Who remembers "The Sting"?

Rating: Null/10 (29 September 2000)

It failed to win Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Director, nor Best Supporting Actor and yet "The Exorcist" stands out as the pacesetter in intelligent horror filmmaking. Now, 27 years later, this crisp, stunning treasure is back as fresh as Linda Blair's naiveté. Under William Friedkin's direction, we witness the crescendo fright of human beings rendered powerless by the anti-Christ. But the screenplay of William Peter Blatty's work is also filled with ironic playfulness, such as the highly inquisitive detective (Lee J. Cobb) who wanders in the middle of the film with Columbo-like mannerisms or the self-assured doctor who proclaims exorcism as the panacea for all the wrong reasons or the comparison of Father Damien Karras' (Jason Miller) facial likeness to John Garfield and Sal Mineo. Graphic is a word this film etched into our minds from the visual shock of x-raying the brain to seeing the excessive terror of a little girl as she turns her head completely around or spews out green vile or talks with the husky vulgarity of Mercedes McCambridge. Then there is the brilliant scene of Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) getting out of the taxi and facing the Georgetown house in the haunting evening shadows and streetlight or the unforgettable line of the Father Karras' mother figure acidly asking her guilt ridden son, 'dami, why you do this to me?' The acting is first-rate. Linda Blair makes the central figure,Regan, a believable damsel in distress and both Ellen Burstyn and Jason Miller give excellent portrayals of tormented figures fighting an uphill battle of survival. "The Exorcist", unlike many other films about God, treats the Catholic religion under attack with both reverence and accuracy, as suggested by the many credits given to clergy at the end. This remastered return of a great film makes us ask how in the world it could have lost out to "The Sting" in 1973?