-piercing distortion on past DVD editions. Originally, the film
was issued in monophonic sound, but the 1979 version was in 70mm
6-track magnetic stripe sound (think 4.0 or 4.1, with sound coming
especially form the screen) then the 2000 version offered a digital
5.1 mix in all three theatrical formats (DTS, SDDS, Dolby). This new
mix offers audio detail, clarity and dynamic range none of the
previous versions did, including the Steve Boeddeker score on the
2000 version and the classic Mike Oldfield hit Tubular
Bells
which launched Virgin Records with a big hit. Audiophiles know the
whole Tubular
Bells
album was issued years ago in the underrated Super Audio CD format
(with multi-channel sound as the original album was even available as
a quadraphonic release and is considered one of the best of the time;
a Blu-ray audio edition was issued in 2023 with a second quad mix,
12-track Dolby Atmos version of the original studio album and more,
all sounding great) so the film has always had a distinct character
in its sound and that comes through very well here.
Extras
include the booklet built inside the Blu-ray DigiBook itself and a
slip of paper inside that book with Freidkin explaining personal
thoughts on the film. The Blu-ray itself offers three feature length
audio commentary tracks; two by Friedkin (one for each cut of the
film, one by Blatty on the 1973 cut, plus a new three-part
documentary on the Extended Version that includes Raising
Hell: Filming The Exorcist,
The
Exorcist Locations: Georgetown Then & Now
and Faces
Of Evil: The Different Versions Of The Exorcist.
The Theatrical Version adds an introduction by Friedkin, the
Original Ending, feature-length 1998 documentary The
Fear Of God: The Making Of The Exorcist
and an Interview Gallery covering the topics: The Original Cut, The
Final Reckoning and Stairway To Heaven. I was hoping for an
additional set of trailers, TV Spots, Radio Spots and more stills,
but that is not here, though some have been on previous DVDs, but
that is my only complaint.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
