William Friedkin has slowly been creeping his way into my favorite directors list for awhile now. With my stance that The Exorcist is one of the greatest horror films ever made and my recent love affair with To Live and Die in LA and Killer Joe, this man is proving to me that he can do no wrong. I decided to sit down with two of his classics and check them out.
(1971) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin (IMDB)
Synopsis: Two cops, Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider, track down a drug ring.
This film is extremely straight to the point. I think that's why I enjoyed it so much. It's a police procedural and that's it. There's no real deep character development, no sub plot, and not much exposition. These guys are cops, they found a possible drug ring, they're gonna fuck the criminals up and that's it. It goes right for the jugular. The film is realistic and gritty, New York in the early 70's looked brutal, way more tough than by today's standards.
I'm just gonna talk about one thing real quick then I'm done here. There's a chase scene involving a subway train and Hackman driving a car. It's awesome. It, as well as the chase scene from To Live and Die in LA, are singlehandedly the two best chase scenes filmed in modern cinema. If there is a book to be written called "How to Film a Chase Scene", William Friedkin should be the author.
(1980) [Trailer]
Director: William Friedkin (IMDB)
Synopsis: Al Pacino goes deep undercover to infiltrate the gay S&M night club scene in order to find a killer who's been hacking up his dates.
Growing up and watching stuff like THIS painted my perception of gay bars in a certain light... they looked scary. Now that I'm older and not a retard anymore, I realize gay bars are just normal bars. However, I think in the 80's it was a bit different. You probably had your regular gay bars and then you had your S&M subculture hang outs (no pun intended), like the places pictured in Cruising. These clubs, I would imagine, would be shocking to both straight and gays alike. I'm sure sites like these still exist, but I don't think they are as common anymore. I love this film because it shows you a side of New York, in a certain time, that couldn't really be recreated the same way ever again. Everything in this film is so raw, unsettling, and rough.... Central Park has never looked so ominous. Al Pacino is great in his role... some stand out moments for me would be: the dance scene and the end scene where he's staring at himself in the mirror. This film is highly recommend by me, especially if you're in the mood for something shocking.
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