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In defense of the Friedkin commentary, I feel that TVYNS was also intended for the younger audiences and the “first timers” who didn’t get the full impact of the 1973 release (incidentally the year of my birth). We, as die hard fans, often take for granted the real magic of seeing the Exorcist for the very first time.
In an age of sound bytes and short attention spans, sometimes there are those individuals who need the real meaning and the obvious narriative handed to them.
I have two younger friends that have described The Exorcist as “silly” and “a shit piece”. But that very same “shit piece” caused my mother to “NEVER see that movie EVER again” after she saw it in the theater back in ’73.In the “Late Night Double Bill” chapter of the Mark Kermode book, Friedkin even states that they expected more from the audiences back then.
For what it’s worth.
Is there a reason Linda Blair has not done a commentary? I’d love to hear an actors’ commentary, and a SFX commentary. Seems like they really missed an opportunity on the release of the TVYNS-DVD, it’s really a late date to get these recorded, and it’s getting later every day.
(I apologize if this has been discussed elsewhere.)
Nice question… I’m not aware of her doing a commentary – only random interviews. Be wonderful if her voice could be added to a DVD as commentary.
Worst commentary ever! (The Simpsons Comic Book Guy)
The 25th Ann is a little better but not a whole lot. It’s half Blatty hal Friedkin andd another chunk that is just sounds or something if I remember right. They could really do a better job IMO. Good lord use a script if you must. No more Friedkin’s commentary for the blind please!!!!!!
Did Blatty ever do a real commentary on THE EXORCIST? All I have is a track on the Version-You-Never-Saw, but it’s an essay that has nothing to do with the action , and it stops long before the movie is over.
Friedkin did two commentaries, I think, and his earlier one is far better.
Ownership of a DVD does not necessarily mean that the owner has fully explored its Extras. This was the case with my copy of TVYNS. I was saving the Friedkin commentary for future reference, and today, amid bitter tears and recriminations – tho’ my great wings were spread wide and vulnerable – the future became the present.
To call Friedkin’s commentary a complete waste of time would be an understatement. As others have mentioned – but I wanted to experience for myself – Friedkin simply talks off the cuff as he describes each scene literally, blow-by-blow.
This is nothing if not redundant, unless one is visually impaired. One could get a pretty good notion of what is happening on-screen if one were blind. But since most viewers – the crucial term is “viewers” – by definition are not blind, but sighted, Friedkin’s commentary is an irritating verbal texting of what is plain and clear on-screen. It virtually contributes nothing beyond what is being viewed.
There are no gossipy revelations about The Exorcist production, no insights into film-making, no fond (or angry) reminiscences about Blatty, the scripting, the Georgetown photography, Blair’s extreme youth and great talent, the hiring of Miller over Keach, the pressure put on the production by “the suits”, etc., etc.
Yes, I was shy, even demure, about my First Time With Friedkin. Now there is only pain and disillusionment. It will be some time before I will be able to view a Commentary again, and my trust is as slender as a fleeting hope; my black valise filled now with pain.
Professor M, two full commentaries from Blatty and Friedkin can be found on the 25th Anniversary disc.
Speaking of Star Trek, I wouldn’t say TVYNS commentary is the worst. I’d say of all things Nicholas Meyer’s commentary for Star Trek II was pretty disappointing. He spends most of his time talking about what he couldn’t do and what bothered him at the time. Sure, it may be the truth but at the same time it’s also very annoying to hear somebody complain for two hours while watching a great movie.
Yes, it sounds from your description that Friedkin has some other (bad) company vis a vis director commentaries…!
Captain Howdy said:
Professor M, two full commentaries from Blatty and Friedkin can be found on the 25th Anniversary disc.
I have that disc and I checked it out again. It's pretty much as I described here,
/forum/the-exorcist/is-there-any-undubbed-footage-of-linda-as-the-demon/?value=287&type=8&include=1&search=1&ret=all#forumtop
Blatty has a track in which he reads, for about an hour, an essay regarding his involvement with the film. But it's — in my opinion — not a “commentary” at all. It's not keyed to the film. (If he had been watching it along with us, he's not paying attention.) It's quite interesting to hear, but there's no particular reason to listen to it while watching a silent version of the first half of the movie! Then, there are ten minutes of sound tests with dueling demons saying nasty things, and totally without regard for the accompanying video: it plays over scary scenes and sedate ones. After that, the extra track stops and the film soundtrack takes over.
I'd realy wanted to hear Blatty's comments on every scene, and I was disappointed by this. It could have been an audio-only extra on the DVD.
I just took a break from watching Friedkins commentary on the EDC, I don't think it's terrible, but there are a few instances where I just laugh because he says almost says the exact lines of the characters. “Here he tells Chris that she let out quite a string while he was examaning her…”– Klein: “Well, she let out quite a string while I was examaning her..” =-)
I have always wondered where I could hear Blair's voice as the demons (besides a video that is up on youtube) And now I have the chance to. I'll probably listen to Blatty's commentary tomorrow (if that is the one on BR where it says 'with sound tests')
Edit: Okay.. When Friedkin puts on that foreboding tone during some of the more serious scenes, it gets insanely annoying.
Wow, talk about bringing a topic back from the dead! This bad boy was started almost 3 years ago!
I'm still not a fan of Friedkin's TVYNS commentary. I must admit I need to re-listen to the old commentaries from the 25th Anniversary DVD– which are on the Blu-ray. Might do that over the weekend.
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