- Feb 5, 2002
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FILM ANALYSIS: ‘The dragon went elsewhere to make war on the rest of her children.’
Fifty years after its release, the director of The Exorcist died.
At the time of the making of the horror movie, William Friedkin was a self-confessed secular Jew. By his death at the age of 87, it was reported that he “strongly believe[d] in the teachings of Jesus.”
Cinema is often strangely prophetic.
Films appear to come from nowhere and yet eerily predict — or usher in — the future, manifesting whatever spirit of the age is moving.
Consider the rash of horror movies that both heralded and ran in parallel with Germany’s Weimar Republic. They seemed to point to a greater horror hovering in the wings: one clutching a swastika. In the 1960s, Psycho (1960) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962), with their themes of mindless murder and assassination, seemed to foreshadow the darkest currents then swirling around American society and which would by the end of the decade move mainstream.
If this is the case when it comes to certain movies, what are we to make of the timing of The Exorcist?
Continued below.
www.ncregister.com
Fifty years after its release, the director of The Exorcist died.
At the time of the making of the horror movie, William Friedkin was a self-confessed secular Jew. By his death at the age of 87, it was reported that he “strongly believe[d] in the teachings of Jesus.”
Cinema is often strangely prophetic.
Films appear to come from nowhere and yet eerily predict — or usher in — the future, manifesting whatever spirit of the age is moving.
Consider the rash of horror movies that both heralded and ran in parallel with Germany’s Weimar Republic. They seemed to point to a greater horror hovering in the wings: one clutching a swastika. In the 1960s, Psycho (1960) and The Manchurian Candidate (1962), with their themes of mindless murder and assassination, seemed to foreshadow the darkest currents then swirling around American society and which would by the end of the decade move mainstream.
If this is the case when it comes to certain movies, what are we to make of the timing of The Exorcist?
Continued below.
‘Not Against Flesh and Blood’: 50 Years of ‘The Exorcist’
FILM ANALYSIS: ‘The dragon went elsewhere to make war on the rest of her children.’
