One Of the Milestones

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2004)

Like Phantom Of the Opera in the '20's, Frankenstein in the '30's and Psycho in the '60's, THE EXORCIST was one of those must-see, everybody's-talking-about-it rite-of-passage movies (regardless of your age) which, like the earlier ones, actually did send people screaming from the theaters and have them swooning in the aisles (at least the first week it was out). Sure, a lot of it was the hype which approached mass hysteria, but 30-plus years on, this film holds up, due to its sure-footed direction, excellent casting and solid craftsmanship.
THE EXORCIST is something of a textbook on story construction, pacing and the art of audience manipulation (in the best sense of the term). It sometimes relies on tricks, but that's okay, because they work. Director William Friedkin cleverly unnerves and agitates the viewer early on with exaggerated and sudden sound effects (phones that ring extraordinarily loudly; medical equipment that blasts the eardrums), and inoculates against unintended humor in later scenes. For example, streams of obscenities unexpectedly bursting forth from a child who has been shown to be almost sickeningly sweet is just the kind of thing that can set an audience to tittering, but Friedkin defuses its shock value with earlier potty-mouth dialogue from Ellen Burstyn and Jack MacGowran, so the audience can get its initial humorous reaction to such things out of its system.
Just as with Hitchcock's Psycho, THE EXORCIST demonstrates that an out-and-out shocker needn't necessarily be a second-class film. It's intelligently written, it effectively places the implausible squarely in the context of the real world - employing three-dimensional characters who react believably to events that logic tells them shouldn't be taking place - and the first-rate cast (Burstyn, Cobb, Miller and Von Sydow in particular) delivers performances that demand the entire enterprise be taken seriously. Beyond the "pea soup" and "head-twirling" set-pieces, there is much to appreciate; rich and subtle moments such as Lt. Kinderman's (Cobb) interview with Chris (Burstyn). There are so many emotions boiling beneath her controlled exterior - her daughter's "illness," her friend's death and the realization that the tyke may be responsible for it - while she deals with this nosy and starstruck detective. Watch for Burstyn's understated, but dead-on, reaction when, politely offering another cup of coffee and expecting him to just as politely refuse (and get the hell out of her house), Cobb replies, "Yes, thank you." Her 'oh sh--' expression is priceless.
A good portion of today's target demographic, unborn when THE EXORCIST was released, might well find it tame by their standards, even as I, shy of 10 years old, found Frankenstein and The Phantom Of the Opera. I nonetheless loved them and recognized their artistry. Intelligent, sophisticated viewers of today will similarly find themselves appreciative of all this film has to offer (even if they were brought up on ubiquitous CGI and an excess of, well, everything).
THE EXORCIST was a landmark of the '70's, which was arguably the last golden era of American film (think Cabaret-Chinatown-Network). But that's a discussion for another time.