William Friedkin

Academy Award-winning director William Friedkin, long recognized for his dark, aberrant, visceral films, had a career that spanned more than 60 years, marked by some of the most contentious and compelling successes and failures in American cinema. Among his successes are two very popular and highly regarded films, The French Connection, Oscar winner for best picture, and The Exorcist, both considered classics of their respective genres. Friedkin, who worked his way up in a Chicago television station from mailroom employee to director of local live broadcasts while still in his teens, was determined to make films. This updated, expanded, and final study of Friedkin's work (he died on August 7, 2023) examines his films, from his 1962 documentary, The People Versus Paul Crump, which saved a man from the electric chair, to feature films including The Night They Raided Minsky's, screen adaptations of Harold Pinter's play The Birthday Party and the off-Broadway play The Boys in the Band, Sorcerer, The Brink's Job, Cruising, Deal of the Century, To Live and Die in L.A., The Guardian, Rampage, Blue Chips, Jade, Rules of Engagement, and the much-publicized The Exorcist The Version You've Never Seen. New to this third edition are chapters covering The Hunted, screen versions of Tracy Letts's black comedy plays Bug and Killer Joe, the documentary The Devil and Father Amorth, and Friedkin's last film, The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial. This insightful and engaging study of Friedkin's films, which is based on nearly 100 interviews with the director and his colleagues, pays particular attention to the evolution of his cinematic style, his choice of subject material, and his unique vison-fatalistic, violent, realistic-as well as examining each film aesthetically, dramatically, and thematically.