Movies
William Friedkin Hasn’t Seen ‘The Exorcist’ Sequels, Doesn’t Like Superhero Movies
Even though William Friedkin will forever be remembered as the director of the scariest movie ever made, The Exorcist, he’s also behind The French Connection, Sorcerer, To Live and Die in L.A., The Guardian and more recently the awesome Bug and Killer Joe.
He’s transcended multiple generations and continues to deliver impactful entertainment to audiences, which is why his opinion has significant meaning.
We came across an old news bit that I find fascinating, in which Friedkin slams superhero movies and identifies the biggest problem with them.
“Films used to be rooted in gravity,” he told AFP reporter Sophie Laubie. “They were about real people doing real things.
Today cinema in America is all about Batman, Superman, Iron Man, Avengers, Hunger Games: all kinds of stuff that I have no interest in seeing at all.”
Friedkin’s interest is of no value here, as not everyone is going to enjoy comic book movies, but he does make an extremely valid argument about films losing their root in gravity. What he means is that there’s nothing believable about them. And I agree, to a degree. I think some of the best superhero movies are ones that are grounded in reality. For example, the second Captain America could have easily been a Bourne sequel, while some of my issues with the second Avengers and Batman V. Superman are that they feel overtly fantastical, which removes me from the experience.
Friedkin looks to television as our savior, where there’s time to develop rich and colorful characters, which have a more meaningly impact on the story.
Now Friedkin says “the best work” for directors is on television with cable and streaming networks that make shows such as ‘True Detective’ and ‘House of Cards’. “You develop character at a greater length and the story is more complex and deeper than cinema,” the director said, “this is the new zeitgeist. Many of the fine filmmakers of today are going to long-form TV. It is the most welcoming place to work for a director today.”
It’s clear that Friedkin is a purist, which only adds to his legacy. In fact, he said he’s never been swayed by money, and hasn’t even seen the sequels to his Exorcist.
“I am not interested in making movies just for the pay-cheque,” Friedkin said. “I have to love the film, the story, the characters. There were four sequels to ‘The Exorcist’ and I’ve seen none of them, nor do I want to or intend to.”
What do you guys think?
Would you agree with his assessment of superhero movies? Have things changed since this was published in 2015?
[H/T] The Telegraph.
After pulling in $28 million at the worldwide box office this month, director (and star) Dev Patel’s critically acclaimed action-thriller Monkey Man is now available to watch at home.
You can rent Monkey Man for $19.99 or digitally purchase the film for $24.99!
Monkey Man is currently 88% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, with Bloody Disgusting’s head critic Meagan Navarro awarding the film 4.5/5 stars in her review out of SXSW back in March.
Meagan raves, “While the violence onscreen is palpable and painful, it’s not just the exquisite fight choreography and thrilling action set pieces that set Monkey Man apart but also its political consciousness, unique narrative structure, and myth-making scale.”
“While Monkey Man pays tribute to all of the action genre’s greats, from the Indonesian action classics to Korean revenge cinema and even a John Wick joke or two, Dev Patel’s cultural spin and unique narrative structure leave behind all influences in the dust for new terrain,” Meagan’s review continues.
She adds, “Monkey Man presents Dev Patel as a new action hero, a tenacious underdog with a penetrating stare who bites, bludgeons, and stabs his way through bodies to gloriously bloody excess. More excitingly, the film introduces Patel as a strong visionary right out of the gate.”
Inspired by the legend of Hanuman, Monkey Man stars Patel as Kid, an anonymous young man who ekes out a meager living in an underground fight club where, night after night, wearing a gorilla mask, he is beaten bloody by more popular fighters for cash. After years of suppressed rage, Kid discovers a way to infiltrate the enclave of the city’s sinister elite. As his childhood trauma boils over, his mysteriously scarred hands unleash an explosive campaign of retribution to settle the score with the men who took everything from him.
Monkey Man is produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions.
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