104: Remembering William Friedkin

Alex remembers the career of one of his favorite directors, the great William Friedkin, who died on Aug. 7, 2023 at 87 years old. Alex lists his Top 10 William Friedkin films, unloads tons of Friedkin trivia, and recalls how the director started following him on Twitter a decade ago.
Follow @WAYW_Podcast on Twitter and Instagram and Letterboxd.
Watch Alex's films at http://alexwithrow.com/
Watch Nick's films at https://www.nicholasdostal.com/
Send us mailbag questions at whatareyouwatchingpodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

0:00

Oh, I'm like you. I have no regrets. But only God forgives. I think it's a masterpiece. And it is. I just didn't make it very exact during the house. We. We need to get a medic in here. Is there a doctor? I just didn't. I think that is a masterpiece. What is Citizen Kane? It's great, but it's very. It was an inexpensive movie, so financial gives a shit. And I have just two questions left. When you have a third, Where is the medic for this man? So when you were mentioning, did you hear the ambulance pull up? Okay. When you were mentioning 2001 as Citizen Kane, you forgot that drive. We'll let that slip. We won't know about drive for another 30 years. Thank. Whether it lives or die, I'm talking about films that 2001 was made in 1968. I made this film about four years ago, so it's about four years is a zip. It's not even a blip. It's not a pimple on the asshole of humanity for years. But 2001 was made in 1968 and holds up like gangbusters. It's better than all this other similar crap and sophistication is by knowing what we know about you was made in 1941. We know that my point it lives. Hey, everyone. Welcome to What are you watching? I'm Alex with their own. I'm flying solo today because we lost William Friedkin. We have lost an absolute legend of cinema, a titan of seventies, gritty American filmmaking, a controversial director who always spoke his mind, always. He was. He was honestly one of the rarest of all American directors, a disrupter and enfant terrible, an icon of class. At the time of his death, he had directed 19 scripted movies. One of them, the French Connection, won Best Picture. He took big swings. Not all of his movies worked, but some of them are uncontested masterpieces, and some of them, to this day contain some of the most popular stand out film sequences in cinema history. And I just loved him. I mean, my God, did I love him? He was one of my directors, and he probably always will be. There's a number of reasons for this. And I actually did talk with Nick just yesterday and ask and asked him if he wanted to be on this episode. But there are a few specific reasons why I am doing this one solo. I'm going to get to them. Dedicated listeners of the podcast will know that William Friedkin and one of his films in particular has been the subject of much scrutiny on this podcast, probably the most discussed and debated film on What Are You Watching has been The Exorcist, and that has absolutely nothing to do with the content of the film itself, has to do with lies and lies. I'll get there. But I did talk to Nick and said I wanted to do an episode like this. And he is, you know, surprise, surprise, not as caught up with William Friedkin as he would like to be. And there are so many gaps in his filmography, which is fine. It's fine if you're up front about gaps and you don't lie about them for four years, it's fine. He hasn't seen a lot of his work, and I've seen all of Friedkin's work and have been obsessed with it for a very long time. So I'm just going to go with this one alone. I watched all of his films, like all the way through in 2012. I think I wrote about them on my blog. I tweeted out that blog article and like, I don't know, however long later could have been an hour or could have been a day. But William Fucking Friedkin tweets me back and he's thanking me for my blog article. And then he started following me. Like, what? What? I obviously thought this was fake. I thought it was a joke of some sort, but it wasn't. It was really him. You know, this was back when that blue checkmark actually meant something. And yeah, it was him. And I was absolutely terrified when I realized it was him because I didn't give all of his movies good grades. In my article, I gave one of them an F, an F, So I'm like sitting there seeing that he tweeted me and he's talking about the article and I'm like, Oh shit, I need to go back and change that grade. Like, that's. But then I realized he's already seen it. Fuck it. I mean, I wasn't mean about the movie. I always try to be fair. I do try. But The Guardian, the movie he made 1990, it's a bad movie. It's not good. And, you know, William Friedkin certainly was never shy about sharing his opinions. And I suppose he wasn't afraid to hear opinions on his own work either. We did tweet a few times back and forth. Nothing crazy, just polite, casual conversation. Always about movies, sometimes about his own movies, sometimes about something he had just watched. It was always random and it was always a delight. William Friedkin. He was born in Chicago in August 1935. That Chicago upbringing is partly responsible for his voice, which was, I mean, just from like a hearing auditory standpoint to do that, one of the best voices ever, a superb voice. I could listen to him talk forever. Friedkin started out in television and then he moved to making documentaries, one of which was a movie called The People versus Paul Crump, which he made in 1962 that helped get its subject. Paul Crump, off of death row. William Friedkin saved that man's life. It's wild. Friedkin moves into feature films, the first being Good Times in 1967, starring a rather famous married couple named Sonny and Cher. A few years later, he makes the boys in the band based on a play by Mark Crawley. And according to Friedkin, this is a movie that no major studio would touch because it was deemed, quote unquote, too gay. Friedkin essentially said, Fuck you to all the major studios he made the movie his way, and the film is still today regarded as a staple of queer cinema. He did not care what detractors would say, and this was, for better or worse, he did things the way he wanted to do it and wasn't afraid of shit. And I love him for that. Following the boys in the band, he goes on to have one of the wildest careers in modern Hollywood. I'm going to talk about. I'm going to end my thoughts with a top ten William Friedkin list shortly, and I'll talk about most of his films then. But he wins an Oscar. He gets the reputation of being a terror. He makes all types of movies, gritty cop thrillers and iconic horror movie. He remade two masterpieces from the 1950s. He adapted popular stage plays. He made a sports movie. He made an erotic thriller. Jade, He would make would Jade Jade be like David Caruso in Jade You can make anything as long as the material inspired him, he wouldn't take no for an answer, and he did whatever the hell he wanted to do. One of the most interesting aspects about his filmography, and I've heard a few people mentioning this in the wake of his passing, this is a director who rarely went back the majority of his films all take place in the years they were made. The movies may contain flashbacks, sure, but the primary narrative of almost all of his movies is contemporary. That is a very rare thing. Almost all directors, especially now, are going back. But Friedkin stayed in the present again. I can't say that every single movie he made was perfect, but he always took a swing with his work. And that's what I appreciate. One of the reasons I have a lot of insight into his work is because I have always really loved him. I have always been a fan of his work and his career. And he wrote I mean, really one of the best Hollywood memoirs I've ever read. The Friedkin connection. It was published in 2013. I read it in hardcover. I still have it, actually. You know, when I heard about his passing, I opened it up and started reading it again. And it is just full of these stories. And he's William Friedkin was such a good storyteller and you have to say that with the caveat of this dude was a miraculous bullshitter. Like, does he spin some yarns? Yes, he has to be. We can't believe everything he says as truth. It's crazy about his stories he has. But yeah, that is a great book. If you are a fan of any of his movies, anything he directed, even going back to those documentaries he talks about damn near all of them. He talks about things that went right, things that went wrong. He does not hold back. So the Friedkin connection gave me so much more insight and just so much trivia about his body of work. It's so well written, very well made. Actually. I should see if the audiobook is in his voice if he recorded it, I'll buy that. Even though I have the hardcover, I will buy that. All right. This is important. This is for the hardcore movie nerds. If you like William Friedkin or most any of his movies, and you also don't mind owning home media, this is really one of the top three directors to do directors commentaries. He did them for damn near all of his movies, not all of them, but for most of them. And there is always value to be found in them. The stories, the stories he tells you never tire of listening to his actual voice. And then because he's not afraid to hold back anything, you hear crazy shit over and over. And almost every single commentary I've listened to that William Friedkin is done. He calls the movie We are watching the best movie he's made. It doesn't matter if it's The Exorcist or the rules of engagement. He thinks that, well, he's watching the movie and recording this commentary. This is the best movie he's ever made, and he'll say that all the track. It's hilarious. I mean, I love him so much. I love listening to his thoughts. And, you know, in preparing for this episode, I did make my top ten and I went, That's what I'll do. I'll just rewatch the top ten. Even at certain moments in all the movies, I was like, you know, hitting that audio button on my remote and switching over and just getting caught up in his stories and like laughing hysterically at his stories. And yeah, you really you will walk away from every single one of the movies he does a commentary for with a different perspective. So just throwing that out there for the nerds like myself. All right, I'm going to throw a little trivia out and then get to this top ten. Some fun facts that I love about his work. He made five movies in the 1970s, and four of them were nominated for Oscars. But 1978, the Brink's job was the last film William Friedkin directed that was nominated for an Oscar and that was for best Art Direction. He never stopped making movies, but he clearly stopped caring about being nominated for or winning awards. I admire that. I like that He switched. He switched, one could argue, to more genre filmmaking in the back half of his career, and I admire that, although he kind of always did genre movies like I Like The French Connection. It's just a cop thriller. The Exorcist is a genre horror movie. Like he'd he always did it. Oh God, this is wild and completely random. I admit. The audio, the actual audio in many of his movies is done very differently from other films. This isn't always the case, but very often Friedkin will edit the movie together, and then based on that assembly of the footage, completely redo the entire audio soundscape in post-production. I mean, everything background noise, sure, that's normal. But he'll even do the dialog. He'll replace all of the dialog. Nick and I have mentioned something called ADR on the podcast. A lot additional dialog replacement. It can I've seen it mean I've seen literally sand for so many different things looping, dubbing, ADR. These all have slightly different definitions, but it's essentially the same thing. And that can be done for a lot of different reasons. The most common one being that the actors original audio was interfered with in some way when they said their lines on the day. If it's an exterior scene, it could be anything. Maybe it's traffic, a loud bang, people talking, a helicopter flying over anything. You can also do ADR because the actor's voice cracked or something on the take, anything you but you are essentially the actors are replaced in their original audio with newly recorded audio that is captured months later after they filmed. And now we're not on set and we're not out on the streets in New York. We're going to sound booth in a studio. If you Google Hugh Jackman, Wolverine, ADR, you'll see exactly what I'm talking about and how it's done. That is a particularly insane clip. But anyway, it's crazy to think that Friedkin does this, but he definitely does. If you go watch a lot of his movies very carefully, you can tell that he's not using production dialog. He's using dialog that he made the actors record. Later in the Oppenheimer podcast, we talked about Killian Murphy said he's had to do five lines of ADR, maybe total, in all of his movies for Chris Nolan, and that would not be the case working with William Friedkin. It would have to be in your contract that you're going to spend days redoing your entire performance in audio. I don't know if this helps or hinders his movies overall. It's just a weird thing. I wanted to call out. I've never really heard of a director doing that recording. All the sound later, I mean. Okay. All right. The toughest film William Friedkin made was a movie called Saucer Horror, and he made that with Paramount in 1977. By the time that movie was released, Friedkin and the studio hated each other equally. He did not make a movie with Paramount again for another 17 years. When he released Blue Chips in 1994, the only reason he reconnected with Paramount, his wife ran the fucking studio. This is a William Friedkin appreciation episode, but you can't mention William Friedkin without mentioning his long time wife, Sherry Lansing. Sherry Lansing has spent her entire life and career making huge movies for Hollywood studios. She is a fellow titan of the industry. She held very high positions with Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Paramount. Here are some of the movies she's produced, not just ones where you're going to see produced by Sherry Lansing, but also ones that she produced with a studio. So you won't necessarily see her name in the title, but she was the producer behind it. Listen to this shit. This is just a few Kramer versus Kramer. Fatal Attraction. The Accused Indecent Proposal. Forrest Gump. Braveheart. Titan Blue Chips. She started as a studio head for Paramount in 1992, and this is a load of trivia I got researching her for this. This is nuts. Six six of the ten highest grossing Paramount films were released during her tenure, which included three Academy Awards for best Picture. She knows what she's doing, and she was married to William Friedkin, which could not have been easy, a man nicknamed Hurricane Billy because he could be such a tyrant on set. He slept the shit out of the priest at the end of The Exorcist, just to get the reaction he wanted. He was nuts. But you know, damn, if William Friedkin and Sherry Lansing did not make for one of the best couples in modern Hollywood. And I got to get. I got to talk about this now, before we get to the top ten, The Exorcist and its legacy with the What Are You Watching podcast. Again, dedicated fans may be wondering why I'm doing this episode alone, because arguably the most popular moment of this podcast was when I found out in the tail end of episode 34, our top ten films of 1973, which we released in July 2021, I found out at the very end of that episode that my podcast partner and quote unquote best friend, Nick Dostal, had been lying to me for, oh, about four, three and a half, four years, about just having never seen The Exorcist, never. Now, as I explained, when I lost my shit in that episode and I'll loop in. Yeah, I mean, I've played the audio like a few times on this podcast, but I haven't done it for a while, so I will started from the top when everything started to go to shit in that episode. I'll play that at the very end of this episode so that if you haven't heard it, you can be reminded it's a doozy, I promise. I want to talk about what happened from my perspective, from my perspective. So when Nick and I were talking a few days ago about William Friedkin passing, and then I wanted to record this episode and he admitted to me that he had not seen a lot of William Friedkin movies. Somehow it was just a director He's missed. He has not seen Sorcerer. He has not seen a lot of other movies. I'm going to mention Nicolas, though, still has not seen the French Connection. Why did I not get mad about this? Why have I never gotten mad? If anyone hasn't seen the movie, I don't care. People have like lives and time is precious to all of us. I don't expect anyone to have seen any movie. What I do expect is if I ask you if you've seen a movie to not lie to me for four fucking years about having seen it, that is why I got mad. Nick hasn't seen the French Connection. You know what I said to him? You know what I said? I said, Well, that surprises me. I'm very excited to watch that one with you and record a part about it someday. That was it. That was it. No flipping out because he didn't lie to me. Here's where the lies started. I met Nick in 2015. I don't know when, but sometime after that, The Exorcist must have come up and I don't know. Nick was a movie guy, you know, He was a movie fan, so I just assumed he had seen it. I asked him, Have you seen this? Oh, yeah, of course I have. So, you know, a few years later, we're making a movie where I live outside of Washington, D.C., and the movie's wrapped, I'm alive, which we were making. So now we're in fall of 2018. We're wrapped filming, and we go see what the fuck we saw widows. We saw widows at the movie theater. Steve McQueen's widows went to see that. Then we went walking around Georgetown because I love Georgetown. And I take him to the steps. I surprise him and we get there, and now it all makes sense. Now everything kind of clicks in because he was very unimpressed at first until I said, these are the steps from The Exorcist. Then it was like, Oh yeah, cool, cool bullshitter bullshitter. And it was a nice moment there on the steps that we had. But it was a nice moment based on a lie. If you're ever in Georgetown and you like this movie, I highly suggest going to the steps because they're really cool. And you know, Georgetown's right on the river, right on the Potomac River. So those steps can just get a little natural fog from time to time as opposed to fake fog. What, What? And it can look really cool. And then it is indeed a lot of steps. So if you go up to him, you know, you get a little workout going, then you get up there and you get to see the house. And that's cool because you get to see the house, but then you get to make the connection like, Oh, they cheated that for the movie because the house window is actually like pretty far away from the steps. And you wouldn't it's like two houses away from those steps. So you see how Friedkin cheated it in editing and it's just cool. And then you walk down the steps and you leave and you have a really nice moment with your best friend that you find out was a lie. Three years later, no resentment. But it's okay. We're going to move on to my top ten, I promise. That's not the last you'll hear of The Exorcist in this episode. Okay, let's get to top ten. William Friedkin, This is I mean, come on. This is all personal taste. He I don't know. He's probably made more acclaimed movies that some that are in my top ten. But it's just you know I call it like I see it Some of these are classics. Some of these probably aren't considered classics, but we're just going to get into them. It's going to be fun and hopefully if you haven't seen all of them, you will be motivated maybe to check one out because two in particular are just masterpieces, classics that have never gotten their fair credit and they have really good recent home video releases because they're never available to stream anywhere. But we'll get to those honorable mention TV movie, a remake of 12 Angry Men that William Friedkin made in 1997. He remade Sidney Lumet's classic, and this is the first version of this material that I saw. I vividly remember seeing the VHS cassette with all the names of the cast on it, and I was like, I like these guys. I've never even heard of this movie. The same guy who made The Exorcist made this, huh? I had no idea it was based on an earlier film, so I watched Friedkin's version first. Here's a cast. Some of the cast, Ossie Davis, Courtney B Vance, Armin mueller, Stahl who had just won an Oscar. George C, Scott. James Gandolfini. Tony Danza. Mykelti Williamson. Edward James Olmos, William Petersen and Jack Lemmon. In the Henry Fonda part. This remake I just put it on, it's very easy to find. It's on a lot of streaming services. I put it on a few days ago. It does exactly what a remake should do. It handles the material just well enough to motivate you to want to go watch the original freakin 12 Angry Men achieves that. It's a really good movie. Again, it's easy to find highly recommend it. Everyone really gives it their all and it's great to see George C Scott play the asshole, you know? Juror He was a great asshole. Here we go. Number ten The Rules of Engagement 2000. I don't remember. You don't remember what you said next? It was combat, not some training moment, lady, your men were shooting. What did you say to make that happen? I don't know. You must have said something. Captain Lee reversed himself. What did you say? I don't know the exact words. Let me help you, Your Honor. You said waste the motherfuckers, didn't you? No, no, no. You didn't say it. Well, it all happened so fast. You're under oath, Colonel. Let me refresh your memory. This is exhibit Q, a tape recording made aboard the USS Wake Island of Old Radio Communications received that day, including your exact words. Your Honor, with your permission, I would like to play this tape. Well, if you got it on tape, then that's what I said. They were killing my Marine. So, yeah, I said, waste the motherfuckers. I undoubtedly like this movie more than most. I saw it in the theater the weekend it came out. My mom took my friends and I. We all loved it. I think we were like 14. We thought it was so damn intense and kind of purposely over-the-top. I mean, the movie was a modest hit, but I don't know how well-remembered it is today. Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L Jackson are lifelong military buddies. They went through hell in Vietnam together, which freed can captures in a fucking insane early sequence in the movie. This is when every action movie in every war movie had to look like Saving Private Ryan. So it's borrowing a lot of those tricks and, you know, frankly, not doing them as well. But who cares? So, you know, decades after Vietnam, Tommy Lee Jones is retiring in Jackson, is still in the service. He gets into some pretty hot shit in Yemen and is suspected of murdering, murdering innocent people during a protest at the US embassy in Yemen. So Tommy Lee Jones, playing an admittedly mediocre lawyer, comes in to represent his old pal in his court martial. You know, it's it's not like the makings of a dead serious war drama turned courtroom thriller. This this rules of engagement. Absolutely has some cheese to it. This was not a movie. Tried to win Oscars like Jones and Jackson get into it. First of all, I don't think I've ever refer to them as like Jones and Jackson. It's so weird to say just their last names. Tommy Lee and Samuel L It's better, isn't it, getting to a fistfight in this movie that lasts like 3 minutes, but it's 3 minutes of like, old dude just beat the shit out of each other. It's hilarious. This is not a perfect movie, but I do appreciate aspects of it. And oh, oh, the supporting cast. It's so perfect for this era. Bruce Greenwood as a colossal political shithead, always so good. But then, but then we get Guy Pearce Peake, Guy Pearce as a smart as balls, tough as nails prosecutor against Tommy Lee. I showed my wife that waste the motherfuckers clip that I just played, and she did not believe me that the dude on screen doing that perfect Brooklyn accent was in fact Australian. Well, Guy Pearce was born in England and raised in Australia. So there I love Guy Pearce. Nick and I took his short film there. I go to the Palm Springs Film Festival in 2016 and we became pretty tight with two guys who were there for a short film that actually starred Guy Pearce and they said he was the coolest guy down for anything. I love Guy Pearce. He's great in this movie. One totally random just tidbit about rules of engagement and William Friedkin's filmmaking style. Overall, he does a very random thing. Sometimes he makes a very random choice at the very end of his movies to put character cards at the end that tell us what happened to the main characters after the movie's ended. This is an extremely common thing in movies that are based on a true story, but very rare for movies that are just pure cinema fiction, like Rules of Engagement. Like a lot of other movies, William Friedkin is made that he gives these descriptive credits to. I mean, it's it's hilarious. And yeah, that's right. My number nine pick absolutely does this as well. 1994 is blue chips by John Carpenter. Oh, what a Ray Charles could have made it. Better call, for Christ's sake. You're scattered over here. Gordon Golden time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 3.30. Doing the third book all the way down. You got a lot of unfinished writing. This is freakin sports movie. You got Nick Nolte playing coach Pete Bell, which is based very closely on famed college basketball coach Bobby Knight. Nick shadowed Knight to prepare for this role, and Knight is featured in the movie playing himself. So it was all good, but it's very clearly based on him. Blue Chips was, to my knowledge, one, if not the first narrative film to openly discuss cheating in men's college basketball, everything from point shaving to gifting potential players with very lavish items, including a new fucking house for mom. Nick Nolte anchors the film. He is an absolute beast in this. Again, I don't think Blue Chips was made to get nominated for Oscars. I don't think that was the intention. But notice like doing Shakespeare types, like it's just going absolute apeshit from his first scene like that volcanic angry energy I talk about related to multi a lot that is as much a part of Coach Pete Bell as it is about any of his characters, including Colonel Tull from the said red line. And I'm dead serious. He gets so damn that in this movie you just got to sit there and laugh like it's hilarious. Sports fans really love Blue Chips because the basketball scenes are so clearly authentic. These guys were really playing and you can tell, and when you watch the intensity of the basketball scenes, it's like it's easy to remember, Oh, yeah, this is the director that made the amazing car chase in the French Connection. I can see how the same person is responsible for both. Blue Chips is just a movie that moves as a whole so damn well. Great supporting cast for basketball fans. Of course, you have Shaquille O'Neal playing a pretty substantial supporting part as a basketball prospect. So does Penny Hardaway. And then you have tons of famous sports figures playing themselves. I mentioned Bob Knight, probably most notably Larry Bird, who has a really fun scene with multi set in the area. Bird grew up French Lick, Indiana, but it's this is touching on like if you seen he got game and movie I absolutely loved that's touching with all this same stuff that just takes it to a much much more aggressive area in like you know all regards but blue chips doesn't hold anything back like it was really button pushing for its time. And then movie wise you have JT Walsh, who's an absolute animal in this. I love him. Mary McDonald, Ed O'Neil, Alfre Woodard, Robert Wohl, Louis Gossett Junior. They're all great. The movie was written by sports movie legend Ron Shelton. He wrote and directed Bull Durham White Men Can't Jump Cobb ten Cup, Play It to the Bone Blue Chips. I like that movie a lot. Here we go. Number eight. This is another one I put Enough for Me column The Hunted, released in 2003, reunite from the inside of his arm here, sever all the connective tissue, pulling his finger away from the trigger and at the same time coming around his left shoulder. Grab the strap, choke him, now come into his heart to the top of the sternum and bring him to the ground. Very good. Go arm, throat, heart, legs, leg, arm, Blunt. Good, good. Want two, three, five, six. One, two, three. Power assist. Four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six. One, two, three, four, five, six. Make this got a good power assist You looking for his backbone? Okay. Okay. This movie is nuts and it has its flaws, but it is just so lean and mean. I love it. It's it's basically Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro fucking with each other for 90 minutes. It's Jones. His character is an expert like tracker survivalist guy who years ago he trained Del Toro's character to become this black ops bad ass killer for the military. Now, Jones has retired to British Columbia, and Del Toro has seemingly gone nuts and is killing innocent people in the woods for sport. That's what we're told. So Jones is brought in to hunt down the man he trained. This movie was not going to win any Oscars. It's a genre movie. It's like a thriller. It's a slick thriller with two strong leads and some really enjoyable wilderness action scenes. Friedkin became kind of obsessed with these wilderness tracking, survival outdoors guys, guys who can literally you can just drop them into the woods and say, I need to find someone who we think was lost in here. And they just, you know, look at tracks, look at where twigs are broken, Look for all these different clues and they can find people. They can get put in any situation and track them down. And Tommy Lee Jones really embody is this sort of guy very, very well. You really believe that he is totally in his element when he's doing this survival tracking shit. Then when he's indoors in police stations and courthouse is his character. He's anxious, nervous. He paces, he twitches, he's constantly rubbing his hands. He speaks with one word, answers. It's actually a really layered performance for this type of movie, and that is partly why I like the movie so much. Benicio Del Toro was just crushing it at this time, too. He had just won an Oscar for Traffic. He was nominated for 21 Grams the same year The Hunted came out. It's always fun to go back and watch his earlier work when he was so young and energetic. And there are some training scenes in the hunted that are just so well assembled, like how to stab someone six times in one second. That type of shit. They're just, I don't know, it's fun to watch. And, you know, I got to mention this because the Hunted was often compared to First Blood was Sylvester Stallone, you know, the first Rambo. And okay, that's fine. But the hunted as a 29% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, like, come on, that's insane. No movie that begins and ends with Johnny Cash talking deserves 29%. That's grotesque. Now, cheese is talk about grotesque. Number seven bug. Oh, my God. If it had to be me and it had to be me from the very beginning, because they took they took Lloyd. They took him somewhere. They took them to this laboratory and they and they cut him and they cut him open and the stuff matched or whatever the DNA and the blood and all that together. And so they started to build. They started to build the the the queen, the mother. And they gave it to me and gave it to me. The Jews, the bug, the mother bug, the super mother birthmark. I am this so far Mother Polgooth Yeah, I am this so far so fast. Oh my God. I hadn't seen this movie in years. I rewatched it for episode 75, our favorite films of 27. Yes, Bug premiered at Cannes in 2006, but it was released in theaters in 2007. So it's a 27 movie to me. Anyway, moving on. Wow. Nothing has held back from anyone in bug. Writer Tracy Letts doesn't hold anything back. Michael Shannon certainly doesn't hold anything back. William Friedkin is totally game. And then you have the winner of the movie star Ashley Judd, just doing something unlike anything she has done before or since. Very few people. I don't care who you are men, women, anyone, have gone to this level on film before or since. I am so in all of her commitment to this performance, this movie is 102 minutes long, and you do feel all of them. Most of it is contained in one setting, but right when it edges up to testing our patience, it just does something absolutely fucking crazy. And then when it can't get any crazier, Oh, there is a fucking crack pipe in the corner. What? Huh? Oh, my God. This is a tough movie. For sure. For sure. But it's so well-written and so well performed that can crack pipe. God, Nick and I've talked about this a lot. It was one of our first episodes. We think that in order to successfully recreate a movie from a play, you got to let the material shine. As a director, it's probably best to stay out of the way as much as you can and let the material be the Star. Friedkin does that here wisely. The script and the performers are the star of Bug, but also I know I'm going out of chronological order so it can be hard to track, you know, the context of Friedkin's career. But I think I really think there's a cool bit of trivia. The Hunted was made in 2003 cost$55 million. That was the budget they gave him for the hunted. That's a healthy budget for a 23 thriller. Bug was made three years later and only had a budget of $4 million. That's how badly Friedkin wanted to adapt this play and make this movie that is a massive budget decrease from one movie to the next. And that is why I love William Friedkin. That is why I love that he adapted this play from Tracy Letts. And then they reteamed six years later for Ho Boy, Here it is my number 620 12 Killer. Joe. It wasn't that girl out there. Oh, yeah. Well, you know, the one that's always sniffing around Chris is shit here. What the hell, Sharon? I all the great big caboose on our leg. Lean or fluffy. You better look out for her, boy. She may be too much woman for you. She she better stay away from the barbecue. She'd be too much room to fit in the door. Hey, you make me laugh. Hey, listen, I'm just going to head boys. You get to share that have yet to better pay me my money in a couple of days, I'll wrap you up. Electrician, Take very unit coffin about ten feet deep, huh? Killer Joe the only NC 17 rated movie. William Friedkin ever made. And boy, will you know why will you ever. My God saw this at the E Street Cinema in Washington, DC the weekend it came out, I bought the Blu ray and listen to Friedkin's commentary for it because I had to, but I had not watched it since. So we're talking 2013. I hadn't seen it until a few days ago. I just put this thing on it. My God, it's as shocking as ever. I mean, obviously I love it because I'm nuts. But Jesus Christ, like you talk about people being game for something. It's like everyone who is involved with this movie, especially the people on the screen there it is inhabited a different form of themselves to deliver this macabre, smothered mess, which I mean is a compliment. I really do. Matthew McConaughey. Thomas Haden Church, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon. I have a pretty good handle on all of their careers, and they ain't never done shit like this before. Like Gina Gershon. My God, I can't even talk about it like, this is not an easy movie, but it is remarkably effective in its intention. It knew exactly what it wanted do, and it does just that, you know? Speaking of Friedkin's commentary track for Killer Joe, I haven't mentioned his commentary tracks specifically as I've been going movie to movie. But, you know, again, if you're into him and you maybe if you happen to own this Blu ray, you got to put this thing on because I promise you it will be worth it. He is he is as unfiltered as the movie itself, as opinionated as the movie itself. And he says something early in this commentary that I'm not even allowed to repeat, nor would I want to. And it was a bit of advice that Tracy Letts gave him, which I honestly can't imagine. Tracy Letts wanted Friedkin to share on a director's commentary. But Friedkin says it was so much sincerity. You just you just laugh. Oh, Billy Killer Joe. My God, You thought that was controversial. Number five, 1980s cruising. Excuse me. Can I ask about these kids? What about them? What are they for? Like glue? Hang in your left. Back pocket means you want a blowjob. Right pocket means you give one the green, one left side says you're a hustler, right side, you're a buyer. The other one left side. Names again, Golden shower, right side. You receive the red one. You don't say anything you want. Oh, come on, go home. Think about it. I'm sure you'll make the right choice. Killer Joe and Bug, they go there. Don't get me wrong. They go there. But they were made in an era when movies were allowed to go there. No one was protesting those movies. No one really gave a shit. That was not the case in 1980. That was not the case for cruising easily. The most controversial film William Friedkin ever made. And some of that controversy in hindsight was a bit premature. And this happens with movies. People hear rumor of what a movie is about and what it may contain, and they slip out. A somewhat modern example of this is remember when everyone thought Leo had bear sex in The Revenant? Well People heard William Friedkin's new film was about a serial killer targeting gay men at New York City S&M clubs and America flipped out every day that they filmed cruising on the streets of New York. Protesters flooded the set and got to the perimeter of the set and would make so much noise that they were not able to use pretty much any of the production audio. It all had to be thrown out and Al Pacino and all the other actors had to rerecord damn near all of their dialog. I don't know if, you know, Friedkin's obsession with ADR started here because he was forced to do it, but that is true of it. That's how hated and controversial this film was. And then cruising comes out and had a tough few years. I can't say it was appreciated right away, but more so than any film I'm talking about today, cruising has received a vast cultural reappraisal and many consider to be a landmark of queer cinema today. But setting aside those specific discussions, this movie is as daring as movies get. I cannot believe Friedkin was able to get it made. He filmed in real gay S&M nightclubs, most of which were owned by the Mafia. So Friedkin got connected with the mob guys, and then it all worked out. And I mean, just quickly, sidebar here, you know what a fucking time. You know, like, the mob's just making the killing of these gay S&M nightclubs in the meatpacking District in New York. They give an Oscar winning director permission to go film inside. This would never get made today that quote, this would never get made today that has quickly become one of these stale lost sentences in film criticism. And I can be blamed for that because I say it all the damn time. I'm trying to limit my usage of it now because it's so stale, it's such a tired term. But like, come on cruising in 2023, there's there's no way. It barely happened in 1980. So like it or not, this movie is an absolute abrasive document of its time. Arrow released a marvelous Blu ray of the movie a few years ago. Friedkin has a solo commentary on it, but then he also has a commentary with the great film critic Mark Kermode, who's a huge fan of Friedkin's work. His favorite film of all time is The Exorcist and I Knew this back story from Friedkin's memoir, The Friedkin Connection. But William Friedkin did not have a good time working with Al Pacino at all, and he is not shy about talking about that on the commentary track, either commentary track at all. And it is hilarious you will you will never hear an Academy Award winning director talk so much shit about the star of their movie on a commentary for that movie. Again, there's just no way cruising is. It's all style leather nicotine. There are large knives, different colored bandanas, amyl nitrate. Pacino loses his mind after he huffs. Abel Nitrate in one scene are stack casts as well. Paul Sorvino, Karen Allen, Joe Spinella. Ed O'Neill. Young, Ed O'Neill, James Remar, Mike Starr, Powers Boothe, All great. They're all young in it, actually. They're all young. Oh, shit. Total James Remar Tangent. Total tangent. The news broke recently that he improvised that fucking line in Oppenheimer. That is crazy. That line about he and his wife honeymooning in Kyoto. James Remar Research, the guy that he was playing, found out that that fact was true and improvised that line of dialog on the day. That is astounding. There are no small parts. I love it. To finish up on cruising. This is actually William Friedkin film that Nick has seen. Of course it is still to this day, he may be the only person alive who saw cruising before The Exorcist and the French Connection. Now I got two in a row that deserve as much praise as humanly possible. Number four, to live and die in L.A.. I kind of freaked. That's all for U.S. Secret Service. I thought, you are such a kind of. You're making a mistake. Yeah. Damn sure. I'm not a busy man. I'm a business. Fuck your ass back here. You're good at seminars who help us. Secret Service released in 1985. Find this movie, please. It is so damn good. It is never gotten the recognition it deserves. It's very rarely. I don't even think you can rent this one like on YouTube, let alone stream it on a service. That sucks. I just bought the Kino Lorber 4k and it's, you know, my God, it's a stunning, stunning neo noir about a Secret Service agent played perfectly by. William Petersen trying to track down money, counterfeiters. That's like the barest plot description possible because this movie is so more than that. But it really deserves to be seen by you and not described by me. I'm actually like, genuinely just talking to Nick right now because he hasn't seen this movie and he really wants to. But everyone, you got to go see this thing. It was shot by Robby Mueller, who was a cinematographer for a lot of films directed by Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, Lars von Trier. The colors of To Live and Die in L.A. are very reminiscent of the colors in Paris, Texas, which Mueller filmed for Wim Wenders. Great movie, great score and soundtrack by the band Wang Chung. I'm not kidding. This soundtrack changed movies. It is iconic. So 1985. I love it. What else? Because I want to be sparse. To live and die in L.A. contains a car chase that rivals the one in the French Connection. The difference being that Gene Hackman is doing the chasing and the French Connection, whereas William Peterson is being chased in to live and die in L.A.. Oh, I love it. This is a hard thing to talk about for, like, you know, narrative reasons. And I really don't want to oversell it. But if you've seen this movie, you know exactly what I'm referencing and exactly what I'm talking about. This movie makes a choice that is so fucking shocking in all of the best ways. Every time I watch it, my jaw just drops. It just it drops again. If you've seen the movie, you've. I'm not. I'm not being clear because for people who haven't seen the movie, but if you've seen it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. No one has seen this movie is going to be like, I wonder what he's talking about. If you seen it, you know, go see it to live and die in L.A. And while you're doing that, check out the other William Friedkin masterpiece that never got the credit it deserved. Number three, 1977 Sorcerer, are you from Paris? I mean. Yes. Well, City of My Own is from, you know, Paris. I was there for two days. Very expensive, too. So there's a goof. I mean, he's dead. My wife. Just my wife. No children. No children. I met my wife when I first came to Paris. From her time the day she gave me. This was the last day I saw. It's 5 minutes before 940. This is easily the worst luck of Friedkin's career. I mean, first off, what a tall order to remake the wages of fear. A very good, very popular French movie from 1953. That is a truly beloved film that really holds up today. I have it looking at it right now. And Friedkin made the material his own. I it might be better than the original. It's a tough call they make for a great, very intense double feature. They are different, but they're so damn strong. The basic premise for Sorcerer, for those who haven't seen it and believe me, this is basic an American oil well has exploded in Colombia, like we're like deep in nowhere. Colombia, not a city like in the middle of nowhere for absolutely insane men are hired to drive extremely explosive dynamite in absurdly long distance in order to close the oil well. I mean, they have to drive it 280 fucking miles through the most treacherous terrain imaginable. And if they hit a bump, the entire truck could explode. Oh, Roy Scheider is the American star of the movie. He's great as always. Despite the fact that this was probably the hardest film he made, it was certainly the hardest film Friedkin ever made, the most challenging movie he ever made. He earned the nickname Billy after making this movie, which was a double entendre for the really brutal conditions the movie was filmed under. And it speaks to Friedkin's notorious temper. There is a sequence filmed on a very what appears to be clumsily shitty assembled rope drawbridge going over river, and it cost Friedkin a million to shoot that and took weeks to do. He said it was the hardest thing he ever filmed. All of that is on screen. You're just sitting there on the edge, your seat watching this like, God, I would love to see this in the theater. I would love to see this movie in the theater. It is so tense. It is so good. I did just buy the Blu ray was it was available, you know, for the first time just a few years ago. And this was this was another movie that this was another movie that went pretty unseen in the theaters, but was given New Life on Home Media and in Sorcerer is a great but tough movie. It's had a huge influence on so many famous directors. And the reason why a lot of people didn't see it in 1977 is because it had the great, I mean, truly terrible misfortune of being released just after a tiny movie called Star Wars, Sorcerer went on to gross $9 million worldwide. Star Wars eventually went on to gross 776 million worldwide, and it helped spawn maybe the most well-known film franchise in cinema history. So a big shadow to be in. But go watch Sorcerer, please. And God, after you watch it. The making of stories you can read on this just on the Wikipedia page like it's nuts. I can't believe people didn't die making this Friedkin himself like God. Hurricane Billy Number two a movie so good. It's insane that I'm putting it at number two, The French Connection. I want to try. I don't know. I never knew what side of the street he lives on, I should add, was like trying to compete. He was talking about I've got a man in Poughkeepsie, wants to talk to you. You ever been to Poughkeepsie? Huh? Have you ever been Poughkeepsie? Hey, man, come on, give me a break here. Let's talk about it here. You see it? Come on. Have you ever been Poughkeepsie? You've been in Poughkeepsie. I mean, I want to head. Yes, I've been there, right? Yeah. You sat on the edge of the bed, didn't you? You took off your shoes, put your finger between shows to pick your feet, didn't you? That's just All right. You want to feel my partner? You know what that means. Got that all went wrong. I got lost. Jim gripe about his bowling scores. Now I'm going to bust your ass for those three bags. I'm going near you for picking your feet. Okay. This one, Best picture, best director and best actor at the 1971 Academy Awards. This is without question one of my top ten favorite movies to ever win Best picture, frankly, how far the Academy has come, Not in a good way. When you watch a movie like this, you're like, what? They gave this the top prize. Like it's it's just as good as it has ever been. And this isn't one I don't know, the last time I watch it, probably not shortly after, like again we're I'm going full movie nerd here. But when William Friedkin released this on Blu ray in like 2009, I think he did some batshit crazy stuff to the color, like ruin the color of the whole movie, made it look like kind of old timey and hazy. It just looked terrible. And then in typical William Friedkin fashion, he was like doubling, tripling, quadrupling down, going on interviews, telling people, you know, they were wrong. If it looked bad, he got to do a very public fight, like verbal fight with the cinematographer Owen Roisman, because Roisman is like, this looks like shit now. Like, what is this? What are you doing? There's a making of feature on the Blu ray that shows Friedkin like doing the color timing and talking about how it's better. And you watch, you go like, What the fuck are you doing? So the movie is talked about a lot too, because everyone hated it and I never even bought that Blu ray because I saw it. I'm like, This looks terrible. So I sold my DVD. Then a few years later, they released another Blu ray that had its normal color palette that this one, Friedkin and the cinematographer color time together. So all was well, but that was probably the last time I watch it like it had. It had been a while. And it it was kind of good to wait that long because this movie has so much just gritty urgency that it's it's really it's utterly bracing, honestly. It's an hour and 44 minutes long. It moves, moves, moves. The Santa Chase drinks at the Copa Macon, the bar bust the street, surveillance in the freezing cold, the sniper, the chase, the fucking car chase, stripping the car. It's good. It is a staple of iconic seventies cinema. It's one of the reasons it's one of the film documents that makes the seventies. So of course, if you know anything about the movie, the way they made it, the way they did that Chase was so few resources and permits and, you know, safety precautions. It's Gene Hackman. This is probably Gene Hackman's best performance, and that is one of the best actors who's ever lived. And he's so superb. And this is Popeye Doyle. Oh, this movie is lean, mean, fun is all hell. Cannot recommend it highly enough. Nick and I were debating what's the best way to handle this? Because this is because this is a pretty well known movie that a lot of people have seen. You know, best picture winner that he hasn't seen. So it could be fun to do. We watch it together and do a deep dive after do we watch it together and then immediately after do a commentary for it? I don't know, but it's not one I'm going to let go. It's one that we're going to do something with. The French Connection. Everyone should see this movie. Great film. And number one, of course, no surprise here, 1990 fives. Jade, I'm a big fan. The erotic thriller. As a genre, I still want to have an episode about it. This one is just like so absolutely sleazy. It was written by Joe Eszterhas, so he's the guy who wrote Showgirls, Flashdance, Basic Instinct, Sliver. He was he was the guy for the erotic thriller in the nineties. And then you got David Caruso, as I mentioned, Linda Faustino, Chaz Palminteri, Michael being Michael beds in this one. Jade Oh, what a film. Jade You know who does music for? Jade? James Horner You know who hasn't seen Jade? Nicholas Those still, Jade is not my favorite William Friedkin film of all time. Number one, 1973, The Exorcist, done in the name of the Father and of the Son of the Holy Spirit with the sign of the Holy Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit. David Heyman, past defender of the human Rights. Look down and you'll count on your servant after guy Devil's Bastard 090 by the judges, the living and the dead to depart for the servant of God. Yeah. Arguably the movie that has been discussed on this podcast the most, but we never talk about the movie. I mentioned Top ten films of 1973, the clip of which I'll play at the end of this episode. And then what's so funny is that at the end of that podcast and 1973 podcast, I made Nick promise me that we would watch The Exorcist together in person the day before Bachelor party, which was going to be like a month from then. So I fly out a day early. I didn't fly it a day early just to watch The Exorcist, although that is something I would probably do. I fly out a day early rewatching The Exorcist that night and we just have stuff going on like we got to wake up early to go to drive to Palm Springs for the bachelor party where to buy supplies. We had to go to dinner, so we watched the movie and then we record Episode 36 The Exorcist, which I believe is the shortest themed episode we've recorded because we barely talk about the movie Doc barely mentioned. I mean, we do, but I did have an outline for it. I don't know. Like I said, we were kind of distracted, so I don't know. That's another word like the French Connection. We're going to have to atone for Nic's exorcist Sleight Somehow, on this podcast, I'm going to make him do a commentary for it. I don't know. I And then because of this, I barely get to talk about the damn movie myself. And I love this fucking movie. I've loved this movie since I've seen it. I saw it so young, like I was the one guy. What grade were Rian was at 2000. Yeah, that was 2000 when he released into theaters. And, like, I was the nutjob who made all my friends go see it. Like, terrorize them because I was already watching it at home. Love this. This is the William Friedkin movie I've seen the most. I just I just bought the 4K. I cannot wait for that to arrive. I'm so excited. It's going to be released next month. They're probably timing it with the David Gordon Green sequel. Recall. Whatever thing I'm doing, I can't wait for the 4K because it actually contains both versions of The Exorcist. I have only ever owned the quote unquote version. You've never seen. And it's a good debate, this theatrical cut versus director's cut, because there are some really good things in the director's cut, but there's just a little too much. And I think you could have found a good mix between both, but I don't know. I'm really excited for that. So, yeah, The Exorcist getting mentioned again on What are you watching? A movie that I love so much. That is also a really fun movie to read about in his memoir, because some one thing that makes this memoir the Friedkin connection so good is that he's calling himself out a lot, like a lot in it, calling out his own bad behavior and according to William Friedkin, the success of the French Connection critically and with Oscars and in terms of making money, that was all unexpected. It was a really hard movie for him to make. Gene Hackman tried to quit and he wouldn't let him. So it was it was a tough movie and it won Best picture at one of the best director Oscar. It was crazy. He didn't expected. And then he said, The Exorcist is really the only movie he made, like knowing that he was going to win awards, He was the hatchet director in town and he was going around town talking like he had it in the bag. Like this was the movie of the year and it would be ridiculous to consider anything else. And that's never gone well. When someone is out there talking like that about a movie, it it hasn't. We've seen it very, very recently. You shouldn't assume you have it in the bag. And you got to be careful about saying that stuff because the academy can turn their back on you and they can nominate you for ten awards, including picture and director. But Then they can only end up giving you two, which of course is better than nothing at one sound. And then William Peter Blatty just won Best Adapted Screenplay. That was great. The other awards, it was nominated for best actress, Ellen Burstyn still thinks she should have won that. I think best supporting actor Jason Miller. Oh my God, it's so good. Best Supporting actress Linda Blair, Best Art direction, best Cinematography. Owen Roisman, who came back after the French Connection. This was, of course, before their French Connection Blu ray fight. Like fighting for the French Connection, Blu ray, Cheez-Its and then final nomination for The Exorcist. Best film editing. But of course, 1973 was the year of this thing that won Best Picture and Best director for George Roy Hill, The Exorcist. I love that film. And Nick will, too. In time. In time, I'm going to see the sequel, too. It's going to be good. I mean, probably not. I don't care. I'm going to see it. So it's crazy how green David Gordon Green got Jamie Lee Curtis back for Halloween and now Ellen Burstyn back for this. And Linda Blair is in it, apparently. Okay, I'm there. I'm there. Thanks, everyone, for hanging out with me for so long for this solo part. I really do love William Friedkin. This is not the last time William Friedkin is going to be mentioned on this podcast. Of course, I'm going to make actually a vow to mention him again for a very specific reason, because I thought Killer Joe was going to be his last movie, his last script and movie. And I did not realize I realized this after he passed on August 7th, 2023. William Friedkin has a movie in the Can The Caine Mutiny Court Martial. This is already scheduled to play at the 80th Venice International Film Festival next month, and I will see it the moment it is released. It stars Kiefer Sutherland. Jason Clarke was so good. Is that shithead lawyer and Oppenheimer Jake Lacy, Lance Reddick. Rest in peace. Lance Reddick I'm really excited to see that. I, I don't know. I just I guess I lost sight of the fact that he had made another movie and it's in the can. I'm really excited. Next up for the Pod, it will be our Oceans 12 commentary. We were in person for it. It went great. That was supposed to be this episode. But then we got hit with the sad news from William Friedkin, and after the Ocean's 12 one, it's another humor themed episode, injecting a little humor into the pod, I say on the William Friedkin Remembrance podcast for some fun stuff coming up, though, I promise, go watch a William Friedkin movie. If you've seen the French Connection in The Exorcist dozens of times, like I have tried to find to Live and Die in L.A., try to find Sorcerer, Let me know if you're watching any of these movies I've been logging. I had a great, like four day free Cannes binge watching these top ten movies of mine, logged all those on Letterboxd at W AIW Underscore podcast. It's the same on Twitter, same on Instagram. Find us there. As always. Thank you for listening and happy watching. All right. Well, let's move on to your number one. This is ridiculous. Oh, yeah. Well, here we go. When I first drafted this list, I but I initially had 28 films that I threw on the list, some of which I hadn't seen, most of which I had. I knew I had to whittle that down to ten. And right away I put one right at the top and I went, okay, something will dethrone this. And then after a while I decided to stop complicating this and just accept it. The Exorcist by William Friedkin is easily my favorite film of the year. I fucking love. Why are you shaking your head? It's like one of the greatest films ever made. We've never seen it, but I've never seen it. But I asked you on the podcast if you had seen it. You said yes. I didn't want to break your heart. Okay, Well. Oh, my God. When you were doing it, I just have to I also have to preface this, too, because this goes away deeper than when you asked me in the podcast and I lied to your face. You're fucking one of my first. I took you to the fucking Georgetown and I was like, Look, dude, this is where he fell down. Holy shit. I said, I'm nice to you for movies you hadn't seen, but would you go on like a fucking four year lie? This is like a this is a sting. This is a long time. I've been. This is this. This is the unraveling of a four year long lie because, Oh, my God. I'll just say I said it earlier is like there were certain movies that I just did not want to seem uncool that I hadn't seen. And but I knew how much it meant to you. And I was like, Oh, no, I can't. Yeah, of course I've seen The Exorcist. And then I just. And then, yeah, you took me to Georgetown to see this stuff. And in my head I was watching it. I was like, I'm to have to, like, fake that. I like, know what he's talking about? And I'm like, Oh, cool. This is awesome. Because they were very cool steps. Why I love you. I don't even care that you haven't seen the movie, but to feel the need to like, I mean, I'm not like, like what the hell? I'm not someone you need to, like, impress in terms of movie dumb. First of all, let's start by saying let's be a little empathetic, okay? And we'll start by saying, as your face is going from red to white, let's let's calm down. But you don't like horror movies traditional. Yes, right. Yes. So, like, that's so okay. Like, I accept that. Like, that's all good. I do have to say, when you were on your number five giving your thing about you don't like movies with kids, I was like, Oh, shit. Is this exists? And so I went, He's totally not going to mention this movie, but oh my God, I took him up to the house. You walk up the stairs, It's a lot of stairs, folks, and you go to the house and I'm like, That's where he's talking. We tub whole time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Jesus. Anyway, well, then I. Okay, we have in about a month and a half, my bachelor party coming up. I'm spending a day with you solo, and I'm going to say that that night before the festivities begin, we put this on and it's going to be the version you've never seen. The director's because it as well. You know, I talked about this on one of my what are you watching recommendations when you said you guess me to death, God said, do you think I, like, ruined the whole. Okay, well, here we go, The Exorcist, everyone. For those of you who haven't seen it, here's why. It's my number one of 1973. It's a really good movie about demonic possession. Where do I begin? Okay, No. Okay, seriously, I. And this might be the most rewatchable horror movie of all time, too. For those of us who have seen it not to take anything away from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and like Halloween, two other horror movies I love. But I mean, what Jason Miller is doing in this movie. He plays a priest, Nicholas, in the film. It's one of my all time favorite performances without. Question My pick for supporting actor. He's Jason Patrick's dad. So like, he has his kind of intensity and he had already won a Pulitzer for writing the championship season and so weird. I thought we were going to a conversation about The Exorcist. It's not like a one way chat, like I'm just talking into the ether when I could talk to any other person on my. Okay. And Ellen Burstyn, really good that you might be surprised to know that. Wood Burstyn's really great one screenplay, Thank God written by the William Peter Blakeley, who wrote the novel. It's based on a novel. Nick And yeah, it's a good movie, so I'm very happy for you to watch it and see the stuff I said. One of my favorite pictures of ever taken on a film was that night we were at those stairs. The fog was just right. It was a great time. It's Universal Pictures, everyone. I'm sitting there, like bending down, going, This is when he grabs his hand. Like, Do you want to repent for your sins? Like all that shit? I go through the whole thing. This is where he's talking at with her exorcist. I my number one folks. I do. I would like if you wait and we can watch this one together, I think that would be a cool compromise because it actually is like a really good movie. I will wait and I will take all of the shit that you're giving me for it and I will wait and we will watch it together, too. Let's be clear to you and for everyone listening, I am not, nor will I ever give you shit for not having seen a movie. I'm giving you shit for this fucking dupe, this four year long issue that you've held over me where you're like, I'm just going to pretend that I've seen this movie. And then I guess either you've made the conscious decision, like, I'm just never going to watch this, because after we went to the steps, you could have been like, All right, I got to go home and watch this shit right away. That was like four years ago and you haven't. And that's a that's dedication. You know, that is Good acting, my friend. Good job. I'm really good. I'm almost impressed, honestly. Like, you're like a giant weight has been lifted off my shoulders. So beyond the extras, it's. Well, it's a really good movie. Really well shot. Everybody who's listening already knows this, but now I'm just talking to you. But. Oh, that's fun. That's fun. But I do. You'd be surprised. I didn't know it would be that surprising for me. Everyone else out there, you can all collectively give me as much shit. If You go to w a y w underscore podcast at Twitter and we can all talk about it and we can all have a good laugh. Yeah, I mean, why not? That's all we're here to do. Oh, okay. I'm very nervous doing this. The winner is William Friedkin. This is a tremendous honor and I'm very proud to accept it. I'm proud to of the people that helped me to make the French Connection, the people of 20th Century Fox, the entire cast and crew, especially Roy Scheider and Gene Hackman, for their fine performances. Jerry Greenberg for his cutting. Oh, and Reisman for his photography. But most of all, I would like to thank the man who made it all possible. Not only made it possible for the picture to be made, but for me to direct it. I owe all to him. His name is Phil D'Antoni. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. Hey, everyone. Thanks again for listening. You can watch my films and read my movie blog at. Alex Withrow dot com Nicholas Dose Dotcom is where you can find all of Nick's film work. Send us mailbag questions at What Are You Watching Podcast at gmail.com or find us on Twitter, Instagram and letterboxd at W aiw underscore podcast. We've been talking about this one for years, and next time Nick and I are going to do a commentary for Steven Soderbergh's Ocean's 12. So excited to do this one and so excited to share it. Stay tuned.