THE EXORCIST - 25TH ANNIV. ED. DVD
The 25th Anniversary DVD
of "The Exorcist" is absolutely REQUIRED VIEWING for fans of the film,
arguably one of the most perfect movies ever made.The DVD features a
74-minute documentary called "The Fear of God: The Making of the
Exorcist" which is thoroughly researched and very well produced. "The
Fear of God" includes fascinating commentary by "Exorcist" director
William Friedkin, who looks and sounds like a major asshole, but hey:
if it wasn't for him, the film would have definitely sucked cocks in
hell. There's also some extremely interesting commentary by the author
of the novel, William Peter Blatty, who also wrote the screenplay. It's
clear that Friedkin and Blatty had very different ideas about how the
film should have ended: Blatty wanted a more "positive" or "hopeful"
ending; the DVD shows the abysmally cheerful ending which Friedkin left
on the editing room floor (believe me: Friedkin made the RIGHT call).
The documentary gives new interviews with all your favorite stars of
the film (yes, Ellen Burstyn, Max Von Sydow, and Linda Blair), plus
crew members and special effects team members. There are 8 completely
amazing trailers for "The Exorcist" that were shown in theaters and 6
TV ads. The format of the DVD is widescreen anamorphic which is nice.
My only criticism, and it's a small one, is that the narrator of the
documentary is somewhat annoying: I think they should have used someone
more scholarly or authoritative who could have added an air of
reverence that the film so rightly deserves (like Anthony Hopkins?).
Obviously, "The Exorcist" is a masterpiece on so many levels: the harsh
juxtapositions between brightness and darkness, antiquity and
modernity, the Old World and the New World, pin-drop silences followed
by violent sounds at blisteringly loud levels... all of these were
meticulously crafted by the director to explore and illuminate the
invisible line between "good" and "evil." I'm probably preaching to the
converted here, but for good measure I should mention that I don't even
have a DVD player -- or a TV -- and I just bought a copy of "The
Exorcist: 25th Anniversary DVD" -- a bargain at $17.49.