William Friedkin directed one of my all-time favorite films, Sorcerer, an ambitious remake of the movie The Wages of Fear (which was based on the Georges Arnaud book), and it’s a darn shame that this movie has yet to get a Blu-ray release.  However, Warner Home Video has given the highest respect to what Friedkin believes is his most perfect film, The Exorcist. This new Blu-ray edition, which came out this week, features the 2000 Extended Director’s Cut and the original 1973 Theatrical Cut.  The edition also includes a 3-part documentary on the making of the film, which contains  behind the scenes footage shot from a handheld camera by Exorcist cinematographer Owen Roizman (many of these scenes feature footage of Linda Blair looking very relaxed on-set, even though she had a rather daunting acting job).  The documentary also features the continuing argument between long-time friends Friedkin and The Exorcist writer William Peter Blatty, who was frustrated over a somber conversation between Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) and Father Karras (Jason Miller) that was cut from the original version (the sequence, which has the two trying to figure out why the demon tried to possess a harmless child, was placed back into the Extended Cut).  Another welcome addition to the documentary are interesting outtakes that never made it to the Extended Cut, as well as a new commentary from Friedkin.  Disc two of the edition also features commentaries from Friedkin and Blatty, as well as an interesting 9 minute conversation between the two (which has them amiably arguing about the Merrin/Karras deleted scene).  These features are from a previous release, but they only add to the multitude of material available in this Blu-ray release.  “I’ve heard little details of sound effects on Blu-ray that I had never heard that I didn’t even know were in the tracks,” said Friedkin in the new documentary.  “Little details, little tickles or noises or things we built in that are now all high definition digital track you hear that I don’t even remember that we built in. So there are all these versions of it and I now tend to believe with Blatty that the best version, the most complete version is the 2000 version, the version, you’ve never seen.”

***below is a clip featuring (from left to right: Production designer Bill Malley, Editor Bud Smith, DP Owen Roizman, and Linda Blair). Smith talks about the documentary feel of The Exorcist and Blair discusses the challenges of wearing wearing the make-up in the film.

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posted by Greg Srisavasdi