CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Oh yes but I can’t read that post because I am not registered… Generally I get totally frustrated althouth you wll always find people with different opinions…
But when it gets too much, I react… I asked for example Amazon to delete a bad and false review about Kate Bush and … they did it!Linda Blair briefly talks about this kinda stuff in the audio interview I recently posted. She says how kids sit down expecting a monster movie and do not ‘get’ the spirituality of the film – something that is drastically missing from Western youth today.
Too many kids – and adults – these days don’t “get” stuff unless it’s hammered into their heads – and quickly, because their attention spans are too short to absorb detailed story-telling.
The Exorcist unfolds at a deliberate pace. If viewers don’t have the attention span or the patience to enjoy its unfolding, they 1) need to be educated, or 2) serve Pazuzu forever in the infernal regions.
I think literacy has decreased massively since The Exorcist first came out, and I think that this is a big part of the problem. The “masses” seem not to know how to identify filmic metaphor, especially when it is couched in religious terms. They’re like a reader who thinks “Moby Dick” is (only) about a hunt for a big white whale. Similarly, they think that The Exorcist is (only) about a puke-and-filth spewing adolescent in conflict with two priests, one of whom cracks and commits suicide. Sure, there’s a demon mixed in, but he’s not very scary in comparison to the purported “scariness” of post-Exorcist cinematic villains.
Another element is the domestication of “indecency” (quotations because I’m not a prude and am against censorship and don’t wish to impose my standards on anyone), language-use.
When The Exorcist opened, the 60s were in a sense still very much alive. Ironically, the 60s’ new freedom of expression which allowed films like The Exorcist to flourish also “numbed the moral sense”.
Thus, language and scenes considered shocking to the point of traumatization _then_, merely cause yawning _now_. Once films have topped each other in profanity, overdone sexuality, and crudity, then there is little left that can truly shock. (This may be why recent “shockers” rely less on libertinism and more on subtlety and psychology – e.g., “The Sixth Sense”, “The Others”, “An American Possession”, etc.)
Therefore it seems that modern audiences are just too jaded, metaphorically-challenged, and short-attentioned to revere The Exorcist for the great film that it is. Compassion wishes to educate them, while love for The Exorcist also ignites profound sadness and anger over those who cannot or will not appreciate it.
***I think literacy has decreased massively since The Exorcist first came out, and I think that this is a big part of the problem. The “masses†seem not to know how to identify filmic metaphor, especially when it is couched in religious terms. They’re like a reader who thinks “Moby Dick†is (only) about a hunt for a big white whale. Similarly, they think that The Exorcist is (only) about a puke-and-filth spewing adolescent in conflict with two priests, one of whom cracks and commits suicide. Sure, there’s a demon mixed in, but he’s not very scary in comparison to the purported “scariness†of post-Exorcist cinematic villains.***
Which is why Dominion never saw the light of day by Morgan Creek. You actually have to have a certain level of intelligence and cognitive development in order to appreciate it.
I generally do not enjoy a typical horror movie.It’s probably why “The Exorcist” and it’s two sequels (even “The Heretic” to a certain degree) stand out for me.I am probably one of the few who even to this day, enjoys “Dominion”…to me, that is a classy film.
Posts like this?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070047/board/nest/78365742
Every month you get some pimple-faced teenager either complaining that the film is tedious, or they find it amusing. It’s frustrating.
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