[granville1]

Sorry, I am not sure. But it does sound a lot like typical Saint-citation to me. It may go back to a real person, or it may just be a summary of the Catholic poverty ethic.

[granville1]

Thanks for your reply – good observations on the other films, with Dominion at the top of the list – which I agree with. Dominion is my favorite of the non-Friedkin films and it even has some Blattyesque thoughts, as when the nurse says to Merrin, “Sometimes I think the best view of God is from hell”, and it brings in Merrin's pride when Francis challenges him not to condemn in others a faith that once nurtured Merrin …

[granville1]

No, for me, The Exorcist is the superior film. For all its glories, Legion panders to the worst Hollywood horror cliches, fake scares, arbitrary characters, unnecessarily goofball characters, in-jokes, rehashed Exorcist material, etc.

While the Friedkin film was universal in its horrific-documentary outreach, Legion by contrast is a feeble, ghettoized shadow of the original film, resembling a home movie of an Exorcist pipe dream.

Blatty exchanged the gentle Cobb-Kinderman for the mean-spirited, aggressive, short-tempered, Pattonesque G.C. Scott. This was not simply due to the fact that Cobb had died and Scott was available: no, the mean Kinderman dialogue (“Go home – talk about Wops; It is NOT in the file”) and acts (breaking Karras'/the Gemini's nose) was deliberately crafted by Blatty specifically for the film. It does not exist in the Legion novel.

Sharp-as-a-tack Kinderman, on the trail of a killer who replaced a decapitated boy's head with a Christ statue's head, stands directly in front of the vandalized statue while he waits for an elevator. As if this could get by the real  Kinderman; as if the hospital never reported the vandalism to the police, thereby giving them a hot tip on a hot case.

Nurse Allerton is very uneven, often a “bitch” and then suddenly warm and nurturing. Nurse Keating is the victim of melting ice and an Impatient Patient (“Angels of mercy, my ass” – THIS is funny??) before THAT corridor scene.

At the University President's office, Kinderman is lured for no reason whatsoever into a darkened hallway where the lights dim, a statue goes “The Joker” and then, horror of horrors … “Alice” delivers the President's speech notes for a truly dud non-payoff: lame, lame, lame.

Elsewhere, an aged patient exposes himself to a nurse, an act we are to take comic delight in. The Friedkin film also featured the mentally ill, but never had the bad taste and insensitivity to mock them.

For all these and many other reasons, Legion will always be inferior to The Exorcist. Unfortunately, it doesn't come within a stone's throw of the original, even though scripted and directed by the source author.

[granville1]

As always, thanks for the interview and for sharing it 🙂

[granville1]

Thanks, jagged. I'll try to get hold of this film. I am relieved that it's not an exploitation movie 🙂

[granville1]

I agree about Dominion – it's the most profound, serious, and “BLattyiesque” of the secondary films 🙂

[granville1]

iamnoone said:

 

Then there is the flip side; the Roman Catholic Church has recently trained more exorcists than at any time in recent recorded history.  Why? 

 

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I would venture the opinion that, as you mentioned, possession is given a lot of irresponsible media hype. Therefore society in general now more “ripe” for “possession”. Not to mention the dozens of possession movies that must have some impact on the collective mind. And, finally, an upsurge in superstition, at least here in the US. Never a hugely scientifically-or-religiously literate nation, snake oil tends to prevail. That's why so many fundamentalist groups perform exorcisms, not against demons, but against fully explainable neurological “ticks”, bad habits, eating disorders, anger management issues, etc. For them, there's a demon behind every deviation from “the norm”.

This is a bit harder to explain in relation to the Catholic Church, which has always had stringent and medical-scientific standards in deciding what makes a possession “genuine”. We do know that the current pope, Ratzinger, is highly conservative. Perhaps his theological viewpoint includes phobias about demons. This in turn might explain the upsurge in exorcist-training. But does the training meet a real need? That is, is there a parallel increase in “genuine” possession cases that are truly supernatural and demand full application of the Roman Ritual? Or is it a mere question of people being more hedonistic these days, more under stress, more “permissive”, etc. ? If it's the latter, parish priests can deal with it. No need for exorcists.

Like you  say, “Why?” I don't know, but I suspect it is symptomatic of an unfortunate conservative turn toward superstitious thinking.

[granville1]

Justin said:

Looks like it come from the same producers as “Snakes on a Train” and “Titanic 2.”

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Oh, God.. No.

Someone should do a documentary or a drama that is a memorial  for poor Anneliese, whose basis is compassion and whose main thrust is non-sensationalistic. There is a German film based on the case, I don't recall its title, but maybe that particular film is a more compassionate treatment (judging from a trailer I saw long ago) …

[granville1]

** bump ** … ?

Anyone? Surely many of us have read the book and have questions … ? Maybe even related to the questions I'm asking in this thread … ?

[granville1]

Sounds like an interesting class. Hopefully it will be objectively-enough presented that students will have “multiple choice” from among many differing issues. Objectivity regarding religious, spiritual and paranormal issues is famously difficult to maintain, from both sides. But if neutrality can be maintained, free and open discussion ought to blossom and flourish on this very strange topic. I wish you the best, and good luck on this project.

[granville1]

Take your time, no obligation 🙂

I just thought it might look good on your site, for the effect you wish to convey.

[granville1]

I think that's up to you, but the scene in the film has Regan as kind of passed out and not being demonic. She's still possessed, but she's in one of her “sleeping” phases…

[granville1]

I may have misunderstood your original post. I thought you were looking for suggestions for you to design fresh images, unique to your site, which would symbolize various Exorcist subjects, so I suggested an image that would show Merrin's religiosity and compassion – his hand grasping Regan's, with a Roman Ritual or Rosary on a nearby table. You responded with a still from the director's cut, which of course is not an original image. So I'm saying now that I just don't know what you're talking about or what you are asking from readers here.

[granville1]

One touching, simple art piece could show Merrin's hand grasping Regan's when he's alone in the room with her. You can show his priesthood by having his Rosary or copy of the Roman Ritual on the corner of a nearby table. This would convey a sense of both his saintliness and Regan's plight.

[granville1]

Come to think of it, there is one obvious grammatical error, and one mis-citation, in Blatty's original novel.

The grammatical error is the description of Karras realizing that one of Regan's manifestations is not really supernatural, but rather merely, disappointingly, natural/paranormal: “as he slowly watched wine turning back into water”. Of course, Karras's vision or eyes are not working “slowly”. Instead “wine” seems to be slowly returning to its original form of water.

The mis-citation, corrected in subsequent editions, is a segment heading of scriptural citation that was erroneously attributed to St. Paul, rather than correctly, to St. John.

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