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PSYCHOS AND DEMONS: THE CINEMA OF WILLIAM FRIEDKIN
Filmmaker William Friedkin’s controversial 1980 thriller Cruising comes out on DVD today, reminding the world of Al Pacino’s most subversive performance. Wearing leather as an undercover cop assigned to permeate downtown Manhattan’s gay nightlife in search of a fetish-driven killer, Pacino did things few high profile performers would ever consider. But much of the film’s resonance comes from Friedkin’s directorial prowess. The man has a track record for delivering the genre goods while defying convention: Consider these career highlights from his four decades of filmmaking.
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TWISTING, PUKING, DEMORALIZING
Friedkin’s adaptation of William Peter Blatty’s novel raised the bar in terms of sheer physicality in its depiction of supernatural terror. No movie about possession can exist without acknowledging this film as its primary referent. |
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SERIOUS SPEED
The director won an Oscar for this gritty depiction of a New York drug transaction, and the only detective (memorably played by Gene Hackman) with the cojones to try and stop it. The visceral chase scene with Hackman racing a Brooklyn subway in a stolen car, was shot without stuntmen or special effects—yet it still puts most contemporary action fare to shame. |
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CELEBRATORY SURREALISM
Friedkin’s first movie was this 1968 adaptation of playwright Harold Pinter’s bizarre drama about a jerk slumming around in an old hotel and tormented by two strange visitors who despise him for doing…something. It’s never clear what, which is a factor that makes the story (and its execution) especially haunting. |
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PACINO, OF COURSE
You’ll never catch this role in a montage of Pacino’s favorite performances, but it deserves credit for the extreme nature of the actor’s presence. The content of Cruising was considered homophobic by many gay activists at the time of its release, but nobody can dispute the intensity Friedkin managed to elicit from his star. |
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INSECT PARANOIA
Still at it after all these years, Friedkin utilized an amazingly low budget for this minimalist thriller, based on Tracy Letts’ eerie play. While Spielberg and the rest of the 1970s filmmaking gang continue on the blockbuster route, Friedkin continues to be inventive on a smaller scale, and finds original ways to tell a gripping suspense story. |
