Exorcist

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to the Obrother podcast with hosts Dan and Mike Smith , brothers from the same mother with different opinions on movies , tv , video games or more , plus celebrity interviews . Get ready , it's set . It's time for the Obrother podcast . Welcome to the Obrother podcast from your host , dan Smith . Alongside me is always my brother from the same mother , mike Smith .

Speaker 2 0:31

It's like Halloween fest . We're coming down the road . I'm 10 days out from seeing you in person .

Speaker 1 0:39

God forbid . As of this recording . Yeah , yeah , as of this recording . Okay , what's , what's the deal here ? You got the proper attire in the laundry , or what ? I , that was first of all that shirt was never a good shirt , but no , it's horrible .

Speaker 2 0:57

That's a p , it's like it looks like a scratch in sniff yeah , it's our old low and I think I got credit for these .

Speaker 1 1:04

I don't think they charge me because I like the logo , I liked it , but that just the shirt looks horrible and I've got a little throwback here in the mug , if you notice interesting oh , that's right . Can you read it ? It's the Halloween edition it wasn't even Halloween fest yet right , it's the Halloween edition . Well , this is the one you should be sporting , which , of course , is the official Halloween fest Obrother mug like this one here and in Halloween fest rolls on .

Speaker 1 1:36

So you know , we're going to continue not only the tradition of Halloween fest this is actually the penultimate episode of this year , right , halloween fest , right but we're also continuing the tradition of seeing films that I never saw before . Amazing to me that you've never seen that's a whole segment films Dan should have seen right and hasn't seen right .

Speaker 1 1:58

You know , of course I've seen all the main clips and this and that , but yeah that watched it start to finish , which , of course , we're talking about the exorcist which is now out on 4k pause , pause for effect for Mike to hold up all iterations of physical media . Well , that's I like a book .

Speaker 1 2:16

Yeah , it's a digi book , I like the blue ray okay but the quality of the 4k is so far superior well , let's be honest , one of the reasons I was able to watch it in the comfort of my home was that 4k edition you just held up correct garnered me the digital copy of that , that's right , which , by the way , I have the theatrical and the director's cut , the unrated director's cut , both loaded with extras , just and extras for this episode .

Speaker 1 2:49

We both watched the director's cut you know , I was out today , as you know , you know , going around a different kind of open markets , you know these , where the the artisans are local vendors that bring their wares or whatever . And I stopped by , of course , one of our friends here of the show , robbie Vamps , with Vamps and Poryum at Vamps and Poryum if you want to follow her on Instagram , I stopped by her booth and she has a lot of different things for sale , but she had these magnets , which , of course , I love . Yeah , and look , look what I scored oh , perfect , and I mean how ?

Speaker 2 3:29

Linda Blair ? Yeah , exactly , or is that the new one ? Is that the no ?

Speaker 1 3:35

this is the this is the classic okay now . It was the day after Christmas 1973 when the exorcist came out and I did not see this in the theaters , you okay ?

Speaker 1 3:49

I did not , I was yeah , you still would have been quite young at that yeah yeah , you know that would have been disturbing if you'd said you did see it in the theater . Right , let's give the tale of the tape . So two hours and two minutes , or two hours and like 12 minutes or depending on which one you're watching , the director's cut , or whatever . Directed by William Friedkin , based on the novel by William Peter Blatty , who we'll talk a lot about , of course , stars Ellen Burstin . We'll talk a lot about the casting . She plays Chris McDeal , of course . She reprises her role in the Exorcist Believer , which you can comment on a little bit . I will . We're not . We're not going to talk too much about that .

Speaker 1 4:26

No , in fact , in full transparency , we were good this was to be an episode on the new film , correct , and we just decided we were going to bail on that because I told you early reviews money , this , this before you even started watching it , we were looking at the reviews , we were looking at the ratings and we said no way and I'll tell you , those ratings were right because I've seen it , probably a little kind . Linda Blair , of course , stars as Reagan , 12 years old . Max von Siddow , lee J Cobb , jack McGowan and Jason Miller . Those are probably your main players in the film . Kitty Wynn as well , kitty Wynn yeah , but Kitty Wynn played Sharon , which was like see , I don't that wasn't a big role , but that's fair .

Speaker 1 5:15

Well , she's on the cast list , but that's right , but she was in two .

Speaker 2 5:19

She was the only one that , along with Linda Blair that did two and but in this film she's probably in it 10 she's like a nanny kind of . Yeah , she's not a whole lot , though , yeah now you , you mentioned uh , reedkin .

Speaker 1 5:34

Now , uh , you know , of course , the French connection won the Academy Award . I think right , right 1971 71 , 71 so he's coming off the success of that film , which is pretty much what got him this film or part of what got him this film . But Bladdy also wanted Friedkin , correct ?

Speaker 2 5:55

and they later had a falling out because they were to come together for Exorcist 3 , which I'm holding up , but they didn't see eye to eye , which if you've seen . I don't know if you watched any interviews with Friedkin outside of the DVD oh , yeah , now Exorcist about a 12 million dollar budget .

Speaker 1 6:17

To date it's grossed like 400 plus million dollars .

Speaker 2 6:20

Yeah , and at the time , in 73 , when it came out , it was the biggest hit that year , was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and it was kind of a joke that it only won two people , like people were like what first horror film to be nominated for Best Picture ?

Speaker 1 6:41

right , which was a big deal too , and I think it was sort of you know the . It wasn't clear initially what was going on , other than the fact that you know the lines around the corner waiting to get into the theater correct , was it ?

Speaker 1 6:56

Warner Brothers was . It was Warner Brothers , right and um , I think it was Warner Brothers and they , uh , they , basically I , I might mind are saying they've rented out , like they they kind of had the whole theater , the whole theater at that point , and which is this was this was in the middle in winter , right late .

Speaker 1 7:15

December right people are waiting out for hours in the cold and line to get in . So there was a there was an instant buzz among those that had seen it , the stories , of course you know , of people getting like , physically reacting to the film .

Speaker 2 7:28

Well , ironically , like what was it ? It was this week , maybe two days ago . You were I don't know where you were in in line at Publix , I think , and you snapped a picture of I think it was People Magazine , right , it was yeah , I actually have it right here . It took a shot of it and you took a snapshot and sent it to me and it was like Exorcist in big letters best horror movie ever .

Speaker 1 7:56

Question mark right yeah , yeah , I'd listened to numerous commentaries oh good numerous interviews and all kinds of things .

Speaker 1 8:04

You know there's all these stories right about things that occurred during the production . After the production , people died , haunted , it was hot , it was , but they were saying it was cursed right . The right it was cursed right , which makes for a good story anyways , given what it's about . But I was also very surprised . I'm like , okay , at what point am I gonna read on the news feeds that William Friedkin got arrested for abuse ? I mean , the stuff this guy would put the cast through right was crazy and his relationship with Linda Blair seemed a little . He just he was very eccentric guy , clearly right right , well , he died just two months ago .

Speaker 1 8:44

He did , and it was weird . You must have read . You read something that was incorrect .

Speaker 2 8:48

I did .

Speaker 1 8:49

It was fake , it was okay , okay , I mean he died of like heart failure or something due to pneumonia and then he had heart failure . I meant to reach out to you and say hey , I'm not sure where you saw that yes , he still has a movie unreleased that's coming out , I think , next month .

Speaker 2 9:06

No one , it's on max .

Speaker 1 9:07

Oh , the cane mutiny is it's , it's the cane mutiny court martial with right , with Keith for some other than right who's gonna be , of course , with us at spooky empire , right , not literally with us , but he's gonna .

Speaker 1 9:19

You'll be chatting them up . I'm sure try to be chatting them up , yeah . Yeah , I don't know if you know about this . They do this thing where , when a director , I guess , is out of a certain age , there's this kind of insurance policy that they have to abide by , right . They have basically a bench player , another director on standby God forbid something were to happen but they can't finish the film . Well , that's what happened with Friedkin and this Kane movie , and the director who was at his side was Guillermo del Toro , oh , wow , and who was a huge fan of his anyways , right . So he talked a lot about in this interview that I read , about just having the opportunity to just kind of watch him work , but I wanted to just see a little of it to see if you know between the French connection and Exorcist and this . But wow , what a marvelous job the guy did on the Exorcist though .

Speaker 2 10:23

Yeah , and he was a rogue director too , because in the French connection , if you talk to somebody who's a fan of that film , the first thing they'll say is the best car chase ever . Well , that was a real car chase on a street with no permits . They filmed it all illegally basically . So it was real chase .

Speaker 1 10:46

That's very Friedkin-esque , it is , yeah , so the Quixenopsis . You know what I'm saying . I just know what the Exorcist is about Right .

Speaker 2 10:55

Basically , there's three parties , three players in the Exorcist . There's Max von Sydow , who plays a priest , and he's in Iraq , which was actually filmed in Iraq , which this is before . Was it Saddam Hussein ? Is that ? Yeah , it was before his tenure , but it was still like impossible to film there .

Speaker 1 11:21

But they did , so he's Well he had to make agreements with the local government there and the party , and all of this at the time Right , and they had to teach him how to make blood look like blood . They said , ok , you've got to do film classes for the locals . That's right . All the stuff they had to agree to , yeah .

Speaker 2 11:42

So , anyways , Max von Sydow's in Iraq and he gets a sense .

Speaker 1 11:49

There's an archaeological dig going on Right .

Speaker 2 11:52

He comes across this medallion and you can't really pick this up from the movie unless you listen to the commentary or read the book . But he's basically getting a signal from the demon which he has dealt with exorcisms before , and so his characters in Iraq gets this signal , and then they show him face to face with the statue , the statue which was Pazuzu . Pazuzu right , which the heretic goes a lot more into that than this one does .

Speaker 2 12:26

The heretic being the sequel . The sequel , yeah , exorcists too . And then you got Linda Blair , who's seemingly having psychological problems that's what it first seems like . Eventually , very slowly , she develops into kind of a different being . She's being , you know , the exorcist is having . Her behavior starts to get quite odd . And then the third character who's having a crisis of conscious is Father Damien Harris , right , played by Jason Miller , played by Jason Miller , brilliantly . So you know , they all come together kind of in a weird way , because this is based on a true story I should have said that up front which back then they didn't advertise , same with to live and die in LA , which is all so freaking . Right Was based on a true story , right . So this is based on a real . I think it was a 14-year-old boy .

Speaker 1 13:34

Yeah , and it was so . So Bladdy . We'll call them as they refer to him . Bladdy was a student at Georgetown , because the film takes place in DC .

Speaker 1 13:44

In all around Georgetown All around New York and stuff , but the exteriors and such one of the opening scenes , actually it cuts from Iraq , I think . And you're next thing . You know you're in Georgetown , over the Georgetown campus , right , but Bladdy was actual student there and one of the Jesuit priests who's one of the professors there tells a story of this possession case that you're talking about . That happened in about 1949 .

Speaker 2 14:10

Yeah , nearby the Georgetown campus , which is what inspires him to write the novel ultimately Right , right , yeah , so through happenstance you know Ellen Burstin her character's name is Chris realizes this isn't just psychological . Something's wrong here and they put Linda Blair through all these tests and you see it in the film . Those are real tests they used to do .

Speaker 1 14:43

It seems like the Stone Ages and you know , as you've been talking about , freed can really know for this kind of realism approach to film making . Correct . You already gave some examples of it from the French connection and the same was true with the casting . Right , there's actual priests , there's actual , that's right . The scene you're talking about with the angiography , I think they call it . Yeah , right ,

Discussion on the Exorcist Film

Speaker 1 15:07

it's this . It's very disturbing . I'm glad you pronounce that . Yeah , I know it's very disturbing , but there's actual doctors that are performing it in the scene . Correct and Amazing detail .

Speaker 2 15:19

There is a lot of realism all around it . But , yeah , and Father Karris is questioning his faith , right , and he meets with this priest , father Dyer , who's a good buddy of his , and he's like he's an actual priest , an actual priest , actual priest . This priest learns of this case of this girl being possessed , and Father Karris is also a psychiatrist . He actually treats the priests in .

Speaker 2 15:54

Georgetown for psychary , you know for mental illness or you know depression , things of that nature . And he's got an education . He's talking to Chris at one point , ellen Burstin , and he says well , you know , I went to Harvard and you know he's naming all these Ivy League schools that he's been to . So you know , he's a very educated guy . He's also a boxer .

Speaker 1 16:20

And he looks like a boxer , he does . And he's also dealing with the illness of his mother .

Speaker 2 16:26

Correct and his mother dies and again he's in this real crisis mode of guilt and somebody puts him together with Chris Ellen Burstin and she's kind of begging him to come see my daughter . I've tried everything . He has to get permission from the Catholic Church .

Speaker 1 16:51

She wants him to do an exorcism . An exorcism , I should say , yeah , you're right . He's kind of faithless , you know . I think he's struggling with the fact that he couldn't do more to help his mother .

Speaker 2 17:04

And he's guilt-ridden because his mother winds up in this kind of like . It looks like one flew over the Cuckoo's Nest , right it does .

Speaker 1 17:12

Which you know , there's these parallels , like Friedkin does very subtly right , where there's the mom in the sanitarium , as they would call it , strapped to the bed , cut to later with Linda Blair as Reagan , when she becomes kind of the demonic side of Reagan , strapped to the bed . You know there's all these kind of parallels and things that are going on throughout the story . Right , but you know Friedkin says many , many times I know you've heard this as well because it's in the commentaries and things but numerous times he always goes back to saying the same thing , which is this is a film about the mystery of faith . Yeah , that's it . That's how he sums it up in every interview I've seen him talk about it .

Speaker 2 17:56

Yeah , and I think that was the disagreement with Bladdy when they were going to do the third one was he wanted to get away from the church and the faith and the religion . So does the new one , by the way . They kind of are trying to shy away from the church because the church doesn't often say or admit to these there's only been , you know , maybe it doesn't Right A handful .

Speaker 2 18:27

And you know there are records that prove this really happened , which is really freaky . And so the church finally carries , goes to like the heads of the church and says I think I need to perform this exorcism . And they don't give them permission . Instead they say you know , there's another guy who's done this before . His name is Father .

Speaker 1 18:55

Marin , someone who's got some more experience .

Speaker 2 18:59

Do you know , how old Max Von Siedau is in this ?

Speaker 1 19:04

You mean how old he was at the time ?

Speaker 2 19:06

Yeah , In real life .

Speaker 1 19:08

I mean , I would guess he was in his early fifties at most .

Speaker 2 19:12

Or was he older than that ?

Speaker 1 19:13

He was only 44 . Right , the makeup is incredible Dick Smith and Rick Baker , who's a very famous makeup artist . Now his son is Right . Just phenomenal job on the face he looked you would never know it , no way you would never know it .

Speaker 2 19:31

He looks 70s , like late 70s , to me and just doing this podcast I found out he was because I'm watching the heretic right and there's these scenes and he's young and I'm like how did they film this ? Because they didn't have that technology like the Irishmen where they could de-age somebody . And that's when I figured out , right when I was watching that I'm like , did they film this at a different ? Was this another movie ? It was bizarre . And then I looked it up . He spent four hours a day in the makeup chair getting this makeup . Yeah , it was incredible , incredible .

Speaker 2 20:16

But he comes into the story fairly late , is about an hour into it at least , other than that opening sequence that you talked about , other than it opens on him . So that's how these three characters all dealing with crisis Chris with her daughter , the priest with himself , his mother , the guilt wanting to leave the church , feeling unworthy of wearing the collar . And then you've got Max von Siddow , who has faced the demon before and makes it clear to Karis that because Karis is like , well , she's talked in this voice and that he says it's one voice , it's one thing , exactly Right .

Speaker 1 21:06

And there's a great line that he says in that same exchange . I think it is where he says the attack is psychological and powerful . Do not listen , that's right . That's right . Like he's not messing around as well . He goes in there and you know there's a . You may not pick up on this as it's playing out , but in the directing of the scene , the climax of that whole sequence you know Freedkin's direction to Siddow is basically to like he knows his character knows performing this right is probably going to be the last thing that he ever does . Yeah , and man does . He just play it beautifully . Like you said , the acting is . And it's crazy because you learn , of course , if you start doing some research in the film . It's shocking that any of these people got cast , that Warner Brothers ever agreed to the casting , especially Ellen Burstin who you know had a little bit of notoriety , but not she wasn't that well known .

Speaker 1 22:09

No , this was early in her career . They wanted people like Jane Fonda and Anne Bancroft and there was some others , I think . But she was very adamant , I think she reached out to Freedkin and said I was destined to play this role because of her own Catholic upbringing and you know her pulling away from the church . She just felt like she understood the character . Jason Miller was another one , right , in fact he almost was like FU . You know . Linda Blair , right , they saw how many hundreds of young girls probably , right . And then what happens is Linda Blair's mother totes her into the audition and , you know , ultimately she was of course cast , as everyone knows . Lee J Cobb you know , this was the thing Freedkin sprinkled just a couple of , like these seasoned veteran actors yes , they gave it some gravitas , like Sid Al , lee J Cobb , right , you know .

Speaker 2 23:09

But again , linda Blair , jason Miller , ellen Burson , all newcomers , you didn't really know who they were right and Lee J Cobb was fantastic , and this is the you know , Bladdy writes good detectives and his character Kinderman is his name , lieutenant Kinderman , played by Lee J Cobb Kinderman , he comes in , he comes back in part three , but he's played by George C Scott Right .

Speaker 1 23:41

I can see that . I can see that Academy .

Speaker 2 23:43

Award winner . But I'm telling you , lee J Cobb blows him away is playing the part , because you know .

Speaker 1 23:50

I think he had a very big . He was a big , big stage actor . I believe I think he was from the theater . Yeah , lee J Cobb , you know it's interesting because I heard Friedkin , on one of the commentaries , say what his favorite scene in the film was which was probably one of the most striking to me as well which is it's just this scene between Chris , you know , ellen Burson and Lee J Cobb . It goes on for like five minutes and it's some of the greatest acting you'll ever see . You know , they're both kind of talking around the whole idea that Reagan is one who killed .

Speaker 1 24:33

Burke , which was played by Jack McAurid , who actually died right after the film , like a month after the film was released he died . I believe he died in like January 73 or something . But you know , and that struck me throughout the whole film , was Friedkin's patience and and and restraint in the use of cuts . Yes , right , a lot of movement of the camera , but just very slow , very deliberate . I love the way he would move away from the action , right .

Speaker 2 25:08

Yeah , it just . It was so and you probably heard this on the commentary how he filmed Jason Milder as always ascending , always coming up stairs or up a hill or up those big stairs Because he was ascending from the depths of his faith into a person who would be the ultimate hero of the story .

Speaker 2 25:33

If you want to look at it that way , and also the way LeJay Cobb ends the film , he's not in the ending , in the director's cut , but he basically walks away from the case . Right , he's like you know what and , like you said , they were talking all around it , but his job is to find the killer who pushed Karis out the window .

Speaker 1 25:57

There's this one shot where Ellen Burstin goes to the door . She chains it and then opens it and just slow opens it in this reveal of LeJay Cobb's face yes . Yes , you know , and that's another thing Friedkin did , it was this counterbalance between light and dark , loud and quiet . You know , very jarring right Very , very quiet scene and then something very intense would happen , and you know I'm surprised that you liked it to be honest with you . I thought it was fantastic .

Speaker 2 26:28

I thought you would think it was too slow . But it's like you said , he took his time .

Speaker 1 26:35

Well , we don't see that anymore these days . No , no .

Speaker 2 26:38

Or if , like , we've got these three hour movies that are an hour too long , but in this I'm glad we watched the longer one because there's a couple of significant scenes in it . So if you get the new cut , watch the direct . Well , watch them both , but watch the director's cut definitely .

Speaker 1 26:58

listen to his commentary Well you know what it does shooting it like that , it allows these performances to breathe . And I tell you what Ellen Burstin it's just . She's so phenomenal and her chemistry with Linda Blair you'd think that they were literally mother and daughter .

Speaker 2 27:21

It was so much affection in the beginning , before the possession Right .

Speaker 1 27:25

And before the filming , right Freaking , had them getting together and they started to build a relationship and you see it there on screen . You do . It's about as natural as it gets and to see Ellen Burstin go from this daunting loving .

Speaker 2 27:41

She's an actress in real life . Right , I mean not in real life , in the movie she plays an actress .

Speaker 1 27:48

See , this is what struck me . I didn't expect , first of all , I didn't expect the film to open the way it did . That was very I was like oh , what is this ? You know , I thought we were getting right into the creepiness . But that whole sequence that you talked about in Iraq , that's not at all how I thought it was going to start . But Ellen Burstin , I mean , she goes through every kind of a motion range of emotion .

Speaker 1 28:16

But yeah , I didn't expect that . It was like she was an actress and right . The whole thing is they're filming a movie at Georgetown . It was kind of interesting .

Speaker 2 28:24

Right .

Speaker 1 28:25

Like a movie within a movie , kind of thing .

Speaker 2 28:27

Exactly .

Speaker 1 28:28

What was your experience with her on San Diego ?

Speaker 2 28:31

Yeah , I worked at the old Globe in San Diego , which is based on the globe , and and you know England and she was starring in a play that she was starring in a play . And I worked in the education department and it was very quiet , where I was usually alone or I had two supervisors who were with me , but usually I would come in . She would come in while I was there because she knew it was really quiet and she was doing a play there at the time . This is like 19 .

Speaker 1 29:04

90 mid 90s . Yeah , it's like it's late 90s late 90s , yeah , and she looked great .

Speaker 2 29:11

And I was like , oh my God , when she first , you know , she introduced herself and I said , you know

Behind-the-Scenes of the Exorcist

Speaker 2 29:17

, I didn't ask for an autograph or anything , I didn't want to , and she sat there learning her lines and I was praying she would turn and say , hey , you want to run lines with me ?

Speaker 1 29:27

That was amazing . That's what I was praying for but never happened .

Speaker 2 29:30

And I left her alone and she would just sit there and she got up . She would say would you like a drink or a coffee or something ? I was like Ellen Bursons getting me a drink .

Speaker 1 29:41

That's a close encounter , gosh , yeah , that's great , that's great .

Speaker 2 29:45

Yeah , yeah .

Speaker 1 29:46

It . You know the look of the film , owen Royceman who was the DP on the film a spectacular work . We talked a little bit about the makeup . I mean another thing too . Right , you realize no CGI back then , right , right , and you know very minimal things you could do with optical effects and all that , and so this was very , very sort of old school engineers . Other craftsmen and crafts people come up with these ingenious ways to do these different things , like how she levitates over the bed how the bed moves .

Speaker 2 30:20

It just literally . They use magic to do it .

Speaker 1 30:23

That's the way a magician would absolutely .

Speaker 2 30:27

And you know the only thing missing was the hoop to show there's rings or wires , right , but you're right . And especially the bed . Now , I don't know if we've talked about it on the show , but I worked my way through college in a haunted house as an actor in a haunted house , that's right , a good old terror on .

Speaker 1 30:46

Church Street folks .

Speaker 2 30:47

Right For those , but it was in the .

Speaker 1 30:49

Orlando area at that time Back then and it was a very great interaction , it was a great Right and it was an exorcist room .

Speaker 2 30:57

That's right , and and I used to work a lot of times in the rooms next to it , so I would kind of sit on the bed while we were waiting for a group to come through and all the girls used to get bruised because the bed was all you know , once people came in the room should hit a switch and the bed would go bouncing . And that's what I , when I'm watching it , I'm seeing that bed going crazy . I'm like wow .

Speaker 1 31:25

And did you see how they did that ? I didn't .

Speaker 2 31:28

I mean there's .

Speaker 1 31:29

there's one feature that you can find where it's on the other side of the wall , right .

Speaker 2 31:34

Yeah , this is a set that they built which again , it's hard to believe .

Speaker 1 31:37

You know , everything looks so authentic and crazy , which again is free kid . I mean , he wanted things to be so realistic that he you know things that maybe most filmmakers would try to steer away from was a lot of mirrors and reflective surfaces and things .

Speaker 1 31:53

He said no , if those are the things that would be in this environment , I want them in . Yeah , yeah , he but . But they show behind the other side of the wall when the beds go crazy . There's like five guys back there . Two of them are doing this with like levers , one guy's got a crank , you know right .

Speaker 2 32:12

Making the bed , do all of that stuff , that's all Now with when Linda Blair would move , because there were times where just her body would be jumping . Did they show that as well ? They did , she had that .

Speaker 1 32:24

There was one . There's the first one he sees very odd right . It's like just like her torso is right and she sits up and they had her in this like back harness . You know that they could kind of without her getting injured , and she talks about it too Right In the interviews you know so it's just all of these very practical things with mechanics and whatnot .

Speaker 1 32:48

Yeah , same thing with her levitating over the bed . And there were some funny things too , like Jason Miller . You know you talk about Father Karris . You know the whole famous pea soup scene , right , right , and they're shooting it and a couple of takes and you know it's it's supposed to hit him , like in the chest or whatever .

Speaker 1 33:09

Well , fried can intentionally knew it was going right , right , right His mouth , right , his mouth , which pissed Miller off , if you go back and watch , because it's the take that they kept in the in the movie . Right , he has this disgusted kind of pissed off , look , because that's how what he expected to happen . Right , father Dyer you talked about ? Right , he's performing the last rites to Karris after he takes the demon inside of himself and leaps out the window . Right , and he's holding his hand . He's , he dives , he ends up at the bottom of what they call the exorcist steps . Right , and he's doing the last rites . And well , he had to get very emotional . I guess he wasn't selling the scene and Fried can slap some across the face , wow . And then action , like how did he get away with this stuff ?

Speaker 2 33:57

Yeah , I'm shocked that and you know he was not

The Exorcist Movie and Its Impact

Speaker 2 34:00

Well . I'm not shocked Well , because we would quit .

Speaker 1 34:06

And one of the one of the grips said he saw one time he shook this guy's hand . Hey , great work . And then two seconds later he walked over and said get rid of that guy , right , he just was in . Shot after shot after shot . They said they would come in . One guy left for vacation for like it was unsickly for like three days it comes back . They're still shooting the same scene . It was ridiculous , but it kind of sounds like Kubrick . I mean , the guy's a .

Speaker 2 34:32

Right , kubrick was the guy of 100 takes . Yeah , and you know it's interesting because Freed can learn from Hitchcock . He worked on the Twilight Zone with Rod .

Speaker 1 34:46

Serling . So , and you know , it's interesting to say , because the Exorcist steps , what did they used to be called before people started calling him that ? They were called the Hitchcock steps . Ah , you know the 39 steps , 39 steps . You know all of that he was a huge Freed can was a big , big , big Orson Welles fan as well . Which no surprise again , given the techniques and things that he had to employ for this film . Yeah Right , you think about Welles cutting holes in the floor to get certain angles and things .

Speaker 2 35:15

Last night I just watched the trial , which is a Kafka novel and it's very , very complex . Is that Anthony Perkins ? Yes , Okay , he stars in it , and Orson Welles plays what's called the Advocate , which is his lawyer , but that's for another podcast .

Speaker 1 35:35

Did you know that Bladdy has a cameo in the Exorcist ? Did you pick up on that ?

Speaker 2 35:41

I think he does a lot Like Hitchcock . I think he's in a lot of his films .

Speaker 1 35:46

Well , I'll talk about Bladdy , the novelist , not Freed . Oh , yeah , yeah yeah .

Speaker 2 35:50

But I don't remember when it was , I don't .

Speaker 1 35:53

It was very early . One of the opening sequences where they're filming the movie at Georgetown oh , okay , he's playing the producer . Ironically , he was a producer on the Exorcist . Okay , he's playing the producer . That's kind of arguing with Jack McGowan's character , right , who's the director of the film they're shooting on campus ? Right , and very good , he's very , very realistic .

Speaker 2 36:14

In that sequence . It's like a protest , a student protest , and Ellen Burstin breaks through the crowd to get to .

Speaker 1 36:22

Right .

Speaker 2 36:23

And as she's going through the crowd , she looks over and makes eye contact with Father Karis , who is on . He's always around the Georgetown campus because that's where he's a priest .

Speaker 1 36:35

So it's a very odd reaction by Karis in that scene . Yeah , he's got like a big smile , like he's 10 years old , like very giddy . Yeah , it was odd . I didn't know what that was signaling , I don't know , I couldn't , I still don't understand that shot .

Speaker 2 36:49

But yeah , that was an intro and I- .

Speaker 1 36:52

It's some sort of foreshadowing . I never picked up on , I guess Right .

Speaker 2 36:55

And you know , my first experience with the Exorcist was watching SNL Gilda Radner they did a funny sketch where she's in the bed and you know her voice .

Speaker 1 37:09

No , it was nice , it was not . It wasn't Gilda , it was name a couple of the other women Like that . Lorraine Newman maybe .

Speaker 2 37:18

Yes , it was Lorraine Newman .

Speaker 1 37:19

And Richard Pryor is playing the lead .

Speaker 2 37:21

Yeah , that's right .

Speaker 1 37:22

He's the priest . Yeah , I think we showed it during the first look we did for Exorcist Believer . I know we played that clip on the show before . Oh , okay , yeah . And then she yeah , that's very funny . You know , that was another unexpected thing , right ? Because with the special effects , that whole sequence , right . That the pea soup thing where this green right Coming out of her mouth , I wasn't , I didn't realize , I wasn't expecting what , actually how it plays out in the film , which is not this projectile , right , constant fire , hose , stream of pea soup , right . What was more intense to me was where it's just kind of oozing out of her mouth , yeah , as this kind of blob of it , just , and it's not pea soup , it's , it's .

Speaker 1 38:07

No .

Speaker 2 38:07

It's kind of . Well , it was like porridge . It was a porridge , yeah , it was very thick , they made it up , yeah .

Speaker 1 38:14

And Linda Blair had a physical double for some of her scenes as well , because , like it's very graphic , I don't know how this wasn't rated X . I'm sure it was close to being rated X and then somehow they got a rated R Just for the language , just for the language , but you know the scenes is a very graphic scene that involves Linda Blair's character and crucifix , right , right .

Speaker 1 38:38

Well , they didn't have her do it , but if you go and watch the featureettes and the making of how they were able , cause she , you ? They are filming Linda Blair as part of that sequence , but it's not her doing those very graphic , vulgar things Friedkin had a way to , to have her go through the motions , so to speak , without doing the actual thing . It was very , very interesting how he did it .

Speaker 2 39:02

And we just talked to a young actress and you know , there's restrictions and things , and you mentioned how , alex Vincent in . Child's Play would pretend to forget his lines because he didn't want to swear .

Speaker 1 39:17

He didn't want to curse . So , unlike me here on the podcast , I'll just let him fly at all . You know I'm offending everybody . Yeah , I had said how .

Speaker 2 39:26

Chucky was tamer this season . I was way off , big Way off .

Speaker 1 39:31

Yeah .

Speaker 2 39:32

Right back to blood baths .

Speaker 1 39:35

So what else to say about the exorcist theory ? What's your overall assessment of it ?

Speaker 2 39:41

To me it is one of the scariest movies I've ever seen .

Speaker 1 39:46

It is .

Speaker 2 39:48

The novel was . You know it's very faithful to the novel as well and like , if I was to rate this , we're gonna I'm gonna start my own rating system pretty soon . I've thought you might pull it out here . Yeah , well , I would say this is like a 92 on my scale out of a 100 . And that's , you know , that's pretty , that's . I don't go much higher than that .

Speaker 1 40:13

Well , I mean , every aspect of the film that you could point to is superb , right , the acting and the directing and the effects and the sound editing and , like everything , it's just , it's the screenplay you know all of it .

Speaker 2 40:29

That's why it was so disappointing when the Academy Awards were announced . This was easily the top movie of the year and I know the way we were came out and Barbara Streisand was nominated for Best Actress , but it wound up going to somebody else from some obscure movie and I don't even remember the actress's name that won . I thought Ellen Burstin when you watched this . How could she not win ?

Speaker 1 40:58

Her performance is so spectacular . Yeah , it's really something to watch .

Speaker 2 41:04

So what about you ? What's your take ? I mean , I'm really surprised you liked it this much .

Speaker 1 41:09

Yeah , without you teaching me the rating system yet , you know not , I would say I would agree with your assessment . I would at least give it a 92 . I might even have it a little bit higher , well .

Speaker 2 41:21

I looked up Roger Ebert's review and he gave it 100 .

Speaker 1 41:26

He gave it 100 . Now I will say , cause we do talk about it on the show . If you look up Rotten Tomatoes right now , you'll see it's got . This is disappointing , but it's very few critical ratings . But 78% , which is ridiculous . Wow , 87% from the audience getting a little bit closer there . Yeah , metascore 82 , one of the highest I've seen . Yeah , that's way up .

Speaker 2 41:49

That's up there . That's up there . But I would agree with you the Metascore . They sometimes I don't know what their formula is because , like like Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert , used to use the star system and it was five stars or they had their thumbs up and thumbs down that made them famous Not as good as the Midas system that we're going to bring in action .

Speaker 1 42:13

Right , but they wound up converting it into a number , so Maybe we should say that too , because , again , we always like to be full transparency on the show , and you and I got this whole beef . I took a 180 about the whole scoring thing Right . I'm feeling guilty , like Father Carras , over it . I'm thinking I might have to get on board , because I can't sit here and just watch you do it the whole time . So I'm thinking we're gonna have to talk about it , get it situated .

Speaker 2 42:41

The old brother score .

Speaker 1 42:42

It'll be coming to you in whatever form it's gonna come to you once we get out of Halloween Fest .

Speaker 2 42:47

Right , we're gonna start rocking that .

Speaker 1 42:49

But yeah , I just was blown away . Freedkin , despite his techniques and tactics I don't know how he wasn't incarcerated back then , but it just phenomenal directing , I just thought it was wonderful . But Ellen Burson , the whole cast was just crazy good Top bottom , so highly recommend . Yeah , if you're somebody like me who hadn't seen it , what a joy to check this one off the box Right and again , thanks to Vamps Emporium for giving me this magnet .

Speaker 2 43:18

What about Slasher fans ? You know how do you think they would look at this film ? I mean , there's enough blood to go around .

Speaker 1 43:26

There is , there is , I think there's enough gore , if you will .

Speaker 2 43:31

Yeah .

Speaker 1 43:32

But everything else about it is so terrifying that I think it would easily make up for that . So this one's a great one . I love it . I'm glad I seen it , and your recommendation is not to watch Exorcist Believer , I think , is where you're at with that In fact , every sequel there's a prequel called Dominion the heretic is unwatchable .

Speaker 2 43:57

It's so bad . The new one , ellen Burstyn . I didn't clock it , but if she does 10 minutes I'd be surprised . I think it's under 10 minutes . The only reason she's in it ? She wrote a book , a mother's story , right .

Speaker 1 44:15

So and to get it and to get asses and seats on the 50th anniversary right of the film yeah , but I told you off camera .

Speaker 2 44:24

I think this was filmed . This was a different movie . And then they're like well , it's a 50 . Why don't we make it an exorcist ?

Speaker 1 44:31

movie . We're gonna need a David Gordon Green rating system of some kind .

Speaker 2 44:36

Oh yeah .

Speaker 1 44:37

He's got a couple of stinkers there , the old can but so I go up on a couple of notes here for as we wrap it up here . So it's a long one , but this was worth it .

Speaker 1 44:47

Yeah 50th anniversary . We've gone over 50 minutes here so far , but it was worth it . This film deserved just , like freakin . Take your time with it , you know right . I do want to say I'd be remiss if I didn't get it captured on air for posterity sake . But Happy birthday to my co-host with the most . My brother from the same mother , mike I , celebrating a significant birthday today is all we'll say . Yes , going twice , going three times , and on it .

Speaker 1 45:22

And on a sadder note , I want to say that you know we just filed out , before we came on air , that Suzanne Summers passed away , and I wanted to mention it because she has been in . She hasn't done a film . She hadn't done a film since like 2001 or something , but she was in a few TV films in the late 90s that were horror films . So I thought it was it was relevant to mention her . And also , just , you know , one of those , those actresses who just gave me so much , you know , so many laughs . Yeah , as a kid , a show I probably shouldn't have been watching when I was that young threes company , but , and you know , so good .

Speaker 2 45:59

I think today she would be applauded as a woman's Right advocate . Well , back then she was told to shut up because she wanted equal pay for the women . Mm-hmm on that show and what did they , do they ? They wound up Filming her like on vacation . You know , she was only on the phone .

Speaker 1 46:21

She couldn't even interact with the other she ended up on the roper spin-off Exactly , but it was but yeah , she's sad hundred episodes . She played Chrissy snow . She's , she's now . Maybe she's now at the regal beagle with the jack tripper . You know , god rest his soul to . I , john Ritter , was just amazing We've lost good ones .

Speaker 2 46:44

We've lost some good ones , but and , ironically , tomorrow , which is October 16th , as we film , this was her birthday , mm-hmm , so she she died the morning before her . She would have been what 77 , 77 .

Speaker 1 46:58

Yeah , yeah , and what was ? What was the ? You know , she became , of course , after your post threes company , right for right . What was the exercise piece of equipment , shit the thigh master . The thigh master yeah , she was one of the originals back then with that , like Jane Fonda and you know who's the other karate actor that that used to with Billy Joel's model , white Norris ?

Speaker 2 47:25

Yeah , chuck Norris , remember he had the full gym , the total gym .

Speaker 1 47:29

Yeah him , and he's sliding up and down . Yeah , yeah , himself up and down , yeah and who's the from vacation ?

Speaker 2 47:38

Chrissy , the model , chrissy Brinkley Chrissy Brinkley , she was on it too right .

Speaker 1 47:45

This has taken a weird time .

Speaker 2 47:46

I know we could , we could , just that's why I saved it for the end .

Speaker 1 47:50

Yeah , we had to light the mood a little bit after talking about the exercises for an hour or so . Well , there you go . It's the old brother podcast review on the 50th anniversary of the exorcist . I can't believe it , but that's a good one . And speaking of spooky things , mike and I are gonna be in the house at spooky Empire

Spooky Empire at Comic Con Announcement

Speaker 1 48:08

at the dark side of Comic Con October 27 through the 29th . Make sure that you come out and see us , if you're . If you're hearing Watching , where is it ? It's gonna be at the Hyatt Regency in Orlando , florida . So if you're in town , come say hi now .

Speaker 1 48:24

Yeah , get your tickets now . Stop by our table gonna be there all weekend . We've got a lot of good giveaways that we're gonna have , so we're looking forward to hopefully interact with a lot of people there . It's gonna be . It's their 20th anniversary , so it's a big deal this year . Yeah , all right . Well , that's gonna do it for another episode of the old brother podcast , when your host , dan Smith , alongside me , as always , my Brother from the same mother , mike Smith , and we will see you next time , boo everybody .