If anything makes one believe in “fate” the way Friedkin has come to, it would be in the story of how the director discovered Mike Oldfield’s “Tubular Bells” while casting around for the movie music. He barely knew what the music even was when he first heard it, but he knew he was looking for something in the line of a variant of Brahm’s “Lullaby.” When this movie shows the shot of Ellen Burstyn walking through Georgetown with Oldfield’s haunting theme accompanying, the absolute perfection of the combination is still breathtaking. And yet it was just something he stumbled upon. (And indeed, while Friedkin doesn’t discuss this, the music’s use in the movie made “Tubular Bells” a huge hit, and gave a real leg up to the entrepreneur on whose record label it was issued—a guy named Richard Branson.)
But the section on music also underscores what could be seen as a weakness in the movie. Friedkin goes over how he and the studio had commissioned a score from Lalo Schifrin, and how he felt the music from the composer wasn’t right. He mentions that he and Schifrin had been friends, and have not spoken since. If you’ve read Peter Biskind’s Easy Riders, Raging Bulls—and I should point out here that many of the people portrayed in that book about ‘70s Hollywood have balked, with extreme prejudice so to speak, at how they are portrayed in the book—you will have the distinct impression that at the time, Friedkin was not just less than diplomatic in conveying his differences to Schifrin, but downright abusive. (It’s not too late, Bill! Schifrin’s still alive, you can make an amends!)
You’ve probably also read or heard of lead actresses Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair sustaining injuries on the set of that movie that affect them to this day. This documentary does not address any of that. I don’t know if Philippe just chose not to ask, or if there were preconditions set by Friedkin about going near those topics (and I’ve been there, so if that was the case, I get it). But anyway, it’s like the title says: this is Friedkin on the movie. And what he does have to say, after all this time and so many articles and movies touching on “The Exorcist,” is still engaging, fascinating, and entertaining.
Now available on Shudder.