1 00:00:32,750 --> 00:00:35,208 The word "possesses" possesses more S's 2 00:00:35,208 --> 00:00:37,458 than any other word possesses. 3 00:00:38,916 --> 00:00:42,833 This is Bill Friedkin, day one, take one. 4 00:01:29,458 --> 00:01:36,458 Everything has to do with the mystery of fate or faith. 5 00:01:36,458 --> 00:01:42,375 And "The Exorcist" is about the mystery of faith. 6 00:01:42,375 --> 00:01:45,083 The only film that influenced me 7 00:01:45,083 --> 00:01:50,083 in the making of "The Exorcist" was Dreyer's film "Ordet." 8 00:01:50,083 --> 00:01:54,541 There were no films about possession that I knew about. 9 00:01:54,541 --> 00:01:56,750 There were no religious films 10 00:01:56,750 --> 00:02:00,500 that weren't really sappy at the time, 11 00:02:00,500 --> 00:02:05,791 like "The Ten Commandments" was largely spectacle. 12 00:02:05,791 --> 00:02:10,625 "Ordet" is a simple, elegant film. 13 00:02:10,625 --> 00:02:14,375 It's so beautifully staged and photographed, 14 00:02:14,375 --> 00:02:19,250 and it contains elegant simplicity to show 15 00:02:19,250 --> 00:02:24,125 what amounts to literal resurrection in the film. 16 00:02:24,125 --> 00:02:28,125 I can't watch it without bursting into tears. 17 00:02:28,125 --> 00:02:30,375 You totally believe it. 18 00:02:30,375 --> 00:02:34,291 There is no question that this is happening. 19 00:02:34,291 --> 00:02:37,708 It's not a cinematic trick. 20 00:02:37,708 --> 00:02:41,166 I asked "The Exorcist" audience 21 00:02:41,166 --> 00:02:44,208 to believe in what they were seeing. 22 00:02:45,958 --> 00:02:49,583 I'm a strong believer in fate, that it's very difficult 23 00:02:49,583 --> 00:02:53,208 for anyone to control their own destiny. 24 00:02:53,208 --> 00:02:55,458 You can do certain things, 25 00:02:55,458 --> 00:03:01,375 but in many ways, I think biology is destiny. 26 00:03:01,375 --> 00:03:03,958 I don't know how I ever got into the film business 27 00:03:03,958 --> 00:03:06,208 coming from where I came from. 28 00:03:06,208 --> 00:03:09,375 I lived in a one-room apartment in Chicago 29 00:03:09,375 --> 00:03:11,041 with my mother and father. 30 00:03:11,041 --> 00:03:13,041 My mother took me -- 31 00:03:13,041 --> 00:03:17,708 I don't know how old I was, 7 years old, maybe -- 32 00:03:17,708 --> 00:03:21,500 to a movie theater called the Pantheon, 33 00:03:21,500 --> 00:03:24,041 which was on Sheridan Road in Chicago. 34 00:03:24,041 --> 00:03:27,458 We go in this large place, a lot of people around. 35 00:03:27,458 --> 00:03:28,708 I don't know what they're doing there. 36 00:03:28,708 --> 00:03:30,125 I don't know what's gonna happen. 37 00:03:30,125 --> 00:03:34,375 All of a sudden, the lights went down. 38 00:03:34,375 --> 00:03:38,083 The lights went to complete darkness, 39 00:03:38,083 --> 00:03:41,666 and I heard what turned out to be the parting 40 00:03:41,666 --> 00:03:45,000 of a gigantic set of curtains, 41 00:03:45,000 --> 00:03:48,666 and then a light appeared on a screen 42 00:03:48,666 --> 00:03:51,583 with some titles on it, and I screamed. 43 00:03:51,583 --> 00:03:56,666 It was sheer terror of the process. 44 00:03:56,666 --> 00:04:00,208 I think it was a film called "None but the Lonely Heart" 45 00:04:00,208 --> 00:04:04,000 with Cary Grant, a Clifford Odets story. 46 00:04:07,666 --> 00:04:10,416 Love me, son? 47 00:04:10,416 --> 00:04:12,708 Disgraced you. Disgraced you. 48 00:04:12,708 --> 00:04:14,083 Disgraced me, ma? 49 00:04:14,083 --> 00:04:16,500 No, ma, no, didn't disgrace me. 50 00:04:16,500 --> 00:04:18,708 This is your son Ernie Mott, 51 00:04:18,708 --> 00:04:21,916 the boy who needs you, loves you, wants you. 52 00:04:21,916 --> 00:04:24,708 I was in my 20s, 53 00:04:24,708 --> 00:04:27,875 and I was working first in the mailroom 54 00:04:27,875 --> 00:04:30,041 at a television station in Chicago 55 00:04:30,041 --> 00:04:32,208 right out of high school. I never went to college. 56 00:04:32,208 --> 00:04:35,500 A friend of mine casually mentioned 57 00:04:35,500 --> 00:04:40,125 there's a movie playing at a theater called the Surf. 58 00:04:40,125 --> 00:04:41,875 "What is it?" "'Citizen Kane.'" 59 00:04:41,875 --> 00:04:44,458 And I went to the noon show, 60 00:04:44,458 --> 00:04:47,875 and I stayed there for the rest of the day. 61 00:04:47,875 --> 00:04:50,291 And I was just flabbergasted. 62 00:04:50,291 --> 00:04:55,208 When I left the theater around after midnight, 63 00:04:55,208 --> 00:04:59,583 I thought, "I have no idea what this is, 64 00:04:59,583 --> 00:05:02,708 but that's what I'd like to do." 65 00:05:02,708 --> 00:05:04,500 Charles? 66 00:05:04,500 --> 00:05:06,750 Yes, Mommy? 67 00:05:08,250 --> 00:05:11,333 Mr. Thatcher is going to take you on a trip with him tonight. 68 00:05:11,333 --> 00:05:14,833 "Citizen Kane" is about the mystery of fate 69 00:05:14,833 --> 00:05:19,583 and how fate took this little boy away from a poor cabin. 70 00:05:19,583 --> 00:05:23,291 And because his mother was left a worthless deed 71 00:05:23,291 --> 00:05:25,208 to the Colorado Lode, 72 00:05:25,208 --> 00:05:27,916 he became the richest man in America. 73 00:05:30,500 --> 00:05:33,833 This was an act of fate. 74 00:05:33,833 --> 00:05:40,166 The meaning of "rosebud" is the biblical idea 75 00:05:40,166 --> 00:05:43,083 of what shall it profit a man 76 00:05:43,083 --> 00:05:47,041 if he should gain the whole world... 77 00:05:47,041 --> 00:05:49,083 But lose his own soul? 78 00:05:49,083 --> 00:05:53,916 The "rosebud" moment is profound and in a class by itself. 79 00:05:53,916 --> 00:05:56,958 Kubrick did it in "The Killing." 80 00:05:56,958 --> 00:06:02,750 The great expense of stealing all this racetrack money 81 00:06:02,750 --> 00:06:05,916 and $2 million floats up into the air. 82 00:06:05,916 --> 00:06:08,583 That's a great "rosebud" moment, 83 00:06:08,583 --> 00:06:12,541 as is the moment in "The Treasure of the Sierra Madre" 84 00:06:12,541 --> 00:06:16,583 when all of the gold bags are cut open by the bandits 85 00:06:16,583 --> 00:06:20,000 who steal them because they think they're water. 86 00:06:32,750 --> 00:06:37,375 It's an underlying statement about the futility, 87 00:06:37,375 --> 00:06:40,666 the futility of everything. 88 00:06:40,666 --> 00:06:43,000 Throw that junk in. 89 00:06:47,541 --> 00:06:53,000 And this incredible idea of a lost pure... 90 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:56,625 love is burned up. 91 00:06:56,625 --> 00:07:02,625 What a profound statement, and what an incredible idea. 92 00:07:04,416 --> 00:07:05,791 And there's not a day in my life 93 00:07:05,791 --> 00:07:07,083 that I don't feel like a fraud. 94 00:07:07,083 --> 00:07:08,333 I mean, priests, doctor, lawyers -- 95 00:07:08,333 --> 00:07:10,166 I've talked to them all. 96 00:07:10,166 --> 00:07:15,041 There's serendipity connected with all of the films I made. 97 00:07:18,333 --> 00:07:22,000 But nothing like "The Exorcist." 98 00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:28,041 I feel to this day as though there were forces beyond me 99 00:07:28,041 --> 00:07:32,833 that brought things to that movie like offerings. 100 00:07:32,833 --> 00:07:34,791 The whole picture was put together 101 00:07:34,791 --> 00:07:39,416 by the movie god, from Blatty sending me the novel 102 00:07:39,416 --> 00:07:42,166 after we had not seen each other for years. 103 00:07:42,166 --> 00:07:46,666 The studio didn't want me to direct the film initially. 104 00:07:46,666 --> 00:07:48,875 I went on to win the Academy Award, 105 00:07:48,875 --> 00:07:50,875 which was a longshot. 106 00:07:50,875 --> 00:07:54,125 I wasn't even a member of the Academy. 107 00:07:54,125 --> 00:07:55,416 All of it. 108 00:07:55,416 --> 00:07:57,625 It's fate. 109 00:07:57,625 --> 00:07:59,583 Yeah, fate. 110 00:07:59,583 --> 00:08:04,000 I only can make a film if I can see it in my mind's eye, 111 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:06,291 and in a very short time, 112 00:08:06,291 --> 00:08:11,583 the whole film popped into my head from his novel. 113 00:08:11,583 --> 00:08:14,458 I knew exactly how I wanted to make it, 114 00:08:14,458 --> 00:08:16,500 what I wanted to keep from his book, 115 00:08:16,500 --> 00:08:18,083 what I wanted to leave out. 116 00:08:18,083 --> 00:08:21,875 I didn't want any backstory, no flashbacks, 117 00:08:21,875 --> 00:08:24,250 just a straight-ahead story 118 00:08:24,250 --> 00:08:27,458 that was done as realistically as possible. 119 00:08:27,458 --> 00:08:30,333 After I was finally hired to direct the film, 120 00:08:30,333 --> 00:08:35,333 Blatty came to me with a little envelope, and he said, 121 00:08:35,333 --> 00:08:37,375 "I've got a surprise for you. 122 00:08:37,375 --> 00:08:39,291 I've written the script." 123 00:08:39,291 --> 00:08:41,708 I didn't know that. He gave me the script. 124 00:08:41,708 --> 00:08:43,916 It was about this thick. 125 00:08:48,333 --> 00:08:52,708 I felt it was a travesty of his novel, 126 00:08:52,708 --> 00:08:54,833 and I told him that. 127 00:08:54,833 --> 00:08:58,958 It had flashbacks, it had red herrings. 128 00:08:58,958 --> 00:09:02,708 I said, "Bill, this -- your script is not the book. 129 00:09:02,708 --> 00:09:05,041 I really want to shoot the novel." 130 00:09:05,041 --> 00:09:11,708 So I marked up my own copy of the hardcover, 131 00:09:11,708 --> 00:09:13,541 the first edition. 132 00:09:13,541 --> 00:09:16,375 I mark things in, out, in, out. 133 00:09:16,375 --> 00:09:17,916 I cross things out. 134 00:09:17,916 --> 00:09:20,875 Go from this sequence to that. 135 00:09:20,875 --> 00:09:23,500 I literally marked it up so that mostly, 136 00:09:23,500 --> 00:09:26,583 he could see what I wanted to keep from the novel 137 00:09:26,583 --> 00:09:28,583 and what I felt we didn't need. 138 00:09:28,583 --> 00:09:30,541 Blatty had omitted the prologue 139 00:09:30,541 --> 00:09:32,708 in the first draft of his script, 140 00:09:32,708 --> 00:09:37,166 and I told him his worst enemy would not have... 141 00:09:37,166 --> 00:09:38,666 done this to him. 142 00:09:38,666 --> 00:09:41,750 Everyone, including his publisher, said, 143 00:09:41,750 --> 00:09:43,541 "You don't need this prologue." 144 00:09:43,541 --> 00:09:44,958 They didn't understand it. 145 00:09:44,958 --> 00:09:51,250 I said, "Bill, we have to open in Iraq." 146 00:09:51,250 --> 00:09:54,833 That opening chapter... 147 00:09:54,833 --> 00:09:58,000 that started my skin crawling when I read it, 148 00:09:58,000 --> 00:09:59,958 and I didn't know why. 149 00:09:59,958 --> 00:10:02,458 I'm sure a lot of people to this day are puzzled, 150 00:10:02,458 --> 00:10:04,458 "What the hell is that?" 151 00:10:04,458 --> 00:10:09,208 But it is the introduction, and the -- to me, 152 00:10:09,208 --> 00:10:12,666 the very solid underpinning for the whole piece. 153 00:10:12,666 --> 00:10:15,166 We got permission to go. 154 00:10:15,166 --> 00:10:18,125 I knew basically where I wanted to go, 155 00:10:18,125 --> 00:10:19,708 which was in northern Iraq, 156 00:10:19,708 --> 00:10:22,166 the little town where we wound up filming, 157 00:10:22,166 --> 00:10:24,333 which is Nineveh in the Bible. 158 00:10:24,333 --> 00:10:29,416 It's called al-Hatra, or al-Hadr, H-A-D-R, 159 00:10:29,416 --> 00:10:31,291 to the Iraqis. 160 00:10:31,291 --> 00:10:33,708 There happened to be a German archeologist 161 00:10:33,708 --> 00:10:35,875 working there with a German crew 162 00:10:35,875 --> 00:10:39,250 and Iraqis that were doing a dig there, 163 00:10:39,250 --> 00:10:43,875 and I met with him and asked him if we could film this actual dig 164 00:10:43,875 --> 00:10:48,750 and have Max von Sydow walking around while it was going on. 165 00:10:48,750 --> 00:10:50,625 And so that's what we did. 166 00:10:50,625 --> 00:10:52,666 It was an actual dig, 167 00:10:52,666 --> 00:10:55,250 and the stuff they were coming up with 168 00:10:55,250 --> 00:10:59,333 were the severed heads of statues 169 00:10:59,333 --> 00:11:06,458 because it turned out that at some point before Christ, 170 00:11:06,458 --> 00:11:12,666 the city of Hadr had been sacked by the Sasanians, 171 00:11:12,666 --> 00:11:16,500 I believe it's 80 B.C. 172 00:11:16,500 --> 00:11:19,875 They cut off the heads of everybody living there, 173 00:11:19,875 --> 00:11:22,500 and they cut off the heads of the statues. 174 00:11:22,500 --> 00:11:26,916 And this is what the archeology team was coming up with, 175 00:11:26,916 --> 00:11:30,625 along with other artifacts, which I show in the film. 176 00:11:33,125 --> 00:11:38,291 Jack Nitzsche rubbed his hand over a wine glass, 177 00:11:38,291 --> 00:11:41,625 and that makes the opening sound of "The Exorcist." 178 00:11:41,625 --> 00:11:46,500 And then it segues from that to something we recorded in Mosul, 179 00:11:46,500 --> 00:11:51,125 which is the muezzin's call to prayer in Arabic. 180 00:11:51,125 --> 00:11:56,625 The words "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar," 181 00:11:56,625 --> 00:12:00,166 "God is good" in Arabic. 182 00:12:00,166 --> 00:12:02,625 "God is great." 183 00:12:02,625 --> 00:12:05,958 Those are the first words of the film, 184 00:12:05,958 --> 00:12:10,250 the first words in Blatty's novel, northern Iraq. 185 00:12:10,250 --> 00:12:11,916 That's where it took place. 186 00:12:11,916 --> 00:12:15,875 You couldn't go out into the Mojave Desert and shoot it. 187 00:12:15,875 --> 00:12:19,416 There was no CGI in those days. 188 00:12:19,416 --> 00:12:21,875 You had to go there. 189 00:12:21,875 --> 00:12:24,916 There's one side angle that I made especially 190 00:12:24,916 --> 00:12:29,500 because in the background of von Sydow, not too far away, 191 00:12:29,500 --> 00:12:34,000 is the tomb of King Nebuchadnezzar, 192 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:38,000 which is built on top of the tomb of the prophet David. 193 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:39,541 That's where we were. 194 00:12:39,541 --> 00:12:42,583 The movie opens with a bright sun. 195 00:12:42,583 --> 00:12:45,958 When we got into the color-timing room, 196 00:12:45,958 --> 00:12:50,166 I decided to open the film with a black and white sun 197 00:12:50,166 --> 00:12:52,541 that slowly bleeds into color. 198 00:12:52,541 --> 00:12:54,125 I don't think 199 00:12:54,125 --> 00:12:58,750 there's any conscious meaning behind my choices. 200 00:12:58,750 --> 00:13:03,041 These are instinctive things that don't... 201 00:13:03,041 --> 00:13:05,083 translate into a how. 202 00:13:05,083 --> 00:13:09,791 It looks like, in retrospect, I knew what I was doing, 203 00:13:09,791 --> 00:13:12,041 but I was just following my instinct. 204 00:13:12,041 --> 00:13:14,208 And I believe that's what happened 205 00:13:14,208 --> 00:13:17,625 throughout the entire film. 206 00:13:17,625 --> 00:13:20,916 This is from Bill Blatty's novel "The Exorcist." 207 00:13:20,916 --> 00:13:22,250 It's the beginning. 208 00:13:22,250 --> 00:13:24,958 "The blaze of sun wrung pops of sweat 209 00:13:24,958 --> 00:13:27,083 from the old man's brow. 210 00:13:27,083 --> 00:13:29,375 He kept his hands around the glass of hot, 211 00:13:29,375 --> 00:13:31,958 sweet tea as if to warm them. 212 00:13:31,958 --> 00:13:35,000 He could not shake the premonition. 213 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:39,833 It clung to his back like chill wet leaves." 214 00:13:39,833 --> 00:13:44,416 So that paragraph is about one word -- "premonition." 215 00:13:44,416 --> 00:13:47,458 And so he looks around, and he sees various things 216 00:13:47,458 --> 00:13:49,791 that add to the premonition -- 217 00:13:49,791 --> 00:13:53,833 blacksmiths who are pounding, bending steel, 218 00:13:53,833 --> 00:13:55,583 and one of them turns and looks at him 219 00:13:55,583 --> 00:13:58,416 and has an eye missing, 220 00:13:58,416 --> 00:14:03,291 similar to the way the demon looks when she's levitating. 221 00:14:07,458 --> 00:14:11,666 And a lot of people think that it foreshadows something. 222 00:14:11,666 --> 00:14:15,625 I had no intention of foreshadowing anything 223 00:14:15,625 --> 00:14:17,333 that I shot there. 224 00:14:17,333 --> 00:14:21,666 I just shot what was of interest and put it in the film, 225 00:14:21,666 --> 00:14:25,833 and over the decades, it's been interpreted and reinterpreted. 226 00:14:25,833 --> 00:14:30,708 Some of the interpretations make sense to me. 227 00:14:30,708 --> 00:14:32,666 They were never intended. 228 00:14:35,625 --> 00:14:38,291 The clock stopping. 229 00:14:39,666 --> 00:14:42,125 I don't know what the hell it means. 230 00:14:42,125 --> 00:14:45,916 I never thought about imposing... 231 00:14:45,916 --> 00:14:49,625 metaphor or meaning, other than the St. Joseph Medal 232 00:14:49,625 --> 00:14:53,708 that is falling in Father Karras' dream 233 00:14:53,708 --> 00:14:58,125 that was the medal that was found in Iraq by Father Merrin, 234 00:14:58,125 --> 00:15:00,916 and he scratches around further 235 00:15:00,916 --> 00:15:05,666 and comes up with a small head of Pazuzu 236 00:15:05,666 --> 00:15:12,375 attached to some mud that's embedded itself on it. 237 00:15:12,375 --> 00:15:14,666 And he scrapes away the face of it, 238 00:15:14,666 --> 00:15:20,541 and he -- you just see his face react to the image of Pazuzu. 239 00:15:20,541 --> 00:15:25,541 And he right there gets the premonition 240 00:15:25,541 --> 00:15:29,625 of -- of the whole movie, of everything that's to come. 241 00:15:29,625 --> 00:15:32,625 The opening in Iraq does set the tone 242 00:15:32,625 --> 00:15:34,916 and the mood for the entire film, 243 00:15:34,916 --> 00:15:41,958 the atmosphere of dread and an ancient supernatural mystery. 244 00:15:41,958 --> 00:15:46,791 Without saying anything about what I just said, 245 00:15:46,791 --> 00:15:53,916 it brings about the appearance of the Abyssinian demon Pazuzu. 246 00:15:53,916 --> 00:15:56,375 It shows the character of Father Merrin 247 00:15:56,375 --> 00:16:02,375 as an archeologist priest, and it lingers over... 248 00:16:02,375 --> 00:16:04,375 more than an hour's worth of film 249 00:16:04,375 --> 00:16:08,333 before you ever see Father Merrin again. 250 00:16:08,333 --> 00:16:10,791 He had performed exorcism before. 251 00:16:10,791 --> 00:16:13,166 That comes out later. 252 00:16:13,166 --> 00:16:15,583 Don't you think he's too old, Tom? 253 00:16:15,583 --> 00:16:17,250 How's his health? 254 00:16:17,250 --> 00:16:18,750 He must be alright. 255 00:16:18,750 --> 00:16:21,583 He's still running around, digging up tombs. 256 00:16:21,583 --> 00:16:25,083 Besides, he's had experience. 257 00:16:25,083 --> 00:16:26,416 I didn't know that. 258 00:16:26,416 --> 00:16:28,958 10, 12 years ago, I think, in Africa. 259 00:16:28,958 --> 00:16:31,375 The exorcism supposedly lasted a month. 260 00:16:31,375 --> 00:16:33,333 Heard it damn near killed him. 261 00:16:33,333 --> 00:16:37,625 Then he gets a premonition that you, the audience, 262 00:16:37,625 --> 00:16:43,125 have to sense that he's going to face this ancient enemy again. 263 00:16:43,125 --> 00:16:45,416 So to me, 264 00:16:45,416 --> 00:16:49,208 it's every bit as important as any scene in "The Exorcist" 265 00:16:49,208 --> 00:16:54,208 to set the mood and set off the idea... 266 00:16:54,208 --> 00:16:58,625 of the supernatural in our midst. 267 00:16:58,625 --> 00:17:03,375 That whole idea of... 268 00:17:03,375 --> 00:17:09,291 building a mood as well as a story is gone. 269 00:17:09,291 --> 00:17:12,375 I will tell you that in most of my films, 270 00:17:12,375 --> 00:17:15,625 but especially "The Exorcist," 271 00:17:15,625 --> 00:17:19,625 I was strongly influenced by music. 272 00:17:19,625 --> 00:17:21,708 And I've always... 273 00:17:21,708 --> 00:17:25,875 been consciously and unconsciously influenced 274 00:17:25,875 --> 00:17:29,791 by music that builds layer upon layer, 275 00:17:29,791 --> 00:17:33,208 things like Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring," 276 00:17:33,208 --> 00:17:35,291 which is a slow build. 277 00:17:35,291 --> 00:17:38,541 Stravinsky said it starts quietly 278 00:17:38,541 --> 00:17:44,041 because if you start with drums, you have to end with thunder, 279 00:17:44,041 --> 00:17:46,625 so he started with a solo instrument 280 00:17:46,625 --> 00:17:48,458 playing a very quiet melody. 281 00:17:50,458 --> 00:17:53,250 It then builds into one of the most powerful 282 00:17:53,250 --> 00:17:57,708 and in a way terrifying pieces of music ever written. 283 00:18:01,666 --> 00:18:04,708 I love films that build layer on layer, 284 00:18:04,708 --> 00:18:08,750 like "2001," like "Psycho." 285 00:18:08,750 --> 00:18:13,375 That's all about maintaining a tone and a mood 286 00:18:13,375 --> 00:18:18,916 and creating it from a dead start. 287 00:18:18,916 --> 00:18:20,458 The mood of a film changes. 288 00:18:20,458 --> 00:18:24,125 There are moments of extreme brightness 289 00:18:24,125 --> 00:18:28,666 and happiness in the early parts of "The Exorcist." 290 00:18:28,666 --> 00:18:30,708 Oh, I love you. 291 00:18:30,708 --> 00:18:32,708 I love you. 292 00:18:35,333 --> 00:18:38,708 The tone is the same almost throughout -- 293 00:18:38,708 --> 00:18:44,291 an overriding sense of dread that inhabits the entire picture 294 00:18:44,291 --> 00:18:48,708 and that audiences were and are usually aware of 295 00:18:48,708 --> 00:18:50,708 before they go to see the film. 296 00:18:53,416 --> 00:18:55,500 You really don't want me to play, huh? 297 00:18:55,500 --> 00:18:56,833 No, I do. 298 00:18:56,833 --> 00:18:58,833 Captain Howdy said no. 299 00:18:58,833 --> 00:19:00,125 Captain who? 300 00:19:00,125 --> 00:19:01,916 Captain Howdy. 301 00:19:01,916 --> 00:19:04,166 Who's Captain Howdy? 302 00:19:04,166 --> 00:19:06,041 You know, the mood goes from 303 00:19:06,041 --> 00:19:08,916 wonderful mother-daughter relationship 304 00:19:08,916 --> 00:19:15,541 into an extreme alteration of a 12-year-old's personality. 305 00:19:15,541 --> 00:19:18,708 Lick me! Lick me! 306 00:19:24,666 --> 00:19:28,500 In many of the sequences, even earlier ones, 307 00:19:28,500 --> 00:19:31,583 seem to foreshadow what's to come. 308 00:19:31,583 --> 00:19:34,833 I was very conscious and aware 309 00:19:34,833 --> 00:19:38,958 that by the time people started to see the film, 310 00:19:38,958 --> 00:19:42,250 word would get around what it was about. 311 00:19:42,250 --> 00:19:45,625 I knew that people would be aware 312 00:19:45,625 --> 00:19:48,791 they were coming to see a film about demonic possession, 313 00:19:48,791 --> 00:19:52,541 not a girl who had a problem with her brain. 314 00:19:52,541 --> 00:19:54,375 It takes a while to get to the possession, 315 00:19:54,375 --> 00:19:55,625 as well it should. 316 00:19:55,625 --> 00:19:57,416 Mom, you should've seen. 317 00:19:57,416 --> 00:20:01,000 This man came along on this beautiful gray horse. 318 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:05,916 You have to see what this young child was like 319 00:20:05,916 --> 00:20:08,250 before her appearance 320 00:20:08,250 --> 00:20:11,958 and her behavior altered completely. 321 00:20:11,958 --> 00:20:17,041 And of course, the possession scenes had to top one another. 322 00:20:17,041 --> 00:20:20,958 It starts very early with just a bed shaking 323 00:20:20,958 --> 00:20:24,583 and no dramatic changes in the girl's character, 324 00:20:24,583 --> 00:20:28,708 and it builds to complete personality change, 325 00:20:28,708 --> 00:20:33,833 superhuman strength, and horrible actions by the girl 326 00:20:33,833 --> 00:20:38,166 that a 12-year-old would be incapable of committing. 327 00:20:41,833 --> 00:20:46,208 There is a concept that I was aware of at the time 328 00:20:46,208 --> 00:20:50,250 called expectancy set. 329 00:20:50,250 --> 00:20:53,458 If you're walking down a dark street at night 330 00:20:53,458 --> 00:20:56,500 where there has been a crime recently or a murder, 331 00:20:56,500 --> 00:21:01,458 there's something that occurs within you, 332 00:21:01,458 --> 00:21:05,250 where you get butterflies. 333 00:21:05,250 --> 00:21:07,666 Mother? 334 00:21:07,666 --> 00:21:09,416 What's wrong with me? 335 00:21:09,416 --> 00:21:11,458 And that works on audiences. 336 00:21:11,458 --> 00:21:13,666 They come in wanting to be scared, 337 00:21:13,666 --> 00:21:16,625 and you can -- you can play on that. 338 00:21:16,625 --> 00:21:18,291 It's just like the doctor said, 339 00:21:18,291 --> 00:21:20,458 it's nerves, and that's all. 340 00:21:20,458 --> 00:21:21,875 Okay? 341 00:21:21,875 --> 00:21:25,083 Burke Dennings, good Father, 342 00:21:25,083 --> 00:21:28,041 was found at the bottom of those steps leading to M Street 343 00:21:28,041 --> 00:21:31,125 with his head turned completely around, 344 00:21:31,125 --> 00:21:32,916 facing backwards. 345 00:21:32,916 --> 00:21:35,875 I remember when I was growing up 346 00:21:35,875 --> 00:21:40,791 and I used to walk to high school in Chicago, 347 00:21:40,791 --> 00:21:44,166 and I would walk through a neighborhood 348 00:21:44,166 --> 00:21:49,708 where there had been a brutal, vicious murder, 349 00:21:49,708 --> 00:21:56,458 where a young girl in a house along the way... 350 00:21:56,458 --> 00:22:02,291 had been taken out of her bedroom window and decapitated. 351 00:22:02,291 --> 00:22:05,375 And the body parts were lying on the lawn 352 00:22:05,375 --> 00:22:10,333 and in the streets outside the house, 353 00:22:10,333 --> 00:22:12,333 and I remember consciously 354 00:22:12,333 --> 00:22:15,583 walking past that house of horrors 355 00:22:15,583 --> 00:22:18,791 every day on my way to high school 356 00:22:18,791 --> 00:22:23,916 and thinking about that brutal crime that took place there. 357 00:22:23,916 --> 00:22:26,875 I have an idea before I shoot a scene 358 00:22:26,875 --> 00:22:29,166 of how I think it should look, 359 00:22:29,166 --> 00:22:32,166 and then when we're filming the scene, 360 00:22:32,166 --> 00:22:36,791 I might see something that makes me want to have another angle 361 00:22:36,791 --> 00:22:43,541 or a different -- a closer angle or have no coverage whatsoever. 362 00:22:43,541 --> 00:22:47,791 In "The Exorcist," we were often in cramped settings, 363 00:22:47,791 --> 00:22:52,208 you know, in very tight spaces, and it was difficult to get... 364 00:22:52,208 --> 00:22:56,041 either a second or multiple cameras. 365 00:22:56,041 --> 00:22:58,000 Or it was a play, 366 00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:02,250 and in many ways, he filmed it like a play. 367 00:23:02,250 --> 00:23:04,583 That's the simplicity of it. 368 00:23:04,583 --> 00:23:08,375 Today, cinema, even widescreen cinema, 369 00:23:08,375 --> 00:23:13,375 even action-adventure films, rely on the close-up. 370 00:23:13,375 --> 00:23:16,458 If you see a film as powerful as "Ordet," 371 00:23:16,458 --> 00:23:19,416 you realize it's a cop-out. 372 00:23:19,416 --> 00:23:24,208 I can't think of any close-ups in "Ordet." 373 00:23:24,208 --> 00:23:26,791 Look, there is nothing more powerful 374 00:23:26,791 --> 00:23:29,458 than a close-up of Steve McQueen. 375 00:23:29,458 --> 00:23:33,041 Not the greatest landscape you could film, 376 00:23:33,041 --> 00:23:39,083 not the Taj Mahal, has the power of a close-up of Steve McQueen. 377 00:23:39,083 --> 00:23:44,041 You could tell what McQueen was thinking without words. 378 00:23:45,958 --> 00:23:48,250 Dreyer's film of Joan of Arc 379 00:23:48,250 --> 00:23:54,125 is built on close-ups of the main character 380 00:23:54,125 --> 00:24:00,333 going through her suffering and her passion at the stake. 381 00:24:00,333 --> 00:24:03,833 When you see a play on the stage, like "12 Angry Men," 382 00:24:03,833 --> 00:24:06,125 you make your own close-ups. 383 00:24:06,125 --> 00:24:10,416 In cinema, the director makes that decision for you. 384 00:24:10,416 --> 00:24:12,375 In the film "Ordet," 385 00:24:12,375 --> 00:24:15,541 Dreyer did not make that decision. 386 00:24:15,541 --> 00:24:19,333 The best way to do anything is with simplicity. 387 00:24:19,333 --> 00:24:22,708 Hitchcock usually found the simplest solution, 388 00:24:22,708 --> 00:24:27,458 even in complex situations, like what was it like for a guy 389 00:24:27,458 --> 00:24:31,416 to be stabbed and fall backwards down the stairs? 390 00:24:31,416 --> 00:24:35,666 Hitchcock's films are about the possibilities of cinema. 391 00:24:35,666 --> 00:24:39,208 As an observer who happens to be a film director, 392 00:24:39,208 --> 00:24:43,125 you have to look at something and decide how to film it. 393 00:24:43,125 --> 00:24:46,458 So you have to envision first what is the event 394 00:24:46,458 --> 00:24:50,291 that's gonna take place in these different locations? 395 00:24:50,291 --> 00:24:54,000 And they're speaking to you while you're doing that. 396 00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,375 Some inner voice is saying, "What about this?" 397 00:24:57,375 --> 00:25:01,916 Then you're trying to figure out how to put it together 398 00:25:01,916 --> 00:25:05,791 so that it becomes kind of seamless 399 00:25:05,791 --> 00:25:08,750 because it's all made up of separate shots 400 00:25:08,750 --> 00:25:11,708 in a -- the way a Jackson Pollock painting 401 00:25:11,708 --> 00:25:14,250 is made up of dots 402 00:25:14,250 --> 00:25:18,833 and the Monet impressions are made up of just brush strokes. 403 00:25:20,791 --> 00:25:23,916 "The Exorcist" and "The French Connection," 404 00:25:23,916 --> 00:25:27,166 many parts of them look like a documentary, 405 00:25:27,166 --> 00:25:31,125 but I had made documentaries and so I knew the approach to that. 406 00:25:31,125 --> 00:25:34,708 When you make a documentary, as you're doing now, 407 00:25:34,708 --> 00:25:37,583 you don't know what the subject's gonna say, 408 00:25:37,583 --> 00:25:39,958 and so you roll with the flow. 409 00:25:39,958 --> 00:25:43,666 And it has often rough edges. 410 00:25:43,666 --> 00:25:45,458 I like the rough edges. 411 00:25:45,458 --> 00:25:49,000 I had this great camera operator on a number of films, 412 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:51,750 but he started with me on "The French Connection." 413 00:25:51,750 --> 00:25:54,125 His name was Ricky Bravo. 414 00:25:54,125 --> 00:25:58,500 He photographed the Cuban Revolution at Castro's side 415 00:25:58,500 --> 00:26:01,708 from the Sierra Maestra mountains to Havana, 416 00:26:01,708 --> 00:26:05,083 and Ricky could do anything with a handheld camera. 417 00:26:05,083 --> 00:26:07,166 I wouldn't let Ricky be on the set 418 00:26:07,166 --> 00:26:08,791 while Owen was lighting the set. 419 00:26:08,791 --> 00:26:10,291 When we were lit, 420 00:26:10,291 --> 00:26:12,166 I'd say, "Okay, Ricky, we're ready to shoot," 421 00:26:12,166 --> 00:26:15,000 and I'd let him go and find the scene. 422 00:26:15,000 --> 00:26:18,833 And I would say to him, "Don't ever cut. 423 00:26:18,833 --> 00:26:21,708 Just keep the camera rolling and just find the shot, 424 00:26:21,708 --> 00:26:24,000 as you did with Castro." 425 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:26,291 So I'd set up a scene, 426 00:26:26,291 --> 00:26:29,625 two guys walk into a room, as in "French Connection." 427 00:26:29,625 --> 00:26:32,000 They go over the desk where a guy sits down. 428 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:34,791 The other two guys flank him, they move around, 429 00:26:34,791 --> 00:26:38,791 and Ricky's finding the scene like it's a documentary. 430 00:26:38,791 --> 00:26:41,583 And sometimes, he would cut, 431 00:26:41,583 --> 00:26:44,833 and I said, "Ricky, I told you never to cut. 432 00:26:44,833 --> 00:26:46,666 Why did you cut?" 433 00:26:46,666 --> 00:26:49,208 He said, "Oh, this fellow was completely blocked. 434 00:26:49,208 --> 00:26:51,791 He was blocked by the other guy." 435 00:26:51,791 --> 00:26:54,375 I said, "Ricky, is that what you said to Castro 436 00:26:54,375 --> 00:26:56,416 when he was in the mountains up there? 437 00:26:56,416 --> 00:26:58,583 Did you say, 'We got to do it again, Fidel, 438 00:26:58,583 --> 00:27:00,791 because you got blocked?'" 439 00:27:00,791 --> 00:27:02,625 In most people's mind, 440 00:27:02,625 --> 00:27:06,250 a feature film is different from a documentary. 441 00:27:06,250 --> 00:27:08,416 A feature film is like a play, 442 00:27:08,416 --> 00:27:11,541 and it's all set up and lit and composed. 443 00:27:11,541 --> 00:27:13,500 I don't look at it that way. 444 00:27:13,500 --> 00:27:20,208 I'm more interested in spontaneity than perfection, 445 00:27:20,208 --> 00:27:23,250 and you don't get spontaneity on take 90. 446 00:27:23,250 --> 00:27:24,791 William Wyler was -- 447 00:27:24,791 --> 00:27:27,833 his nickname was "90-take Wyler." 448 00:27:27,833 --> 00:27:29,333 His films are great, 449 00:27:29,333 --> 00:27:31,750 and whatever his technique was -- 450 00:27:31,750 --> 00:27:33,458 I wasn't there. 451 00:27:33,458 --> 00:27:35,125 "The Best Years of Our Lives" is as good as anything. 452 00:27:35,125 --> 00:27:36,916 He did a lot of takes, 453 00:27:36,916 --> 00:27:41,083 and he used to shoot around the clock, setups everywhere. 454 00:27:41,083 --> 00:27:43,208 But they were his insurance policy. 455 00:27:43,208 --> 00:27:45,083 He felt that need, 456 00:27:45,083 --> 00:27:49,291 and I know that Kubrick is said to have done 90 to 100 takes. 457 00:27:49,291 --> 00:27:51,416 I'm a one-take guy. 458 00:27:51,416 --> 00:27:54,291 I don't believe in take two. 459 00:27:54,291 --> 00:28:00,500 Von Sydow was great until he got to a point in the scene 460 00:28:00,500 --> 00:28:05,708 where Father Merrin has to declaim at the demon, 461 00:28:05,708 --> 00:28:11,291 "I cast you out, unclean spirit, in the name of the father 462 00:28:11,291 --> 00:28:15,666 and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit," 463 00:28:15,666 --> 00:28:20,458 and that had to be done powerfully by a man 464 00:28:20,458 --> 00:28:22,583 who we have established 465 00:28:22,583 --> 00:28:27,333 is taking little nitroglycerin pills for his heart condition, 466 00:28:27,333 --> 00:28:29,125 is on the verge of death. 467 00:28:29,125 --> 00:28:32,916 But he had to come up with this powerful reading, 468 00:28:32,916 --> 00:28:37,375 and for some reason, Max couldn't do it. 469 00:28:37,375 --> 00:28:39,708 It wasn't powerful enough. 470 00:28:39,708 --> 00:28:48,500 The scene needed, you know, brass, not strings. 471 00:28:48,500 --> 00:28:53,708 And I said, "Max, what is wrong? 472 00:28:53,708 --> 00:28:57,541 I'll do anything that you suggest to get you to do -- 473 00:28:57,541 --> 00:29:03,125 we'll fly Ingmar Bergman in here to direct this scene." 474 00:29:03,125 --> 00:29:06,583 And he said very calmly, "No, no, no, no." 475 00:29:06,583 --> 00:29:10,583 He said, "This is -- This is not a matter of Bergman. 476 00:29:10,583 --> 00:29:15,125 I guess what it is is that I just don't believe in God." 477 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:49,791 I said... 478 00:29:49,791 --> 00:29:52,416 "But you played... 479 00:29:52,416 --> 00:29:57,791 Jesus in the movie 'The Greatest Story Ever Told.'" 480 00:29:57,791 --> 00:29:59,291 He said, "Yes. 481 00:29:59,291 --> 00:30:03,083 I played him as a man, not as a god." 482 00:30:03,083 --> 00:30:06,000 What is your name? Jesus. 483 00:30:08,208 --> 00:30:11,500 That's a good name. 484 00:30:11,500 --> 00:30:13,541 Thank you. 485 00:30:13,541 --> 00:30:16,458 I said, "Well, play this guy as a man." 486 00:30:16,458 --> 00:30:18,708 And he said, "Okay. 487 00:30:18,708 --> 00:30:21,333 Give me a little time." 488 00:30:21,333 --> 00:30:23,000 We left him alone in the dressing room, 489 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:26,250 he came out, he went in front of the camera and did it, 490 00:30:26,250 --> 00:30:28,083 and that's what's in the film. 491 00:30:28,083 --> 00:30:31,500 I cast you out, unclean spirit! 492 00:30:31,500 --> 00:30:33,041 Shove it up your ass, you faggot! 493 00:30:33,041 --> 00:30:35,375 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 494 00:30:36,416 --> 00:30:38,500 It is he who commands you, 495 00:30:38,500 --> 00:30:41,458 he who flung you from the gates of Heaven 496 00:30:41,458 --> 00:30:43,541 - to the depths of Hell! - Fuck him! 497 00:30:43,541 --> 00:30:45,666 - Be gone... - Fuck him, Karras! Fuck him! 498 00:30:45,666 --> 00:30:47,291 ...from this creature of God! 499 00:30:49,625 --> 00:30:52,458 I don't understand that. 500 00:30:52,458 --> 00:30:54,166 I don't know what happened there. 501 00:30:54,166 --> 00:30:56,041 That's one of the strangest things 502 00:30:56,041 --> 00:30:58,791 that happened to me as a director, 503 00:30:58,791 --> 00:31:01,625 and his reason for not being able to do it 504 00:31:01,625 --> 00:31:03,666 was so foreign to me 505 00:31:03,666 --> 00:31:06,541 because what -- what is an actor doing? 506 00:31:06,541 --> 00:31:08,000 Acting! 507 00:31:08,000 --> 00:31:11,666 Years later, Blatty and I talked about that. 508 00:31:11,666 --> 00:31:13,250 Blatty said to me, 509 00:31:13,250 --> 00:31:16,541 "I think he just didn't want to do it that way." 510 00:31:16,541 --> 00:31:22,375 Max's strength and power came from understatement as an actor. 511 00:31:39,250 --> 00:31:42,375 The main thing about getting what you want as a director 512 00:31:42,375 --> 00:31:46,125 is how you cast the picture. 513 00:31:46,125 --> 00:31:47,500 If you've miscast it, 514 00:31:47,500 --> 00:31:50,125 you'll never get what you want -- ever. 515 00:31:50,125 --> 00:31:54,375 Blatty wrote himself as Father Karras. 516 00:31:54,375 --> 00:31:58,291 He drew on his own feelings, his own experiences. 517 00:31:58,291 --> 00:31:59,958 He set the film in Iraq 518 00:31:59,958 --> 00:32:03,708 because he had been to Iraq as a correspondent. 519 00:32:03,708 --> 00:32:06,125 Now, I'm going to confess something 520 00:32:06,125 --> 00:32:10,125 that I don't think I've ever said before in public, 521 00:32:10,125 --> 00:32:12,541 and that is the fact that Blatty wanted to give me 522 00:32:12,541 --> 00:32:17,041 his entire percentage of profit of the movie 523 00:32:17,041 --> 00:32:19,791 to let him play Father Karras. 524 00:32:19,791 --> 00:32:24,250 And I didn't see him as Father Karras. 525 00:32:24,250 --> 00:32:28,583 I saw a play called "That Championship Season" 526 00:32:28,583 --> 00:32:29,833 by Jason Miller. 527 00:32:29,833 --> 00:32:31,791 It turned out that he had gone 528 00:32:31,791 --> 00:32:34,791 to Catholic University in Washington, 529 00:32:34,791 --> 00:32:37,750 studied for the priesthood for three years, 530 00:32:37,750 --> 00:32:40,333 had a crisis of faith, and dropped out, 531 00:32:40,333 --> 00:32:46,166 and then he put all this lapsed Catholicism in his play. 532 00:32:46,166 --> 00:32:49,208 Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. 533 00:33:04,166 --> 00:33:07,625 So I told him I was making the film of "The Exorcist." 534 00:33:07,625 --> 00:33:10,333 I told him how much I loved his play, 535 00:33:10,333 --> 00:33:12,375 and about a week or so later, 536 00:33:12,375 --> 00:33:16,583 I got a call in California from Jason in New York. 537 00:33:16,583 --> 00:33:19,458 And he said, "Hey, you know that 'Exorcist' book 538 00:33:19,458 --> 00:33:21,041 you were telling me about?" 539 00:33:21,041 --> 00:33:22,291 He said, "I read that book." 540 00:33:22,291 --> 00:33:24,750 He said, "I am that guy." 541 00:33:24,833 --> 00:33:27,625 He said, "I am that guy." 542 00:33:27,625 --> 00:33:29,416 I said, "Well, you're not that guy. 543 00:33:29,416 --> 00:33:31,250 We've signed another actor." 544 00:33:31,250 --> 00:33:33,083 Before I ever met Jason Miller, 545 00:33:33,083 --> 00:33:37,833 we signed an actor named Stacy Keach to play that part. 546 00:33:37,833 --> 00:33:42,875 No man is just because he does just works. 547 00:33:42,875 --> 00:33:46,750 The works are just if the man is just. 548 00:33:46,750 --> 00:33:51,208 He said, "I want -- Why don't you screen-test me?" 549 00:33:51,208 --> 00:33:53,291 I said -- I got angry. 550 00:33:53,291 --> 00:33:55,083 I said, "What for? 551 00:33:55,083 --> 00:33:57,833 I told you, I've cast the part." 552 00:33:57,833 --> 00:34:00,250 He said, "I'm telling you," 553 00:34:00,250 --> 00:34:04,041 and so I said, "Okay, you want to shoot a screen test, 554 00:34:04,041 --> 00:34:07,250 I'll set up a test for you, and after it's over, 555 00:34:07,250 --> 00:34:09,125 I'll take the film out of the camera 556 00:34:09,125 --> 00:34:16,041 and give it to you and you can show it to your grandchildren. 557 00:34:16,041 --> 00:34:18,875 You come out here on your own nickel, 558 00:34:18,875 --> 00:34:21,125 knowing that we've cast the part." 559 00:34:21,125 --> 00:34:24,833 We set up a dolly track on an empty soundstage 560 00:34:24,833 --> 00:34:27,416 with just lights, no set. 561 00:34:27,416 --> 00:34:31,666 I called in Ellen Burstyn, who I had cast... 562 00:34:31,666 --> 00:34:34,916 to do a scene with Jason, 563 00:34:34,916 --> 00:34:39,291 the scene where she's walking along a path 564 00:34:39,291 --> 00:34:43,875 in Georgetown and tells Father Karras... 565 00:34:43,875 --> 00:34:45,125 It just so happens 566 00:34:45,125 --> 00:34:48,250 that somebody very close to me is... 567 00:34:48,250 --> 00:34:52,958 is probably possessed and needs an exorcist. 568 00:34:52,958 --> 00:34:57,583 Then I had Ellen interview Jason about his life, 569 00:34:57,583 --> 00:35:01,500 where I put the camera over her shoulder and just studied him, 570 00:35:01,500 --> 00:35:05,291 and then I made a shot of him, an extreme close of him, 571 00:35:05,291 --> 00:35:07,833 saying the -- the mass. 572 00:35:07,833 --> 00:35:12,708 The next day, I saw the rushes of that scene, 573 00:35:12,708 --> 00:35:15,458 and the camera just loved him. 574 00:35:15,458 --> 00:35:18,375 I went to John Calley at Warner Bros. 575 00:35:18,375 --> 00:35:20,916 I said, "I'm gonna hire this guy." 576 00:35:20,916 --> 00:35:23,750 He said, "He's a complete unknown. 577 00:35:23,750 --> 00:35:25,666 He's nobody. 578 00:35:25,666 --> 00:35:27,375 You have Stacy Keach." 579 00:35:27,375 --> 00:35:28,958 I said, "I don't care. 580 00:35:28,958 --> 00:35:30,333 This is the guy. 581 00:35:30,333 --> 00:35:32,166 I don't have to direct this guy. 582 00:35:32,166 --> 00:35:34,250 He is the guy." 583 00:35:34,250 --> 00:35:36,375 And we went with him. 584 00:35:36,375 --> 00:35:38,625 I wasn't proud of it, 585 00:35:38,625 --> 00:35:41,958 but we had to pay off Stacy Keach. 586 00:35:41,958 --> 00:35:46,083 Paid him in full, his salary. 587 00:35:46,083 --> 00:35:48,458 And they did think I was nuts, 588 00:35:48,458 --> 00:35:53,583 but I had what has been described by Fritz Lang 589 00:35:53,583 --> 00:35:57,666 as a kind of sleepwalker's security. 590 00:35:57,666 --> 00:36:02,958 I personally think... 591 00:36:02,958 --> 00:36:06,083 that I made my films 592 00:36:06,083 --> 00:36:11,583 with a kind of sleepwalking security. 593 00:36:11,583 --> 00:36:13,500 I did things... 594 00:36:13,500 --> 00:36:16,583 which I thought were right. 595 00:36:16,583 --> 00:36:18,625 Period. 596 00:36:18,625 --> 00:36:21,333 That's what I had when I made "The Exorcist." 597 00:36:21,333 --> 00:36:26,541 I felt that every decision I made was the right decision, 598 00:36:26,541 --> 00:36:29,166 and I didn't question my instincts. 599 00:36:29,166 --> 00:36:32,000 And I had the power... 600 00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,708 then to do that. 601 00:36:33,708 --> 00:36:38,166 The studio had offered it to Stanley Kubrick, 602 00:36:38,166 --> 00:36:40,625 Arthur Penn, and Mike Nichols. 603 00:36:40,625 --> 00:36:43,291 Those three guys passed. 604 00:36:43,291 --> 00:36:45,750 They didn't know how to make the picture, 605 00:36:45,750 --> 00:36:47,625 but I did know how to make the picture. 606 00:36:47,625 --> 00:36:49,791 And they sensed that. 607 00:36:49,791 --> 00:36:52,791 And Jason's great in the film. 608 00:36:52,791 --> 00:36:56,166 He shouldn't have been in that picture. 609 00:36:56,166 --> 00:36:59,125 I accidentally saw his play. 610 00:36:59,125 --> 00:37:04,333 I accidentally was moved by it, another gift from the movie god. 611 00:37:04,333 --> 00:37:09,041 Look, it's very difficult for an actor, even a great actor, 612 00:37:09,041 --> 00:37:12,083 to produce an emotion in front of a camera. 613 00:37:12,083 --> 00:37:16,875 Behind the camera may be dozens, 614 00:37:16,875 --> 00:37:21,500 if not more, people standing right behind the camera, 615 00:37:21,500 --> 00:37:25,250 walking around, milling, reading the newspaper sometimes, 616 00:37:25,250 --> 00:37:26,750 eating lunch. 617 00:37:26,750 --> 00:37:29,291 I met Father Bill O'Malley, 618 00:37:29,291 --> 00:37:32,125 who plays Father Dyer in "The Exorcist," 619 00:37:32,125 --> 00:37:33,708 through Bill Blatty, and I met him. 620 00:37:33,708 --> 00:37:37,250 And I could see and hear instantly that he was Dyer, 621 00:37:37,250 --> 00:37:39,208 but he wasn't an actor. 622 00:37:39,208 --> 00:37:42,875 He is a priest, and I just turned him loose... 623 00:37:42,875 --> 00:37:45,875 My idea of heaven is a solid white nightclub 624 00:37:45,875 --> 00:37:48,708 with me as a headliner for all eternity, 625 00:37:48,708 --> 00:37:50,208 and they love me. 626 00:37:52,041 --> 00:37:57,708 ...until we came to the scene where he has to come to tears 627 00:37:57,708 --> 00:38:03,500 as he's giving the last rites to his good friend who's dying, 628 00:38:03,500 --> 00:38:05,708 and O'Malley couldn't do it. 629 00:38:05,708 --> 00:38:09,708 And I took O'Malley aside and I said, 630 00:38:09,708 --> 00:38:12,833 "Bill, do you love me?" 631 00:38:12,833 --> 00:38:14,291 He said, 632 00:38:14,291 --> 00:38:15,541 "Yes, of course I love you, Bill. 633 00:38:15,541 --> 00:38:16,875 You know that." 634 00:38:16,875 --> 00:38:19,500 I said, "Do you trust me?" 635 00:38:19,500 --> 00:38:21,750 Said, "Of course I trust you." 636 00:38:21,750 --> 00:38:24,458 I said, "Okay," and I turned away 637 00:38:24,458 --> 00:38:27,916 and then I hit him full in the face. 638 00:38:27,916 --> 00:38:29,916 I smacked him in the face, and I pushed him 639 00:38:29,916 --> 00:38:33,083 in front of the camera and I said, "Action." 640 00:38:44,333 --> 00:38:47,958 And afterward, he hugged me and thanked me 641 00:38:47,958 --> 00:38:51,833 because there was no other way he was gonna ever get to that, 642 00:38:51,833 --> 00:38:55,166 but I don't think I would do that again that way. 643 00:38:55,166 --> 00:38:59,500 Techniques like that would -- would not go over today. 644 00:38:59,500 --> 00:39:01,708 That wasn't something I invented. 645 00:39:01,708 --> 00:39:04,333 That was done by directors like John Ford 646 00:39:04,333 --> 00:39:07,958 and George Stevens to produce that emotion. 647 00:39:07,958 --> 00:39:11,791 Ford and Stevens -- they do whatever technique worked. 648 00:39:11,791 --> 00:39:15,541 I remember seeing a story in Life magazine, 649 00:39:15,541 --> 00:39:18,958 a photo essay on the production of the film 650 00:39:18,958 --> 00:39:22,958 "The Diary of Anne Frank," directed by George Stevens. 651 00:39:22,958 --> 00:39:27,583 So they had a big set built of the top-floor apartment 652 00:39:27,583 --> 00:39:30,958 where the Frank family was hiding, 653 00:39:30,958 --> 00:39:34,166 and they were in abject fear 654 00:39:34,166 --> 00:39:38,375 when the Nazi sirens would go by in the streets of Amsterdam. 655 00:39:38,375 --> 00:39:40,375 And there's a picture of George Stevens 656 00:39:40,375 --> 00:39:46,000 sitting on top of the set on the crossbeams with a rifle, 657 00:39:46,000 --> 00:39:48,791 and he used to shoot off a rifle 658 00:39:48,791 --> 00:39:53,333 to get a reaction from the people in the room. 659 00:39:53,333 --> 00:39:57,791 And I did that all throughout "The Exorcist" film. 660 00:39:57,791 --> 00:40:00,875 There's the one shot I remember in particular. 661 00:40:00,875 --> 00:40:03,375 It's a tight close-up with Jason Miller 662 00:40:03,375 --> 00:40:06,708 is working at the desk in his room, 663 00:40:06,708 --> 00:40:09,583 and then a phone rings. 664 00:40:12,041 --> 00:40:14,625 I didn't play a phone. 665 00:40:14,625 --> 00:40:17,416 I shot a rifle. 666 00:40:17,416 --> 00:40:19,625 There are many ways in which you work 667 00:40:19,625 --> 00:40:22,041 with the actors and the crew. 668 00:40:22,041 --> 00:40:25,708 There's no one technique. 669 00:40:25,708 --> 00:40:32,625 With someone like Ellen Burstyn or Max von Sydow, Lee J. Cobb, 670 00:40:32,625 --> 00:40:36,250 one of the greatest American actors who ever lived, 671 00:40:36,250 --> 00:40:38,750 you don't give them a lot of direction. 672 00:40:38,750 --> 00:40:43,041 You talk initially before you shoot the film, 673 00:40:43,041 --> 00:40:45,750 make sure you're on the same page, 674 00:40:45,750 --> 00:40:47,500 and then they go out and they do it. 675 00:40:47,500 --> 00:40:50,000 And if you need or want to correct anything, 676 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:51,875 you'll say something to them, 677 00:40:51,875 --> 00:40:56,916 much as the conductor of a symphony orchestra 678 00:40:56,916 --> 00:41:00,541 talks to the members of the orchestra. 679 00:41:00,541 --> 00:41:04,041 That section a little softer or a little louder 680 00:41:04,041 --> 00:41:06,125 or faster or slower, 681 00:41:06,125 --> 00:41:09,500 and that's basically all you'll adjust 682 00:41:09,500 --> 00:41:11,666 with -- with a great actor. 683 00:41:11,666 --> 00:41:14,500 Might your daughter remember, perhaps, 684 00:41:14,500 --> 00:41:17,291 if Mr. Dennings was in her room that night? 685 00:41:17,291 --> 00:41:19,875 My favorite scene in "The Exorcist" 686 00:41:19,875 --> 00:41:24,666 is a scene where Lee J. Cobb, who plays Detective Kinderman, 687 00:41:24,666 --> 00:41:29,333 is at the opposite end of a table from Ellen Burstyn, 688 00:41:29,333 --> 00:41:33,875 and it's a very quiet scene where very little happens 689 00:41:33,875 --> 00:41:37,916 in which he suggests to her without saying it 690 00:41:37,916 --> 00:41:40,333 that her daughter might have pushed a man 691 00:41:40,333 --> 00:41:42,916 out of her bedroom window. 692 00:41:42,916 --> 00:41:44,833 Just two setups -- 693 00:41:44,833 --> 00:41:48,750 one over her shoulder, one over his -- 694 00:41:48,750 --> 00:41:52,416 that moves toward each one of them, 695 00:41:52,416 --> 00:41:55,416 just pulling the audience closer. 696 00:41:55,416 --> 00:41:57,333 All interior, 697 00:41:57,333 --> 00:42:03,125 and I remember saying to them, yes, just interiorize that. 698 00:42:03,125 --> 00:42:06,875 Ellen, you know what he's saying, 699 00:42:06,875 --> 00:42:08,708 but you can't show it. 700 00:42:08,708 --> 00:42:13,125 Don't show him how this is killing you inside. 701 00:42:13,125 --> 00:42:16,166 Suppress that emotion throughout, 702 00:42:16,166 --> 00:42:19,958 and she played that scene so beautifully. 703 00:42:19,958 --> 00:42:22,041 That's the way she wanted to play it. 704 00:42:22,041 --> 00:42:24,916 Same with Lee. 705 00:42:24,916 --> 00:42:27,458 As the tension is relieved, 706 00:42:27,458 --> 00:42:33,375 the camera almost imperceptibly moves away from that. 707 00:42:33,375 --> 00:42:37,541 The scene I've just described is... 708 00:42:37,541 --> 00:42:41,958 one of the most tension-filled in the film 709 00:42:41,958 --> 00:42:44,500 because of what's being said. 710 00:42:44,500 --> 00:42:46,208 She's sitting there at the table. 711 00:42:46,208 --> 00:42:49,916 She says to him, not knowing what to say... 712 00:42:49,916 --> 00:42:52,583 Would you like some more coffee? 713 00:42:52,583 --> 00:42:55,833 ...hoping that he'll say, "No, I'm fine," and get out of there, 714 00:42:55,833 --> 00:42:57,416 and he turns and says... 715 00:42:57,416 --> 00:42:58,666 Please. 716 00:42:58,666 --> 00:43:00,291 Oh, my God. 717 00:43:00,291 --> 00:43:04,625 That moment on her is devastating. 718 00:43:12,375 --> 00:43:16,500 And he calmly suggests to her... 719 00:43:16,500 --> 00:43:18,541 You might ask your daughter 720 00:43:18,541 --> 00:43:19,958 if she remembers 721 00:43:19,958 --> 00:43:22,875 seeing Mr. Dennings in her room that night. 722 00:43:22,875 --> 00:43:24,958 Look, he -- he wouldn't have any reason 723 00:43:24,958 --> 00:43:26,416 in the world to up to her room. 724 00:43:26,416 --> 00:43:28,208 Oh, I know, I realize, 725 00:43:28,208 --> 00:43:31,250 but if certain British doctors never asked, 726 00:43:31,250 --> 00:43:32,833 "What is this fungus?" 727 00:43:32,833 --> 00:43:35,833 we wouldn't today have penicillin, correct? 728 00:43:35,833 --> 00:43:41,250 It's a brilliant dialogue, and he then says... 729 00:43:41,250 --> 00:43:44,041 I-I really hate to ask you this, but... 730 00:43:44,041 --> 00:43:46,291 for -- for my daughter, 731 00:43:46,291 --> 00:43:49,416 could you please give an autograph? 732 00:43:49,416 --> 00:43:52,791 And that completely relieves the tension. 733 00:43:52,791 --> 00:43:55,291 You're a very nice lady. 734 00:43:57,833 --> 00:44:00,750 - Thank you. - You're a nice man. 735 00:44:00,750 --> 00:44:04,583 Wonderful character scene with very few words, 736 00:44:04,583 --> 00:44:07,000 but the tension is totally relieved 737 00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:09,458 because after he goes out the door, 738 00:44:09,458 --> 00:44:13,333 all hell will break loose in the house. 739 00:44:13,333 --> 00:44:15,375 And after he leaves, 740 00:44:15,375 --> 00:44:21,125 I added the sound of a ticking grandfather clock... 741 00:44:21,125 --> 00:44:25,000 which to the audience has the effect of a bomb ticking 742 00:44:25,000 --> 00:44:26,458 before it goes off. 743 00:44:26,458 --> 00:44:28,541 It's a quiet 744 00:44:31,166 --> 00:44:35,083 There is a grandfather clock buried in the shot, 745 00:44:35,083 --> 00:44:38,000 but for the most part, you would not be conscious of it 746 00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:39,875 if you were in the room with it. 747 00:44:48,500 --> 00:44:52,333 And then all of a sudden, there's a scream 748 00:44:52,333 --> 00:44:58,041 that comes from upstairs, which is the bomb going off. 749 00:44:58,041 --> 00:45:01,125 Nothing is more shocking than... 750 00:45:01,125 --> 00:45:05,958 the masturbation scene, and that was Blatty's intent. 751 00:45:05,958 --> 00:45:08,583 And I told him, 752 00:45:08,583 --> 00:45:12,916 and he agreed, that I wasn't going to sugarcoat it. 753 00:45:12,916 --> 00:45:15,958 Here it is. This is what happens. 754 00:45:15,958 --> 00:45:17,833 Let Jesus fuck you! Let Jesus fuck you! 755 00:45:17,833 --> 00:45:20,916 Let him fuck you! 756 00:45:20,916 --> 00:45:28,333 It was...extremely disturbing, that sequence, 757 00:45:28,333 --> 00:45:32,916 both to conceive of and to shoot 758 00:45:32,916 --> 00:45:40,083 because it's probably the only time in any film 759 00:45:40,083 --> 00:45:44,625 where something like the crucifix and the vagina 760 00:45:44,625 --> 00:45:49,416 are brought into the same frame of film. 761 00:45:50,666 --> 00:45:52,250 I came up with this notion, 762 00:45:52,250 --> 00:45:54,791 which I discussed with Dick Smith, 763 00:45:54,791 --> 00:45:58,791 that the makeup should be organic to something 764 00:45:58,791 --> 00:46:01,125 that Regan had done to herself, 765 00:46:01,125 --> 00:46:04,750 and it occurred to me that the makeup should grow out of that. 766 00:46:04,750 --> 00:46:07,166 Dick Smith liked that idea, 767 00:46:07,166 --> 00:46:10,500 and he then created the makeup to grow out 768 00:46:10,500 --> 00:46:12,583 of what appeared to be 769 00:46:12,583 --> 00:46:17,583 gangrenous self-inflicted wounds on her face. 770 00:46:17,583 --> 00:46:20,750 Ensor is one of my favorite artists 771 00:46:20,750 --> 00:46:22,791 who influenced me a great deal, 772 00:46:22,791 --> 00:46:26,250 and the masks in a film I made called "The Brink's Job," 773 00:46:26,250 --> 00:46:29,750 which is about a famous robbery in the 1950s, 774 00:46:29,750 --> 00:46:35,625 are inspired by Ensor's paintings of masks. 775 00:46:35,625 --> 00:46:39,875 I showed these masks to Dick Smith for "The Exorcist" 776 00:46:39,875 --> 00:46:41,416 just to show 777 00:46:41,416 --> 00:46:44,625 certain expressive things that were possible. 778 00:46:44,625 --> 00:46:50,000 The first makeup test that Dick did was just white face... 779 00:46:50,000 --> 00:46:53,458 dark eyes, red lines under the face, 780 00:46:53,458 --> 00:46:55,000 and I didn't like it. 781 00:46:55,000 --> 00:46:57,166 I thought it looked like makeup, 782 00:46:57,166 --> 00:47:01,458 but then some months later in the cutting room, 783 00:47:01,458 --> 00:47:03,583 the editor, Bud Smith, 784 00:47:03,583 --> 00:47:06,875 showed me the makeup tests again. 785 00:47:06,875 --> 00:47:09,208 He said, "Look at this frame." 786 00:47:12,458 --> 00:47:16,166 When you see just a frame or two of it, it's shocking, 787 00:47:16,166 --> 00:47:18,583 and it speaks volumes. 788 00:47:18,583 --> 00:47:20,333 It's not in the script. 789 00:47:20,333 --> 00:47:22,458 I decided to put it in later, 790 00:47:22,458 --> 00:47:25,458 and then when I did the 2000 version, 791 00:47:25,458 --> 00:47:28,375 I added a couple of more. 792 00:47:28,375 --> 00:47:32,791 I think all of us probably think... 793 00:47:32,791 --> 00:47:34,708 in subliminal perception. 794 00:47:34,708 --> 00:47:38,166 First time I saw it was done by Alain Resnais 795 00:47:38,166 --> 00:47:42,708 in "Last Year at Marienbad" and in "Hiroshima Mon Amour." 796 00:47:52,333 --> 00:47:54,875 And that made a profound impression on me, 797 00:47:54,875 --> 00:47:56,833 and I used it in "The Exorcist." 798 00:47:56,833 --> 00:48:01,333 I've used subliminal cuts in "Cruising" 799 00:48:01,333 --> 00:48:03,750 during the murder scenes 800 00:48:03,750 --> 00:48:09,208 and in "Sorcerer" as momentary mental flashbacks. 801 00:48:09,208 --> 00:48:11,500 I did that with sound, as well, 802 00:48:11,500 --> 00:48:14,083 but it's much more imperceptible. 803 00:48:14,083 --> 00:48:18,375 Subliminal sounds like the pig squealing, 804 00:48:18,375 --> 00:48:22,708 which is mixed into the demon voice in places. 805 00:48:30,750 --> 00:48:33,833 A fly that's caught in a bottle with a microphone 806 00:48:33,833 --> 00:48:36,458 stuck down there that's in there. 807 00:48:39,333 --> 00:48:42,541 I'm basically an old radio guy. 808 00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:50,041 My earliest influence was dramatic radio. 809 00:48:50,041 --> 00:48:53,833 Everything was in the imagination, everything, 810 00:48:53,833 --> 00:48:58,083 and it was through not only the human voice and music, 811 00:48:58,083 --> 00:49:00,333 but through sound effects. 812 00:49:02,750 --> 00:49:08,625 "The Exorcist" is an experimental sound museum, 813 00:49:08,625 --> 00:49:14,000 and so when I came into film, I was very much drawn 814 00:49:14,000 --> 00:49:18,041 to trying to continue that kind of use of sound. 815 00:49:18,041 --> 00:49:23,416 The demon voice was sculpted out of various sounds 816 00:49:23,416 --> 00:49:26,833 and the voice of Mercedes McCambridge. 817 00:49:37,125 --> 00:49:38,916 I had this friend from Chicago 818 00:49:38,916 --> 00:49:42,791 that I used to work with who was basically an announcer, 819 00:49:42,791 --> 00:49:46,208 but he was a great experimenter with sound. 820 00:49:46,208 --> 00:49:48,708 His name was Ken Nordine. 821 00:49:48,708 --> 00:49:52,166 Now, in this mound of think, 822 00:49:52,166 --> 00:49:58,666 in my huge, small individual love. 823 00:49:58,666 --> 00:50:03,541 Mine, yours, anyone, anything so related closer than any close, 824 00:50:03,541 --> 00:50:04,791 so close that... 825 00:50:04,791 --> 00:50:06,125 I called him and I said, 826 00:50:06,125 --> 00:50:09,458 "Ken, can you create a demon voice?" 827 00:50:09,458 --> 00:50:11,791 And he experimented for months, 828 00:50:11,791 --> 00:50:16,000 and I started to think, "This -- This doesn't work. 829 00:50:16,000 --> 00:50:17,541 Why doesn't it work?" 830 00:50:17,541 --> 00:50:19,416 Well, it's the voice of a man, 831 00:50:19,416 --> 00:50:25,250 no matter how intentionally distorted, but... 832 00:50:25,250 --> 00:50:28,458 it can't be a woman's voice, either. 833 00:50:28,458 --> 00:50:32,875 So I start to think, "Is there anyone... 834 00:50:32,875 --> 00:50:38,041 who sounds both male and female? 835 00:50:38,041 --> 00:50:40,833 Sort of neuter?" 836 00:50:40,833 --> 00:50:43,208 It popped into my head 837 00:50:43,208 --> 00:50:46,500 from the old days of dramatic radio, 838 00:50:46,500 --> 00:50:48,166 Mercedes McCambridge. 839 00:50:48,166 --> 00:50:49,708 You heard her tell how 840 00:50:49,708 --> 00:50:51,666 they're gonna run the railroad through here, 841 00:50:51,666 --> 00:50:54,250 bring in thousands of new people from the east. 842 00:50:54,250 --> 00:50:58,666 Farmers, dirt farmers, squatters. 843 00:50:58,666 --> 00:51:00,875 They'll push us out. 844 00:51:00,875 --> 00:51:04,250 I show her the film in rough cut... 845 00:51:04,250 --> 00:51:07,500 without any sound, with Linda Blair's voice. 846 00:51:07,500 --> 00:51:10,083 What an excellent day for an exorcism. 847 00:51:10,083 --> 00:51:12,708 But wouldn't that drive you out of Regan? 848 00:51:12,708 --> 00:51:16,083 It would bring us together. 849 00:51:16,083 --> 00:51:17,833 You and Regan. 850 00:51:17,833 --> 00:51:19,291 You and us. 851 00:51:19,291 --> 00:51:23,791 She said, "Do you know anything about me? 852 00:51:23,791 --> 00:51:27,291 I was a practicing Catholic from childhood, 853 00:51:27,291 --> 00:51:32,083 then I became a suicidal drunk, I went through AA, 854 00:51:32,083 --> 00:51:37,333 and I can no longer have a drink, even." 855 00:51:37,333 --> 00:51:41,583 But she said, "In order to do what you need me 856 00:51:41,583 --> 00:51:44,291 to do with this voice, I'm going to have to 857 00:51:44,291 --> 00:51:48,833 put alcohol down my throat, and I'm going to have to 858 00:51:48,833 --> 00:51:53,458 several times a day swallow raw eggs." 859 00:51:53,458 --> 00:51:58,541 And she said, "I want you to tie me to a chair like this, 860 00:51:58,541 --> 00:52:03,000 and I will sit squatting on the chair 861 00:52:03,000 --> 00:52:06,625 so that I feel some actual pain, 862 00:52:06,625 --> 00:52:09,958 and I will smoke again and drink again. 863 00:52:09,958 --> 00:52:14,833 But I want these two priests in the room who are friends of mine 864 00:52:14,833 --> 00:52:18,000 at all times in the recording studio. 865 00:52:18,000 --> 00:52:21,625 You'll have to give them some money for their church. 866 00:52:21,625 --> 00:52:23,958 And let's see what we can do. 867 00:52:23,958 --> 00:52:26,708 Awful lot of smoke. 868 00:52:26,708 --> 00:52:28,125 Awful lot of whiskey. 869 00:52:28,125 --> 00:52:30,833 And we went into a recording studio. 870 00:52:30,833 --> 00:52:35,583 She'd finish a scene, go back to the rear of the sound stage, 871 00:52:35,583 --> 00:52:37,333 where her two priests sat, 872 00:52:37,333 --> 00:52:40,791 and she would collapse into their arms in tears. 873 00:52:43,291 --> 00:52:44,750 She was saying lines like, 874 00:52:44,750 --> 00:52:48,416 "Your mother sucks cocks in hell, Karras." 875 00:52:48,416 --> 00:52:51,375 Every single line that you see in the film, 876 00:52:51,375 --> 00:52:53,125 Linda Blair had to say. 877 00:52:53,125 --> 00:52:55,250 It sounds a lot different when it's coming out of 878 00:52:55,250 --> 00:52:57,333 the mouth of a 12-year-old, though. 879 00:52:57,333 --> 00:52:59,625 How long are you planning to stay in Regan? 880 00:52:59,625 --> 00:53:03,041 Until she rots and lies stinking in the earth. 881 00:53:03,041 --> 00:53:06,583 She everything that Linda Blair said. 882 00:53:06,583 --> 00:53:09,708 Stick your cock up her ass, you motherfucking 883 00:53:09,708 --> 00:53:11,416 worthless cock sucker. 884 00:53:11,416 --> 00:53:14,000 Be silent! 885 00:53:14,000 --> 00:53:17,875 And sometimes she would simply open her mouth 886 00:53:17,875 --> 00:53:20,375 with a mic open like this. 887 00:53:24,208 --> 00:53:28,958 But out of her throat would come three or four different sounds 888 00:53:28,958 --> 00:53:32,958 because of the booze and the eggs and the smoke 889 00:53:32,958 --> 00:53:36,541 in the way that John Coltrane plays the saxophone, 890 00:53:36,541 --> 00:53:40,833 where you hear three or four notes at one time. 891 00:53:44,625 --> 00:53:48,625 I had not used the name Mercedes McCambridge 892 00:53:48,625 --> 00:53:52,541 since I saw her in a movie called "Giant", and again, 893 00:53:52,541 --> 00:53:55,666 it was an inspiration, a gift from God. 894 00:53:55,666 --> 00:53:58,291 Images stick in my mind's eye. 895 00:53:58,291 --> 00:54:01,666 I'll see something, and it'll like go into 896 00:54:01,666 --> 00:54:06,416 a mental file, and occasionally I'll have use for it. 897 00:54:06,416 --> 00:54:09,250 Most of my films are realistic 898 00:54:09,250 --> 00:54:12,750 because I've never been able to tap into the surreal. 899 00:54:12,750 --> 00:54:15,708 But the surreal is what I admire the most. 900 00:54:29,625 --> 00:54:37,333 Magritte is, to me, you know, the greatest surrealist. 901 00:54:42,541 --> 00:54:45,166 The first thing we filmed with Max von Sydow 902 00:54:45,166 --> 00:54:48,750 was in Georgetown, where he arrives. 903 00:54:57,458 --> 00:55:03,416 That shot came from a painting by René Magritte. 904 00:55:03,416 --> 00:55:06,500 It's called "The Empire of Light." 905 00:55:06,500 --> 00:55:10,666 There's a street very similar to Prospect Street 906 00:55:10,666 --> 00:55:12,875 in Georgetown. 907 00:55:12,875 --> 00:55:17,041 It's a day light sky over a night time street, 908 00:55:17,041 --> 00:55:20,416 and this painting had a profound effect on me, 909 00:55:20,416 --> 00:55:25,041 and I decided to put a figure in it. 910 00:55:25,916 --> 00:55:28,333 Von Sydow, the priest. 911 00:55:28,333 --> 00:55:32,750 And have the light from the girl's bedroom shining 912 00:55:32,750 --> 00:55:39,000 on him, which gave it the surreal feeling 913 00:55:39,000 --> 00:55:40,666 that the Magritte painting had. 914 00:55:40,666 --> 00:55:46,041 It's remained forever the iconic image of "The Exorcist." 915 00:55:46,041 --> 00:55:49,458 I love the paintings of Caravaggio, 916 00:55:49,458 --> 00:55:51,541 you know, which are mostly figures 917 00:55:51,541 --> 00:55:57,000 set against a completely black background, dramatically lit. 918 00:55:57,000 --> 00:56:00,250 Many of them are biblical scenes. 919 00:56:00,250 --> 00:56:03,541 Most biblical paintings of the Renaissance 920 00:56:03,541 --> 00:56:06,291 will lay out everything in the background. 921 00:56:06,291 --> 00:56:10,333 Caravaggio didn't bother to try to recreate 922 00:56:10,333 --> 00:56:14,416 any of the scenes from the Holy Land. 923 00:56:14,416 --> 00:56:19,000 He just put the figures very powerfully in the foreground. 924 00:56:19,000 --> 00:56:24,291 His paintings are strong, emotional, hard edged. 925 00:56:24,291 --> 00:56:27,625 They force you to look at the figures. 926 00:56:27,625 --> 00:56:32,458 And they're almost like Cartier-Bresson's photographs, 927 00:56:32,458 --> 00:56:36,750 moments of truth that he selected within these events 928 00:56:36,750 --> 00:56:39,041 to highlight and isolate. 929 00:56:39,041 --> 00:56:41,500 And so it's the way in which he did these things 930 00:56:41,500 --> 00:56:45,208 that I've often been able to recreate to some extent, 931 00:56:45,208 --> 00:56:46,916 not to his extent. 932 00:56:46,916 --> 00:56:49,125 The light coming from one side, 933 00:56:49,125 --> 00:56:51,166 powerful foreground figures, 934 00:56:51,166 --> 00:56:54,250 and then either out of focus or black background. 935 00:56:54,250 --> 00:56:57,083 I will do that often unconsciously. 936 00:56:57,083 --> 00:57:02,083 And I know it's related to my love of Caravaggio's 937 00:57:02,083 --> 00:57:04,166 incredible figures. 938 00:57:04,166 --> 00:57:07,958 Rembrandt's portraits have influenced cinematographers 939 00:57:07,958 --> 00:57:12,666 and directors forever, since the beginning of film. 940 00:57:12,666 --> 00:57:16,916 What he did basically was take one source light, 941 00:57:16,916 --> 00:57:20,458 so there's a very prominent and powerful light 942 00:57:20,458 --> 00:57:23,416 coming on a figure from one source, 943 00:57:23,416 --> 00:57:25,166 and the rest of the light on the face 944 00:57:25,166 --> 00:57:29,833 is a kind of a soft bounce light from another surface 945 00:57:29,833 --> 00:57:33,666 that is not as strong as the hot source. 946 00:57:33,666 --> 00:57:36,958 And occasionally there'll be a bit of back light, 947 00:57:36,958 --> 00:57:38,416 but it's not emphasized. 948 00:57:38,416 --> 00:57:40,875 And that's the idea of the way I've tried 949 00:57:40,875 --> 00:57:43,500 to shoot faces and portraits. 950 00:57:43,500 --> 00:57:50,500 Wherever I could control the light within interiors, 951 00:57:50,500 --> 00:57:53,458 we shot it that way. 952 00:57:53,458 --> 00:57:57,833 Rembrandt basically created a style of lighting 953 00:57:57,833 --> 00:58:01,708 that still exists and is still relevant. 954 00:58:01,708 --> 00:58:04,000 I would go so far as to say you could almost 955 00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:09,250 throw everything else out, even "The Mona Lisa." 956 00:58:09,250 --> 00:58:14,291 I've also been influenced by 17th century Dutch paintings, 957 00:58:14,291 --> 00:58:18,291 in particular Vermeer. 958 00:58:18,291 --> 00:58:21,041 The most powerful painting I've ever seen 959 00:58:21,041 --> 00:58:24,916 is Vermeer's "View of Delft." 960 00:58:24,916 --> 00:58:26,666 It's just magnificent. 961 00:58:26,666 --> 00:58:30,625 It's one of his few landscapes, 962 00:58:30,625 --> 00:58:33,500 and it's just a group of women on the shore 963 00:58:33,500 --> 00:58:36,375 who are doing their daily shopping 964 00:58:36,375 --> 00:58:39,666 and now they're talking to one another. 965 00:58:39,666 --> 00:58:45,291 In the background is the city of Delft, 966 00:58:45,291 --> 00:58:49,041 which premieres slightly rearranged in his picture, 967 00:58:49,041 --> 00:58:54,000 as El Greco rearranged the view of Toledo that he painted. 968 00:58:54,000 --> 00:58:56,666 And there's a shaft of light 969 00:58:56,666 --> 00:58:58,416 that hits the corner of a building, 970 00:58:58,416 --> 00:59:01,500 a little yellow spot on the painting. 971 00:59:01,500 --> 00:59:04,666 And the painting takes you absolutely back to 972 00:59:04,666 --> 00:59:08,375 17th century Delft. 973 00:59:08,375 --> 00:59:11,958 You're there, you can almost hear the conversations 974 00:59:11,958 --> 00:59:13,500 if you give yourself to it. 975 00:59:13,500 --> 00:59:16,041 Oh, it's such an unexpected little thing. 976 00:59:16,041 --> 00:59:21,875 I find that so simple and yet so profoundly moving. 977 00:59:21,875 --> 00:59:29,125 It's not just a dab of reality at all. 978 00:59:29,125 --> 00:59:32,583 It's a little grace note. 979 00:59:33,666 --> 00:59:37,083 I certainly attempted to have 980 00:59:37,083 --> 00:59:41,916 little grace notes in "The Exorcist." 981 00:59:41,916 --> 00:59:44,166 There's a shot in there that's one of the most 982 00:59:44,166 --> 00:59:48,666 beautiful shots I've ever been involved with. 983 00:59:51,250 --> 00:59:58,541 It's a shot of von Sydow walking through a bazaar. 984 00:59:58,541 --> 01:00:03,375 There were holes in the ceiling where the sun poured in. 985 01:00:03,375 --> 01:00:06,708 And I just thought, "This is so beautiful," 986 01:00:06,708 --> 01:00:10,791 that I had von Sydow walk through there. 987 01:00:12,250 --> 01:00:17,083 The grace notes are what you remember about any experience, 988 01:00:17,083 --> 01:00:20,916 a person that you've met, 989 01:00:20,916 --> 01:00:24,458 the things that we love about the people we love, 990 01:00:24,458 --> 01:00:28,083 or a moment in a novel or in a movie. 991 01:00:28,083 --> 01:00:32,916 "Citizen Kane" is filled with grace notes. 992 01:00:32,916 --> 01:00:35,041 Filled with grace notes. 993 01:00:39,541 --> 01:00:42,958 Rosebud. 994 01:00:49,000 --> 01:00:52,208 The story told by Mr. Bernstein 995 01:00:52,208 --> 01:00:57,625 to the reporter about how he could remember 996 01:00:57,625 --> 01:00:59,083 seeing a woman. 997 01:00:59,083 --> 01:01:02,333 One day back in 1896, I was crossing over 998 01:01:02,333 --> 01:01:04,708 to Jersey on the ferry. 999 01:01:04,708 --> 01:01:06,083 And as we pulled out, 1000 01:01:06,083 --> 01:01:08,000 there was another ferry pulling in. 1001 01:01:08,000 --> 01:01:11,375 And on it, there was a girl waiting to get off. 1002 01:01:11,375 --> 01:01:13,291 A white dress she had on. 1003 01:01:13,291 --> 01:01:16,208 And she was carrying a white parasol. 1004 01:01:16,208 --> 01:01:18,416 And I only saw her for one second. 1005 01:01:18,416 --> 01:01:21,166 She didn't see me at all. 1006 01:01:21,166 --> 01:01:24,791 But I'll bet a month hasn't gone by since 1007 01:01:24,791 --> 01:01:27,625 that I haven't thought of that girl. 1008 01:01:27,625 --> 01:01:32,750 That's a grace note that tells you something profound 1009 01:01:32,750 --> 01:01:34,291 about the human experience. 1010 01:01:34,291 --> 01:01:36,166 We all have such things, 1011 01:01:36,166 --> 01:01:41,041 and they're much more important than the larger events. 1012 01:01:42,375 --> 01:01:47,500 When Ellen Burstyn walks home from the movie within the movie 1013 01:01:47,500 --> 01:01:54,208 that she's shooting, you see two nuns walking, 1014 01:01:54,208 --> 01:01:57,666 and their wind just takes their habits 1015 01:01:57,666 --> 01:02:01,541 and blows them in kind of slow motion, 1016 01:02:01,541 --> 01:02:04,000 and she notices that moment. 1017 01:02:04,000 --> 01:02:09,166 She notices some children running by in Halloween costume, 1018 01:02:09,166 --> 01:02:12,541 which is a kind of quiet precursor 1019 01:02:12,541 --> 01:02:17,708 to what's to come -- children in disguise. 1020 01:02:17,708 --> 01:02:20,750 There's nothing in those scenes that move the film 1021 01:02:20,750 --> 01:02:25,041 one inch forward, but they're grace notes 1022 01:02:25,041 --> 01:02:29,416 that I tried to add to the whole experience. 1023 01:02:29,416 --> 01:02:32,083 A routine I have when I go to Chicago is 1024 01:02:32,083 --> 01:02:34,458 I'll walk down the street to the Art Institute 1025 01:02:34,458 --> 01:02:38,291 and spend an hour or two looking at the same paintings 1026 01:02:38,291 --> 01:02:40,000 over and over again. 1027 01:02:40,000 --> 01:02:42,750 To go back and look at these paintings is like 1028 01:02:42,750 --> 01:02:45,208 visiting old friends. 1029 01:02:45,208 --> 01:02:48,833 The Monet collection is unsurpassed, 1030 01:02:48,833 --> 01:02:52,583 especially "Morning on the Seine near Giverny", 1031 01:02:52,583 --> 01:02:55,250 which is probably, if I have such a thing, 1032 01:02:55,250 --> 01:02:58,166 it would be my favorite painting in the world. 1033 01:03:00,958 --> 01:03:05,291 And it's nothing but a very soft collage, 1034 01:03:05,291 --> 01:03:07,291 whites, blues, grays, 1035 01:03:07,291 --> 01:03:12,625 just harmoniously together, nothing loud. 1036 01:03:12,625 --> 01:03:17,083 Everything in the painting is soft, almost imperceptible. 1037 01:03:17,083 --> 01:03:20,833 It's a pure, quiet abstract. 1038 01:03:20,833 --> 01:03:26,208 It's like Ravel's music or Debussy's music on a canvas, 1039 01:03:26,208 --> 01:03:30,666 especially the "Quartet in F" by Maurice Ravel. 1040 01:03:30,666 --> 01:03:35,833 So there is a symbiosis for me between art and music. 1041 01:03:37,000 --> 01:03:40,541 There are great quiet sound effects 1042 01:03:40,541 --> 01:03:43,583 all over the movie, and I didn't want the score 1043 01:03:43,583 --> 01:03:46,791 to drown them out, so I didn't want a loud score 1044 01:03:46,791 --> 01:03:50,458 or a rhythmic score or a boisterous score. 1045 01:03:50,458 --> 01:03:54,166 For the most part, I don't like to cue the audience 1046 01:03:54,166 --> 01:03:56,500 on how they're supposed to feel. 1047 01:03:56,500 --> 01:03:59,625 I like them to find that out for themselves. 1048 01:03:59,625 --> 01:04:03,125 There are exceptions to that, like "Psycho", 1049 01:04:03,125 --> 01:04:07,083 where the score tells you exactly how to feel 1050 01:04:07,083 --> 01:04:09,916 at all times, and it's great. 1051 01:04:25,750 --> 01:04:27,541 When I finished editing the film, 1052 01:04:27,541 --> 01:04:33,416 I went to the great composer Bernard Herrmann, 1053 01:04:33,416 --> 01:04:35,250 who was living in London then. 1054 01:04:35,250 --> 01:04:38,875 He had had a score rejected by Alfred Hitchcock 1055 01:04:38,875 --> 01:04:42,541 and Herrmann left America and moved to England, 1056 01:04:42,541 --> 01:04:44,291 became an expatriate. 1057 01:04:57,000 --> 01:04:59,875 Tell the cookie she should put that down. 1058 01:04:59,875 --> 01:05:03,708 I screened the rough cut of "The Exorcist" 1059 01:05:03,708 --> 01:05:05,250 for Bernard Herrmann. 1060 01:05:05,250 --> 01:05:07,791 He came out after the screening, and he said, 1061 01:05:07,791 --> 01:05:13,291 "Well, I think I can save this piece of shit 1062 01:05:13,291 --> 01:05:16,375 if you leave it with me, and I'll mail you a score." 1063 01:05:16,375 --> 01:05:20,166 Get rid of that first scene in the desert out there, 1064 01:05:20,166 --> 01:05:22,625 wherever the fuck you shot that. 1065 01:05:22,625 --> 01:05:23,875 You don't need that. 1066 01:05:23,875 --> 01:05:26,083 It doesn't mean a goddamn thing." 1067 01:05:26,083 --> 01:05:29,166 And by now, I'm a little upset. 1068 01:05:29,166 --> 01:05:33,708 And I said, "Can I ask you, what do you have in mind? 1069 01:05:33,708 --> 01:05:35,458 How would you score this?" 1070 01:05:35,458 --> 01:05:37,250 He said, "Well, there's a church 1071 01:05:37,250 --> 01:05:39,791 somewhere outside of greater London. 1072 01:05:39,791 --> 01:05:43,083 It's called St Giles Cripplegate. 1073 01:05:43,083 --> 01:05:45,333 And they have the greatest church organ 1074 01:05:45,333 --> 01:05:46,583 that I've ever heard. 1075 01:05:46,583 --> 01:05:48,541 The sound is magnificent." 1076 01:05:48,541 --> 01:05:51,500 And I said, "You want to use a church organ 1077 01:05:51,500 --> 01:05:53,458 in 'The Exorcist'?" 1078 01:05:53,458 --> 01:05:56,833 Do you have any idea why he wanted 1079 01:05:56,833 --> 01:05:58,333 a church organ? 1080 01:05:58,333 --> 01:06:00,125 Hell, no. 1081 01:06:00,125 --> 01:06:04,083 It seemed like a cliché to me, and I knew I was talking 1082 01:06:04,083 --> 01:06:06,458 to the greatest composer who ever lived. 1083 01:06:06,458 --> 01:06:08,541 I stood up and I said, 1084 01:06:08,541 --> 01:06:11,958 "Well, thank you for letting me meet an interesting person." 1085 01:06:11,958 --> 01:06:14,166 And I left. 1086 01:06:14,166 --> 01:06:16,708 I didn't give a shit if he was Bernard Herrmann 1087 01:06:16,708 --> 01:06:20,000 or Ludwig van Beethoven. 1088 01:06:20,000 --> 01:06:24,541 I was too close to that film to give it to anybody 1089 01:06:24,541 --> 01:06:28,416 to add as key an element as music. 1090 01:06:28,416 --> 01:06:35,375 This is one of the worst disappointments of my life. 1091 01:06:35,375 --> 01:06:37,500 So I then took the film back home, 1092 01:06:37,500 --> 01:06:41,666 and I started to use what we call temp score. 1093 01:06:41,666 --> 01:06:45,500 I put existing music that I had been listening to. 1094 01:06:45,500 --> 01:06:50,000 I was not looking to have the score drive the movie. 1095 01:06:50,000 --> 01:06:54,333 I was looking for a piece of music 1096 01:06:54,333 --> 01:06:58,666 that was like the cold hand on the back of a neck. 1097 01:06:58,666 --> 01:07:05,333 And so I was listening to music like Krzysztof Penderecki. 1098 01:07:05,333 --> 01:07:06,791 Polish composer. 1099 01:07:17,708 --> 01:07:23,375 Anton Webern, who wrote the quietest music ever written, 1100 01:07:23,375 --> 01:07:26,500 a piece called "Five Pieces for Orchestra", 1101 01:07:26,500 --> 01:07:30,000 in which the music never rises above this level. 1102 01:07:32,708 --> 01:07:36,541 When I touch your forehead, open your eyes. 1103 01:07:43,125 --> 01:07:45,416 He was a student of Schoenberg, 1104 01:07:45,416 --> 01:07:50,000 sort of created 12 tone music or serial music, 1105 01:07:50,000 --> 01:07:54,333 which is not melodic and often not even rhythmic. 1106 01:07:54,333 --> 01:07:57,750 I scored the film 1107 01:07:57,750 --> 01:08:03,125 primarily with recordings of those pieces of music, 1108 01:08:03,125 --> 01:08:08,333 and I then took the film with my choice of music 1109 01:08:08,333 --> 01:08:13,416 to a composer I had known called Lalo Schifrin, 1110 01:08:13,416 --> 01:08:17,333 and I said, "Lalo, I want the music to be a cold hand 1111 01:08:17,333 --> 01:08:18,916 on the back of your neck. 1112 01:08:18,916 --> 01:08:21,541 I don't want anything loud or noisy 1113 01:08:21,541 --> 01:08:26,791 except maybe in a couple of places just for accent. 1114 01:08:26,791 --> 01:08:30,666 Like where the little girl shows writing on her chest." 1115 01:08:47,125 --> 01:08:48,833 He said, "I got it, I've got it." 1116 01:08:48,833 --> 01:08:51,958 And I walk into the recording studio at Warner Bros., 1117 01:08:51,958 --> 01:08:57,125 and there's 80 or 90 musicians, and they're all electrified, 1118 01:08:57,125 --> 01:09:01,958 and he plays the first cue over the Iraqi desert. 1119 01:09:01,958 --> 01:09:07,000 And the music was blasting and blaring and screaming. 1120 01:09:07,000 --> 01:09:10,000 And I had all these wonderful sounds of the guys 1121 01:09:10,000 --> 01:09:15,291 digging from a distance and from medium and close up. 1122 01:09:15,291 --> 01:09:18,583 And the music wiped everything out. 1123 01:09:18,583 --> 01:09:21,666 It's a very complex and interesting score, 1124 01:09:21,666 --> 01:09:25,833 but it was loud and rhythmic and wrong. 1125 01:09:25,833 --> 01:09:28,541 And, um, I hated it! 1126 01:09:38,833 --> 01:09:42,666 I said, "Lalo, this stuff is wrong. 1127 01:09:42,666 --> 01:09:44,125 Can you change it?" 1128 01:09:44,125 --> 01:09:47,208 And he said, "No, I can't change it." 1129 01:09:47,208 --> 01:09:50,083 So I said, "It's over, the session's over." 1130 01:09:50,083 --> 01:09:51,541 And he was a good friend of mine, 1131 01:09:51,541 --> 01:09:56,291 and we haven't spoken since. 1132 01:09:56,833 --> 01:10:00,208 The music director of Warner Bros. took the tracks 1133 01:10:00,208 --> 01:10:06,208 that I selected off 33 1/3 LPs and had them re-recorded 1134 01:10:06,208 --> 01:10:09,708 in London by a pick up orchestra. 1135 01:10:09,708 --> 01:10:11,458 That's what's in the film. 1136 01:10:11,458 --> 01:10:15,541 I still wanted something that sounded like or vaguely 1137 01:10:15,541 --> 01:10:19,708 like Brahms' "Lullaby", and it goes something like this. 1138 01:10:33,916 --> 01:10:38,250 I would listen to one piece after another. 1139 01:10:38,250 --> 01:10:42,666 Needle drop out, needle drop, two seconds, out. 1140 01:10:42,666 --> 01:10:44,833 10 seconds, out. 1141 01:10:44,833 --> 01:10:49,083 Hundreds of pieces and up comes something called 1142 01:10:49,083 --> 01:10:52,791 "Tubular Bells" by Mike Oldfield. 1143 01:10:52,791 --> 01:10:55,750 There's no label on it. It was handwritten on a label. 1144 01:11:25,500 --> 01:11:29,791 It's not that unusual to have a score done like that. 1145 01:11:29,791 --> 01:11:33,791 You have the opening and incidental music of "2001." 1146 01:11:33,791 --> 01:11:38,416 "Thus Spake Zarathustra" 1147 01:11:38,416 --> 01:11:41,000 was conducted by Herbert von Karajan 1148 01:11:41,000 --> 01:11:43,708 with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. 1149 01:12:01,250 --> 01:12:04,083 Those were existing recordings that Kubrick used 1150 01:12:04,083 --> 01:12:08,000 after he had commissioned a score by Alex North 1151 01:12:08,000 --> 01:12:09,583 and rejected. 1152 01:12:09,583 --> 01:12:12,750 And the score didn't match up to the temp track, 1153 01:12:12,750 --> 01:12:14,916 as was the case with me. 1154 01:12:34,708 --> 01:12:38,041 All of those things, the paintings and the music, 1155 01:12:38,041 --> 01:12:43,083 went a long way in influencing how I made this film. 1156 01:12:45,375 --> 01:12:50,250 They all sort of creep into your imagination, 1157 01:12:50,250 --> 01:12:54,833 which feeds your ideas for a film. 1158 01:12:56,458 --> 01:13:00,541 I couldn't be a film director if I was a skeptic. 1159 01:13:00,541 --> 01:13:02,791 I did not approach "The Exorcist" 1160 01:13:02,791 --> 01:13:06,208 as a nonbeliever or a cynic. 1161 01:13:06,208 --> 01:13:08,500 I approached it as a believer. 1162 01:13:08,500 --> 01:13:16,958 And to direct the film like that, I had to separate myself 1163 01:13:16,958 --> 01:13:21,708 and my own emotions from the act itself 1164 01:13:21,708 --> 01:13:27,000 and take the actors into a mental environment 1165 01:13:27,000 --> 01:13:30,583 where they could separate themselves from 1166 01:13:30,583 --> 01:13:32,583 what was being portrayed. 1167 01:13:32,583 --> 01:13:36,250 Blatty and I never talked about a horror film 1168 01:13:36,250 --> 01:13:39,791 or effects in a horror film. 1169 01:13:39,791 --> 01:13:43,416 To me, it's more of a chamber piece than spectacle. 1170 01:13:43,416 --> 01:13:48,083 Most of the stuff takes place in one room, 1171 01:13:48,083 --> 01:13:50,541 in the little girl's bedroom. 1172 01:13:50,541 --> 01:13:53,666 We set out to tell this story 1173 01:13:53,666 --> 01:13:58,291 that deals with the mystery of faith and good and evil, 1174 01:13:58,291 --> 01:14:04,083 both extreme sacrifice and goodness and love. 1175 01:14:04,083 --> 01:14:06,541 Jesus Christ, won't somebody help me?! 1176 01:14:06,541 --> 01:14:08,458 No, see, you don't understand. Your daughter -- 1177 01:14:08,458 --> 01:14:11,000 Could you help her? Just help her! 1178 01:14:15,791 --> 01:14:21,208 As I sit here now and talk about this film, 1179 01:14:21,208 --> 01:14:25,708 probably in the mind's eye of the people watching this, 1180 01:14:25,708 --> 01:14:28,916 they're wondering, do I believe that there is such a thing 1181 01:14:28,916 --> 01:14:30,750 as demonic possession? 1182 01:14:30,750 --> 01:14:34,625 I have no idea. It's one of the mysteries. 1183 01:14:34,625 --> 01:14:36,666 Do you have any religious beliefs? 1184 01:14:36,666 --> 01:14:40,000 - No. - What about your daughter? 1185 01:14:40,000 --> 01:14:41,916 No. Why? 1186 01:14:41,916 --> 01:14:45,125 You ever heard of exorcism? 1187 01:14:45,125 --> 01:14:50,625 Now, I filmed what purports to be an actual possession 1188 01:14:50,625 --> 01:14:53,333 and exorcism by the Vatican exorcist, 1189 01:14:53,333 --> 01:14:55,291 Father Gabriele Amorth. 1190 01:14:55,291 --> 01:15:00,083 What I saw was extremely harrowing and convincing. 1191 01:15:00,083 --> 01:15:04,083 But do I know what this was? No, I don't. 1192 01:15:04,083 --> 01:15:05,541 There are people who say, 1193 01:15:05,541 --> 01:15:08,458 "Well, I don't buy into any of this stuff. 1194 01:15:08,458 --> 01:15:12,583 I don't believe in possession. I don't believe in the devil." 1195 01:15:12,583 --> 01:15:16,583 But they're watching it, you know? 1196 01:15:16,583 --> 01:15:20,916 The truth is none of us know anything, Alexander. 1197 01:15:20,916 --> 01:15:22,541 We don't know anything. 1198 01:15:22,541 --> 01:15:25,083 From the greatest thinkers and philosophers 1199 01:15:25,083 --> 01:15:28,875 the world has ever known, from St. Augustine to 1200 01:15:28,875 --> 01:15:33,500 Stephen Hawking, we don't know anything. 1201 01:15:33,500 --> 01:15:35,250 I'm sorry.You're sorry?! 1202 01:15:35,250 --> 01:15:36,583 Jesus Christ! 1203 01:15:36,583 --> 01:15:38,375 88 doctors, and all you can tell me 1204 01:15:38,375 --> 01:15:41,583 with all of your bullshit is... 1205 01:15:43,291 --> 01:15:47,000 All we know is we had nothing to say about our birth, 1206 01:15:47,000 --> 01:15:51,375 we'll no doubt have nothing to say about the time or place 1207 01:15:51,375 --> 01:15:55,458 or means by which we die. 1208 01:15:55,458 --> 01:16:00,416 Life is so ambiguous, which is why my films are. 1209 01:16:06,166 --> 01:16:15,000 So much of our lives take place in our mind's eye 1210 01:16:15,000 --> 01:16:20,041 and later could become inseparable from reality. 1211 01:16:20,041 --> 01:16:23,416 Every one of us lives with a separate reality. 1212 01:16:26,041 --> 01:16:31,458 So I leave the question open for a long time in the film 1213 01:16:31,458 --> 01:16:36,791 as to, is a lot of this what's actually happening 1214 01:16:36,791 --> 01:16:45,041 in the real world, or is it the outcome of 1215 01:16:45,041 --> 01:16:49,500 an extremely unusual event 1216 01:16:49,500 --> 01:16:53,416 that takes place in a different way 1217 01:16:53,416 --> 01:16:56,083 to the different people involved? 1218 01:16:57,583 --> 01:16:59,750 Karras is the only character 1219 01:16:59,750 --> 01:17:03,208 who has seen and heard that derelict earlier. 1220 01:17:05,208 --> 01:17:09,208 Father, could you help an old altar boy? 1221 01:17:09,208 --> 01:17:11,791 I'm a Catholic. 1222 01:17:15,416 --> 01:17:18,583 One of the reasons that people could be affected 1223 01:17:18,583 --> 01:17:23,333 by that brief scene in the subway is the fact 1224 01:17:23,333 --> 01:17:29,208 that the voice of the derelict comes up later in the room 1225 01:17:29,208 --> 01:17:31,291 from Regan's mouth. 1226 01:17:31,291 --> 01:17:34,125 As he's walking away from her bed, 1227 01:17:34,125 --> 01:17:37,208 he hears that derelict's voice. 1228 01:17:37,208 --> 01:17:42,166 Can you help an old altar boy, Father? 1229 01:17:42,166 --> 01:17:44,458 Or does he? 1230 01:17:44,458 --> 01:17:48,458 There's always the question. 1231 01:17:48,458 --> 01:17:51,458 In the same way that you have the medal 1232 01:17:51,458 --> 01:17:54,541 appearing in Karras' dream that was discovered 1233 01:17:54,541 --> 01:17:56,958 by Merrin in Iraq. 1234 01:17:56,958 --> 01:18:00,458 The idea of that scene is symbiosis, 1235 01:18:00,458 --> 01:18:03,416 the idea that people are going to be intricately involved 1236 01:18:03,416 --> 01:18:06,166 with one another at some point, 1237 01:18:06,166 --> 01:18:11,708 share images, share thoughts. 1238 01:18:11,708 --> 01:18:15,041 It's a St. Joseph medal that's found in the cave. 1239 01:18:23,041 --> 01:18:25,666 The question is, what is a St. Joseph medal 1240 01:18:25,666 --> 01:18:31,000 doing among all these artifacts from centuries before? 1241 01:18:31,000 --> 01:18:33,500 And that's a question I wanted to raise 1242 01:18:33,500 --> 01:18:36,291 in the way it's raised in "2001." 1243 01:18:36,291 --> 01:18:39,958 We don't know to this day what the obelisk is all about. 1244 01:18:39,958 --> 01:18:42,500 It appears at the dawn of man, 1245 01:18:42,500 --> 01:18:47,666 and then it appears on Jupiter in 2001. 1246 01:18:47,666 --> 01:18:50,833 And then in the finale of the film, 1247 01:18:50,833 --> 01:18:54,666 there's the obelisk again. 1248 01:18:54,666 --> 01:18:59,916 I thought it was genius using a talisman in film like that, 1249 01:18:59,916 --> 01:19:03,875 but that's the sled in "Citizen Kane." 1250 01:19:06,833 --> 01:19:09,958 What does all that stuff mean? 1251 01:19:09,958 --> 01:19:14,458 It's both obvious and indecipherable. 1252 01:19:17,250 --> 01:19:21,625 I added these other shots to the scene 1253 01:19:21,625 --> 01:19:24,916 that come out of Merrin's experience 1254 01:19:24,916 --> 01:19:28,041 and enter Karras' dream. 1255 01:19:28,041 --> 01:19:30,916 The descending medal, 1256 01:19:30,916 --> 01:19:34,208 the St. Joseph medal that was found in Iraq, 1257 01:19:34,208 --> 01:19:39,208 I added a barking dog running towards the camera, 1258 01:19:39,208 --> 01:19:42,625 which is reminiscent of the dogs in Iraq 1259 01:19:42,625 --> 01:19:46,041 that are barking around the statue of Pazuzu 1260 01:19:46,041 --> 01:19:48,541 when Merrin confronts it. 1261 01:19:48,541 --> 01:19:51,875 The clock in Iraq that only Merrin sees, 1262 01:19:51,875 --> 01:19:54,208 that Karras has never seen. 1263 01:19:54,208 --> 01:19:58,291 His mother emerging from a subway kiosk. 1264 01:20:02,000 --> 01:20:08,166 There's a constant motif of ascension in the film. 1265 01:20:09,083 --> 01:20:13,625 Which is certainly a reference to Christianity. 1266 01:20:13,625 --> 01:20:15,750 Very subliminal. 1267 01:20:15,750 --> 01:20:19,166 If I hadn't mentioned it, you might not notice it. 1268 01:20:23,750 --> 01:20:27,791 And she's screaming out at him, "Dimi," 1269 01:20:27,791 --> 01:20:29,041 which is what she called him. 1270 01:20:29,041 --> 01:20:30,916 His name was Damien. 1271 01:20:30,916 --> 01:20:34,750 You don't hear her voice. 1272 01:20:34,750 --> 01:20:40,791 And he is waving at her, and he's shouting, "Mama, Mama." 1273 01:20:40,791 --> 01:20:42,833 But you don't hear his voice, 1274 01:20:42,833 --> 01:20:44,083 They're two separate cuts. 1275 01:20:44,083 --> 01:20:46,833 They're never in the same frame together. 1276 01:20:46,833 --> 01:20:50,416 He sees his own mother as she's descending 1277 01:20:50,416 --> 01:20:56,083 into a subway station, which is telling him the possibility 1278 01:20:56,083 --> 01:20:58,875 that she's descending into hell. 1279 01:20:58,875 --> 01:21:03,458 Clearly a reference to the idea that he was losing his mother 1280 01:21:03,458 --> 01:21:05,750 and couldn't prevent, couldn't stop it. 1281 01:21:05,750 --> 01:21:09,875 Mama, it's Dimi, Mama. 1282 01:21:12,500 --> 01:21:14,416 Dimi. 1283 01:21:14,416 --> 01:21:17,125 Why would you do this to me, Dimi? 1284 01:21:17,125 --> 01:21:19,083 Why? 1285 01:21:21,833 --> 01:21:24,125 Come on, I'm going to take you out of here, Mama. 1286 01:21:24,125 --> 01:21:25,666 Mama, I'm going to take you home. 1287 01:21:27,375 --> 01:21:28,833 I'm gonna take you out of here tonight, Mama. 1288 01:21:28,833 --> 01:21:30,666 Mama, everything's gonna be all right. 1289 01:21:30,666 --> 01:21:32,958 Mama, I'm gonna take you home. 1290 01:21:32,958 --> 01:21:35,458 Mama, I'm gonna take you home! 1291 01:21:35,458 --> 01:21:40,458 That idea is the source of his guilt. 1292 01:21:41,208 --> 01:21:43,083 Oh, Christ. 1293 01:21:43,083 --> 01:21:44,791 I should have been there. I wasn't there. 1294 01:21:44,791 --> 01:21:46,041 I should have been there. 1295 01:21:46,041 --> 01:21:47,625 There was nothing you could do. 1296 01:21:47,625 --> 01:21:51,416 His guilt that he devoted his life to the priesthood 1297 01:21:51,416 --> 01:21:54,750 and not to his mother's health or well-being. 1298 01:21:54,750 --> 01:21:56,583 - You killed your mother! - On this your servant Regan -- 1299 01:21:56,583 --> 01:21:58,125 You left her alone to die! 1300 01:21:58,125 --> 01:21:59,666 - Shut up! - She'll never forgive you! 1301 01:22:01,166 --> 01:22:02,666 That's the principal source of his guilt, 1302 01:22:02,666 --> 01:22:05,958 so that when we meet him in the film, 1303 01:22:05,958 --> 01:22:09,875 he is suffering this guilt and is losing his faith. 1304 01:22:09,875 --> 01:22:12,250 I have felt that in my life about my mother. 1305 01:22:12,250 --> 01:22:17,041 One of the things that bonded Blatty and me 1306 01:22:17,041 --> 01:22:21,375 was a love of our mothers. 1307 01:22:21,375 --> 01:22:26,333 Bill has a tremendous -- 1308 01:22:26,333 --> 01:22:30,916 had a tremendous love and sense of loss 1309 01:22:30,916 --> 01:22:32,958 about his mother, 1310 01:22:32,958 --> 01:22:37,375 to whom he owes a great deal of his success. 1311 01:22:37,375 --> 01:22:42,416 And I still have a tremendous sense of loss about my mother. 1312 01:22:42,416 --> 01:22:46,375 And that's one of the things that bonded us over this film 1313 01:22:46,375 --> 01:22:49,666 and its overall concept. 1314 01:22:49,666 --> 01:22:52,500 Karras is the target of the demon, 1315 01:22:52,500 --> 01:22:54,541 not the little girl. 1316 01:22:57,875 --> 01:23:00,166 You're not my mother! 1317 01:23:00,166 --> 01:23:01,416 Don't listen. 1318 01:23:01,416 --> 01:23:02,916 Why, Dimi? 1319 01:23:04,166 --> 01:23:05,708 Damien. 1320 01:23:05,708 --> 01:23:08,208 - Dimi, please. - Damien. 1321 01:23:10,416 --> 01:23:13,000 Get out. 1322 01:23:13,000 --> 01:23:18,083 The demon moves right in and is trying to show Karras 1323 01:23:18,083 --> 01:23:23,625 that his faith is worthless, useless, ineffective. 1324 01:23:23,625 --> 01:23:28,541 That's the purpose of the entire possession. 1325 01:23:28,541 --> 01:23:34,166 And this is an act by the devil to show the young priest 1326 01:23:34,166 --> 01:23:39,958 that human beings are disgusting pieces of filth at bottom. 1327 01:23:39,958 --> 01:23:43,250 Even a young, innocent child is nothing 1328 01:23:43,250 --> 01:23:47,958 but a disgusting piece of filth, which is what the devil 1329 01:23:47,958 --> 01:23:51,875 wants us to think about each other. 1330 01:23:51,875 --> 01:23:55,875 Why this girl? Doesn't make sense. 1331 01:24:04,375 --> 01:24:07,166 I think the point is to make us despair. 1332 01:24:10,458 --> 01:24:14,166 To see ourselves as... 1333 01:24:14,166 --> 01:24:16,250 animal and ugly. 1334 01:24:19,458 --> 01:24:23,541 To reject the possibility that God could love us. 1335 01:24:23,541 --> 01:24:25,208 Open the door! 1336 01:24:25,208 --> 01:24:27,958 Do you know what she did? 1337 01:24:27,958 --> 01:24:30,250 Your cunting daughter. 1338 01:24:31,916 --> 01:24:33,875 Hitler believed that. 1339 01:24:50,208 --> 01:24:51,958 Stalin believed that. 1340 01:24:51,958 --> 01:24:56,166 Stalin killed 20 million of his own people 1341 01:24:56,166 --> 01:24:58,666 'cause he believed they were worthless. 1342 01:25:00,166 --> 01:25:02,458 How long are you planning to stay in Regan? 1343 01:25:02,458 --> 01:25:05,375 Until she rots and lies stinking in the earth. 1344 01:25:05,375 --> 01:25:11,375 Here's a wonderful scene between Karras and the priest 1345 01:25:11,375 --> 01:25:15,625 played by an actual priest named Father Birmingham. 1346 01:25:15,625 --> 01:25:17,625 I can't cut it anymore. 1347 01:25:22,375 --> 01:25:24,916 I need out. I'm unfit. 1348 01:25:28,166 --> 01:25:30,458 I think I've lost my faith, Tom. 1349 01:25:30,458 --> 01:25:34,791 That scene is cross-cut with what's happening to Regan. 1350 01:25:34,791 --> 01:25:36,750 He doesn't even call his daughter on her birthday, 1351 01:25:36,750 --> 01:25:38,166 for Christ's sake. 1352 01:25:38,166 --> 01:25:39,708 Maybe the circuit is busy. 1353 01:25:39,708 --> 01:25:41,666 Oh, circuits, my ass. He doesn't give a shit. 1354 01:25:41,666 --> 01:25:45,166 And you see these two disparate forces 1355 01:25:45,166 --> 01:25:50,541 slowly moving toward one another as though magnetically. 1356 01:25:50,541 --> 01:25:56,666 The little girl who is being victimized by the separation 1357 01:25:56,666 --> 01:26:00,416 of her parents and the anguish of the mother. 1358 01:26:00,416 --> 01:26:05,000 And you see the priest, who is losing his faith, 1359 01:26:05,000 --> 01:26:09,250 who is called upon to try and help the little girl. 1360 01:26:09,250 --> 01:26:12,583 These three characters are all going to come together 1361 01:26:12,583 --> 01:26:18,416 and mesh from separate worlds drawn together by fate, 1362 01:26:18,416 --> 01:26:20,166 and that's what it was designed to do, 1363 01:26:20,166 --> 01:26:27,416 and it was dictated to me by -- from another place. 1364 01:26:27,416 --> 01:26:32,916 I believe that we all have such inexpressible, 1365 01:26:32,916 --> 01:26:37,791 unexplainable dreams that may come from somewhere else, 1366 01:26:37,791 --> 01:26:41,083 that sometimes manifest themselves as déjà vu. 1367 01:26:41,083 --> 01:26:45,833 There are so many images and moments in life 1368 01:26:45,833 --> 01:26:52,833 that exist in some time warp or in some other place 1369 01:26:52,833 --> 01:26:58,291 that are randomly selected by somebody else. 1370 01:26:58,291 --> 01:27:01,916 We don't just dream about stuff that's happened 1371 01:27:01,916 --> 01:27:04,083 or is happening to us. 1372 01:27:04,083 --> 01:27:06,291 We dream about things from elsewhere 1373 01:27:06,291 --> 01:27:07,875 and where are they from? 1374 01:27:07,875 --> 01:27:11,166 And that is the most important discovery I made 1375 01:27:11,166 --> 01:27:14,750 as a filmmaker, that I could take 1376 01:27:14,750 --> 01:27:17,833 something from the life of one character 1377 01:27:17,833 --> 01:27:21,375 and put it into the dream life of another. 1378 01:27:21,375 --> 01:27:23,500 Well, suppose you have a thought. 1379 01:27:23,500 --> 01:27:26,333 And suppose the thought is about someone you're in tune with. 1380 01:27:26,333 --> 01:27:27,958 And then across thousands of miles, 1381 01:27:27,958 --> 01:27:29,833 that person knows what you're thinking about 1382 01:27:29,833 --> 01:27:32,875 and answers you, and it's all mental. 1383 01:27:32,875 --> 01:27:38,666 I'm not that attracted to ambiguity, but I do love it 1384 01:27:38,666 --> 01:27:43,625 when an audience has their own interpretation of a film 1385 01:27:43,625 --> 01:27:46,166 that I've made or that someone else has made. 1386 01:27:46,166 --> 01:27:49,958 And I've always believed that what you bring to a film, 1387 01:27:49,958 --> 01:27:53,666 especially like "The Exorcist", what you bring to it 1388 01:27:53,666 --> 01:27:56,416 is what you are going to take away from it. 1389 01:27:56,416 --> 01:27:59,833 The end did not have to be definitive, 1390 01:27:59,833 --> 01:28:02,541 but it had to be satisfying. 1391 01:28:02,541 --> 01:28:07,500 Many people look at the ending of the film as ambiguous. 1392 01:28:07,500 --> 01:28:12,125 Many people think that the the demon won, 1393 01:28:12,125 --> 01:28:15,875 that Karras and Merrin are dead as a result 1394 01:28:15,875 --> 01:28:19,083 of the possession and exorcism. 1395 01:28:19,083 --> 01:28:21,083 That's not how I approached the film, 1396 01:28:21,083 --> 01:28:22,875 and that isn't my belief. 1397 01:28:35,833 --> 01:28:37,666 No! 1398 01:28:41,083 --> 01:28:46,458 There's a wonderful lyric by Bob Dylan -- 1399 01:28:46,458 --> 01:28:50,166 "While preachers preach of evil fates, 1400 01:28:50,166 --> 01:28:54,166 teachers teach that knowledge waits. 1401 01:28:54,166 --> 01:28:59,041 But goodness stands outside the gates. 1402 01:28:59,041 --> 01:29:05,083 And sometimes even the President of the United States 1403 01:29:05,083 --> 01:29:08,791 must have to stand naked. 1404 01:29:08,791 --> 01:29:11,541 And if my thought dreams could be seen, 1405 01:29:11,541 --> 01:29:14,583 they'd probably put my head in a guillotine, 1406 01:29:14,583 --> 01:29:19,208 but it's all right, ma, I'm only dyin'." 1407 01:29:20,791 --> 01:29:24,875 All of that is at play in this last moment 1408 01:29:24,875 --> 01:29:27,375 of Karras' death. 1409 01:29:27,375 --> 01:29:33,125 Father Karras gives up his life in his mind... 1410 01:29:35,500 --> 01:29:40,500 ...for the life of this child that he's never known at all. 1411 01:29:40,500 --> 01:29:43,416 He knew only the possessed girl, 1412 01:29:43,416 --> 01:29:47,708 and there's a great feeling of sacrifice 1413 01:29:47,708 --> 01:29:52,583 that takes place in that moment, much like Sydney Carton 1414 01:29:52,583 --> 01:29:55,583 in the end of "A Tale of Two Cities." 1415 01:29:55,583 --> 01:29:57,875 It's a far, far better thing I do 1416 01:29:57,875 --> 01:30:00,041 than I have ever done. 1417 01:30:00,041 --> 01:30:06,666 It's a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known. 1418 01:30:06,666 --> 01:30:11,000 The idea of demonic possession and exorcism 1419 01:30:11,000 --> 01:30:16,083 is the idea that the priest calls upon Jesus Christ 1420 01:30:16,083 --> 01:30:20,416 through this ritual to exorcise the demon. 1421 01:30:20,416 --> 01:30:22,541 And the ending of "The Exorcist" 1422 01:30:22,541 --> 01:30:25,625 contradicts what I've just told you. 1423 01:30:25,625 --> 01:30:29,125 It's heard by Chris and Sharon 1424 01:30:29,125 --> 01:30:31,375 in another room in this novel. 1425 01:30:31,375 --> 01:30:34,333 Blatty wrote this entire paragraph 1426 01:30:34,333 --> 01:30:38,166 in order to not deal with the manner 1427 01:30:38,166 --> 01:30:40,375 in which Karras commits suicide. 1428 01:30:40,375 --> 01:30:42,875 We can't cut away. 1429 01:30:42,875 --> 01:30:46,375 We don't cut away from them during the exorcism. 1430 01:30:46,375 --> 01:30:49,541 There's a break in it where we see Chris sitting, 1431 01:30:49,541 --> 01:30:51,125 knitting something. 1432 01:30:51,125 --> 01:30:54,166 But during the exorcism, there could be no cutaways. 1433 01:30:54,166 --> 01:30:57,125 And I said, "Bill, what happened there? 1434 01:30:57,125 --> 01:31:01,166 He went out the window, obviously. How? 1435 01:31:01,166 --> 01:31:02,458 Was he possessed?" 1436 01:31:02,458 --> 01:31:07,708 "No," Bill said. "He wasn't possessed." 1437 01:31:07,708 --> 01:31:11,000 No, he made the conscious decision 1438 01:31:11,000 --> 01:31:13,500 to take himself out the window 1439 01:31:13,500 --> 01:31:17,916 and killing himself with the demon inside him. 1440 01:31:17,916 --> 01:31:21,166 But you're saying to me you want the demon to be gone 1441 01:31:21,166 --> 01:31:22,666 when he goes out the window? 1442 01:31:22,666 --> 01:31:26,208 I said, "But, Bill, that's suicide. 1443 01:31:26,208 --> 01:31:29,625 It's a sin in the Catholic Church." 1444 01:31:29,625 --> 01:31:32,083 Suicide is a sin. 1445 01:31:32,083 --> 01:31:36,666 It was confusing then, it's confusing now. 1446 01:31:36,666 --> 01:31:40,500 First of all, I find it improbable that a character 1447 01:31:40,500 --> 01:31:44,166 could call upon the devil to enter him or her. 1448 01:31:44,166 --> 01:31:48,083 The devil does what the devil wants to do. 1449 01:31:48,083 --> 01:31:49,333 I'm Damien Karras. 1450 01:31:49,333 --> 01:31:50,750 And I'm the devil. 1451 01:31:50,750 --> 01:31:53,583 Now kindly undo these straps. 1452 01:31:53,583 --> 01:31:56,458 If you're the devil, why not make those straps disappear? 1453 01:31:56,458 --> 01:31:59,791 That's much too vulgar a display of power, Karras. 1454 01:32:07,875 --> 01:32:09,375 Did you do that? 1455 01:32:09,375 --> 01:32:13,083 Ah-uhm... 1456 01:32:16,625 --> 01:32:17,875 Do it again. 1457 01:32:17,875 --> 01:32:20,708 - In time. - No, now. 1458 01:32:20,708 --> 01:32:22,833 In time. 1459 01:32:22,833 --> 01:32:25,625 If you look at the scene and analyze it, 1460 01:32:25,625 --> 01:32:28,958 the demon enters Karras 1461 01:32:28,958 --> 01:32:32,791 because Karras invites it to come in, 1462 01:32:32,791 --> 01:32:35,416 and he's beating up this little girl, 1463 01:32:35,416 --> 01:32:37,166 which is an evil act. 1464 01:32:37,166 --> 01:32:39,833 You specifically see that he says... 1465 01:32:39,833 --> 01:32:41,458 Come into me! 1466 01:32:41,458 --> 01:32:44,958 Goddamn you, take me! 1467 01:32:44,958 --> 01:32:47,125 Take me! 1468 01:32:47,125 --> 01:32:51,750 Merrin would never do what Karras does, had he lived. 1469 01:32:51,750 --> 01:32:55,208 Grab the demon and say, "Take me, come in to me." 1470 01:32:55,208 --> 01:32:58,916 That was not in Merrin's wheelhouse. 1471 01:32:58,916 --> 01:33:01,125 He's got his hands around her throat, 1472 01:33:01,125 --> 01:33:05,291 as Blatty suggests in the novel, and she rips 1473 01:33:05,291 --> 01:33:07,958 the St. Joseph medal off of his neck. 1474 01:33:07,958 --> 01:33:10,916 Karras looks out the windows, 1475 01:33:10,916 --> 01:33:13,458 which are open, and the curtains are blowing. 1476 01:33:13,458 --> 01:33:16,250 He sees the face of his mother. 1477 01:33:16,250 --> 01:33:18,791 It's a two or three frame cut, 1478 01:33:18,791 --> 01:33:22,250 which is not in the book, which Blatty questioned, 1479 01:33:22,250 --> 01:33:26,666 but ultimately went along with, with the idea 1480 01:33:26,666 --> 01:33:32,083 that perhaps he thinks he's going to join his mother 1481 01:33:32,083 --> 01:33:33,958 in the afterlife. 1482 01:33:33,958 --> 01:33:37,541 And at that moment, you see for a split second 1483 01:33:37,541 --> 01:33:41,833 his features change and become demonic 1484 01:33:41,833 --> 01:33:46,458 and sees his hands about to go around the little girl's neck 1485 01:33:46,458 --> 01:33:48,875 to strangle her to death, 1486 01:33:48,875 --> 01:33:51,750 which is probably the demonic impulse. 1487 01:33:51,750 --> 01:33:54,375 And then they unchange. 1488 01:33:54,375 --> 01:33:56,000 The demon is not in him, 1489 01:33:56,000 --> 01:33:58,791 and specifically at Blatty's request. 1490 01:33:58,791 --> 01:34:03,541 And most people don't see or even get that 1491 01:34:03,541 --> 01:34:07,041 we go back to Karras as Karras. 1492 01:34:07,041 --> 01:34:14,791 I would have kept the demon features on Karras throughout, 1493 01:34:14,791 --> 01:34:20,708 and Bill said, "No, you have to go back to Karras' own features 1494 01:34:20,708 --> 01:34:23,916 in the act of yelling 'No' so that he makes 1495 01:34:23,916 --> 01:34:26,541 the conscious decision to do it. 1496 01:34:26,541 --> 01:34:29,708 Otherwise, it's the demon that has triumphed." 1497 01:34:29,708 --> 01:34:34,083 But it isn't even clear to me as I sit here 1498 01:34:34,083 --> 01:34:36,750 why in the hell that happens. 1499 01:34:36,750 --> 01:34:40,375 I defy anybody watching this to tell me 1500 01:34:40,375 --> 01:34:42,083 what they make of that scene, 1501 01:34:42,083 --> 01:34:44,375 if they really look at it and study it. 1502 01:34:44,375 --> 01:34:48,500 Why the demon decides to pay attention to Karras, 1503 01:34:48,500 --> 01:34:52,291 leave the little girl and go into him is a question. 1504 01:34:52,291 --> 01:34:56,333 But then I believe that the entire possession 1505 01:34:56,333 --> 01:35:01,000 of the little girl is directed at Karras' weakness 1506 01:35:01,000 --> 01:35:05,000 and potential loss of faith. 1507 01:35:05,000 --> 01:35:08,875 Are we to say that he regained his faith 1508 01:35:08,875 --> 01:35:12,083 in that final moment with the demon? 1509 01:35:12,083 --> 01:35:15,625 That's what Blatty is trying to say. 1510 01:35:15,625 --> 01:35:19,541 He confesses his sins in the moment of his death 1511 01:35:19,541 --> 01:35:21,625 to his friend Father Dyer, 1512 01:35:21,625 --> 01:35:25,000 and is thus forgiven in the Catholic faith. 1513 01:35:25,000 --> 01:35:27,625 But it is a sin. 1514 01:35:27,625 --> 01:35:31,583 I think if there's a weakness in "The Exorcist", it's that. 1515 01:35:31,583 --> 01:35:33,791 I had no alternative, 1516 01:35:33,791 --> 01:35:37,083 so I shot it the way he explained it to me. 1517 01:35:37,083 --> 01:35:40,583 The moment is a compromise. 1518 01:35:40,583 --> 01:35:45,541 It's not often as a director that I've had to film something 1519 01:35:45,541 --> 01:35:47,916 that I didn't completely understand. 1520 01:35:47,916 --> 01:35:51,500 In fact, but that's the only instance I can give you. 1521 01:35:51,500 --> 01:35:54,500 To me, it's a flaw. 1522 01:35:54,500 --> 01:35:59,416 It's like scars in fine leather. 1523 01:35:59,416 --> 01:36:04,416 Bill, who I love and respect and love like a brother, 1524 01:36:04,416 --> 01:36:07,000 and he gave me this magnificent work 1525 01:36:07,000 --> 01:36:10,000 that he wrote to realize as a film, 1526 01:36:10,000 --> 01:36:13,208 but he was never able to come to terms 1527 01:36:13,208 --> 01:36:16,708 with that penultimate moment in "The Exorcist", 1528 01:36:16,708 --> 01:36:18,166 and neither was I. 1529 01:36:18,166 --> 01:36:21,833 I can't defend that scene. 1530 01:36:21,833 --> 01:36:23,666 Doesn't appear to have been a problem 1531 01:36:23,666 --> 01:36:27,583 for the millions of people who've seen the film. 1532 01:36:27,583 --> 01:36:30,958 They accept what we showed. 1533 01:36:30,958 --> 01:36:36,458 It asks for a total leap of faith 1534 01:36:36,458 --> 01:36:38,625 on the part of the audience. 1535 01:36:45,916 --> 01:36:51,333 I went to Kyoto many years ago when "The Exorcist" opened. 1536 01:36:53,208 --> 01:36:57,500 When you come in to Kyoto, it's just another industrial city. 1537 01:36:57,500 --> 01:37:00,500 It looks like Long Beach, California. 1538 01:37:00,500 --> 01:37:03,416 There's nothing of any note until you get to 1539 01:37:03,416 --> 01:37:08,666 the Walled City, which contains 11th century 1540 01:37:08,666 --> 01:37:13,500 and even earlier palaces and homes. 1541 01:37:13,500 --> 01:37:21,166 And it's like a time capsule of centuries ago. 1542 01:37:21,166 --> 01:37:25,375 And people had told me that you must see the Zen garden. 1543 01:37:25,375 --> 01:37:30,125 Well, what the hell, I thought, was the Zen garden? 1544 01:37:30,125 --> 01:37:34,666 I go there, and there's a piece of land, 1545 01:37:34,666 --> 01:37:39,416 and it's a sea of combed sand. 1546 01:37:39,416 --> 01:37:44,208 And on it are several rocks. 1547 01:37:44,208 --> 01:37:51,708 Each of the rocks is placed somewhere on this sea of sand. 1548 01:37:51,708 --> 01:37:56,041 And there's some benches around it where people can sit down, 1549 01:37:56,041 --> 01:38:01,125 and they're there to contemplate the Zen garden. 1550 01:38:01,125 --> 01:38:02,958 And I sat down. 1551 01:38:02,958 --> 01:38:06,583 There were maybe only 20 people there. 1552 01:38:06,583 --> 01:38:09,000 They were very quiet. 1553 01:38:09,000 --> 01:38:12,500 And I thought, "What is this? 1554 01:38:12,500 --> 01:38:18,000 It's a bunch of rocks placed on a sea of combed sand." 1555 01:38:18,000 --> 01:38:23,625 And now, if you give yourself to it, this is what happened. 1556 01:38:25,666 --> 01:38:27,416 I'm looking at this thing 1557 01:38:27,416 --> 01:38:31,708 and trying to figure out what is the attraction. 1558 01:38:31,708 --> 01:38:33,458 Why is it so famous? 1559 01:38:33,458 --> 01:38:39,083 Nobody knows when those rocks were put there or by whom. 1560 01:38:39,083 --> 01:38:43,458 So that begins to occupy your mind. 1561 01:38:43,458 --> 01:38:46,833 The next thing you realize is these rocks 1562 01:38:46,833 --> 01:38:52,208 are like separate continents that will never come together. 1563 01:38:52,208 --> 01:38:56,958 They will always live separately like that. 1564 01:38:56,958 --> 01:39:00,875 Like the continents of Earth. 1565 01:39:00,875 --> 01:39:07,750 And then you begin to realize they're also like people. 1566 01:39:07,750 --> 01:39:11,125 Like families living alone. 1567 01:39:11,125 --> 01:39:15,166 And then you start to realize 1568 01:39:15,166 --> 01:39:20,750 that this is human nature, that we are all here alone. 1569 01:39:20,750 --> 01:39:25,500 No matter how close we are to family or friends, 1570 01:39:25,500 --> 01:39:29,000 we are in this world alone. 1571 01:39:29,000 --> 01:39:31,500 And I wasn't there for -- 1572 01:39:31,500 --> 01:39:35,000 it's happening to me now just talking about it. 1573 01:39:35,000 --> 01:39:41,083 I wasn't there for 15 minutes before I started to cry. 1574 01:39:41,083 --> 01:39:44,666 The tears started to roll down my cheeks. 1575 01:39:44,666 --> 01:39:49,958 I was so profoundly moved by this simple image 1576 01:39:49,958 --> 01:39:54,333 that indicated the separateness 1577 01:39:54,333 --> 01:39:58,375 with which all of us live from each other. 1578 01:40:00,958 --> 01:40:04,916 It has moved me to this day. 1579 01:40:06,458 --> 01:40:10,166 I'll never forget that experience of Kyoto. 1580 01:40:10,166 --> 01:40:14,583 And I'm anxious to have it again. 1581 01:40:14,583 --> 01:40:17,000 It was probably over 40 years ago 1582 01:40:17,000 --> 01:40:19,541 that I've been there, but there's not a day goes by 1583 01:40:19,541 --> 01:40:23,291 that I don't have images of that experience. 1584 01:40:25,666 --> 01:40:29,041 You know, I've been all over the world, 1585 01:40:29,041 --> 01:40:32,791 and the grace note for me is the little Zen garden, 1586 01:40:32,791 --> 01:40:36,041 a garden of nothing but combed sand and stone.