[fatherbowdern]

granville1 said:

Maybe the scene of Karras looking at the sunset where he used to “find God”; a scene of him counseling a younger priest (Chris observes a scene like this but we can't hear the dialogue); Karras putting money into the “urine-soaked” pants of the passed-out drunk, instead of just walking away; there could be a Karras voiceover telling us what he's reading when researching witchcraft and demonology, some of whose details would add a purely verbal chill to the film…

 

Yes. All nice touches that would have made some interesting changes.

Father Bowdern

[granville1]

Thanks, Fr. Bowdern 🙂

[oachi]

Sofia, did you make that?

[Sofia]

Did I make what? I don't understand what you mean. 😉

[Ananta]

Wow, really impressive Sofia !

It's always a pleasure to read your posts comparing the novel vs the movie…

 

Granville, your suggestions could definitely bring a nice touch to certain excerpts of the movie.

Really interesting !

[fraroc]

Hey….guess whos back????

 

Anyway, Sofia when you mentioned about Chris' deceased son, Jamie. I was thinking about if I ever restart my Sim Exorcist, about possibly giving him a little more of a backstory. Something along the lines of….

 

“Chris sat at the desk while Regan was doing arts and crafts in the basement. She looks at a picture taken way too long ago. It was a picture of the MacNeil family. Chris and Howard had julibant looks on their faces as Chris held Regan, who was probably about a year old when the picture was taken. To the left of them was a handsome teenage boy with his fathers dark hair, All-American boy face with a slight hint of a goatee. Chris' son, Jamie MacNeil was no longer alive. She thought back to that day ['I'm sorry Mrs. MacNeil, but the type of gastrointestinal cancer that he has is inoperable and incurable….I'm afraid he has six months to live.'] That is why she will never trust a doctor. If only they had started treatment just two weeks earlier…….Jamie was only eighteen when he died, Regan was only two or three, so she has little to no memory of her older brother, the handsome, athletic teenager that would drop what he's doing just to play with her….”

[Sofia]

That's touching, Fraroc, but Jaime was only 3 years old when he died.

[Sofia]

Granville, just wondering if you'll ever add to this list? 😉

[granville1]

I still need to watch the film and have it fresh in mind and also re-read the novel – for the same purpose.

 

SPOILERS

 

Off the top of my head

the movie curtails the length of Karras' involvement in the Regan MacNeil case – e.g., toward the end, he dresses in “civies” to look up medical records. He needs to look like an off-duty doctor, not a priest, plus he knows that the black priest clothing material has a certain detectable aroma. So he does this investigation “under the radar”.

Also there are several brief encounters between Karras and Kinderman that are not in the film – each of them a subtle brushstroke that Blatty uses to tell a much fuller story than does the film.

Jerris (sp?), Chris' agent, is not mentioned.

Mary Jo Perrin, although apparently cast (she's the lady in black on the couch during the dinner party), has no lines – she's the one who warns Chris about the Ouija board.

Obviously, the Karl-Elvira subplot never made it into the movie.

Karl's special sense of affection for, an dprotectiveness toward, Regan is not shown in the film.

Due to the calustrophobic, one on one character of the exorcism scenes, the novelistic demon's attacks on Chris, Sharon,  Karl and Willie are not present in the movie.

Humorous lines were dropped in the movie, althought they resurfaced in Legion, e.g. the carp in Kinderman's bath tub, and Dyer's “lemon drop junkie” joke.

Missing, too, is Chris's prank of putting a stuffed toy mouse in one of Karl's mouse traps. Karl finds it and only mutters, “Someone is funny”>

In the book, Karras runs across (iirc) a note that the pre-posssessed Regan had written to her mother, and the child's innocence cuts through Karras like a knife and Blatty writes word to the effect of “he could not bear this chance encounter”.

In the novel, Karras likes to watch the sunset from a prominent point – didn't make it into the movie – nor did his hearing of Red River Valley being played on a harmonica during one of these vigils..

The more horrible and sadomasochistic elements of both Kinderman's and Karras' research into possession does not exist in the movie – a few brief voice-overs as the two characters are reading would have been effective and would have added a chill.

That's all I can come up with for right now.

[Sofia]

Granville,

Thank you!! I love the text you wrote so much!! It's wonderful!

[granville1]

You're welcome, Sof, glad you enjoyed it 🙂

[Sofia]

What I wish was that you could review every chapter of the novel, page by page. 😀

[ReganMacNeilfan]

Was this mentioned? The spider walk scene is at a different point in the book and the crucifix masturbation scene was twice in the book.

[granville1]

“the crucifix masturbation scene was twice in the book.”

Sorry, but I don't recall the crucifix abuse scene occurring twice in the book. All I recall is it happens once, and it's the factor that drives Chris to seek Karras' help…

[Sofia]

That doesn't occur twice in the novel, gee!!

[Author]

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