1995 - JADE, a sleezy sex thriller

William Friedkin, a director who is challenged to control his over the top impulses takes on a script by sleazy writer Joe Eszterhas.  Friedkin apparently did an uncredited rewrite which apparently didn't make Eszterhas very happy.  I'm not sure Friedkin improved on it much but I will assume the sex titillation stuff was in both versions of the script.

This was a big expensive Paramount studio production.  The on location photography and the sets could not have been cheap.  The film also has one of Friedkin's famous car chases and I'm sure crashing cars around San Francisco wasn't cheap either.

Say what you want, but the film is well made.  Friedkin knows how to assemble a film.  He just seems to have some issues with his tendency for excess which seems to be a running theme in a lot of his films.

I guess if you are feeling in a " I want to watch something kind of slimy" mood.  Jade will probably deliver the goods.  The film is under 2 hours which is a selling point.  A little of this stuff goes a very long way.

95 minutes.

1985 - TO LIVE AND DIE IN LA - a tough crime thriller

Tough guy director William Friedkin tries for that old French Connection magic again with this sordid tale of a couple of Secret Service agents tracking down a dangerous counterfeiter.

Friedkin probably could do this type of film in his sleep.  He has another exciting car chase and lots of action to keep things moving along.  The cast at the time this film came out was mostly unknown actors which helped with the realism of the film.  This was similar to what Friedkin did in The French Connection, using Gene Hackman who at the time of that film was relatively unknown.

The film was photographed by Robby Müller who frequently worked with German director Wim Wenders and independent film maker Jim Jarmusch.  Müller gave the movie a real Los Angeles "look."  

People who enjoy cop movies should enjoy this one.

116 minutes, written by William Friedkin and Gerald Petievich.

2003 - THE HUNTED - a pretty good thriller from William Friedkin

A pretty decent "crazy psycho war vet on the run" film from William Friedkin who actually manages to restrain himself from his own excesses. 

Tommy Lee Jones is the guy who trains special ops soldiers for secret missions, Benico del Toro is one of his soldiers who turns out to be a nutcase who runs around killing deer hunters in northwest Oregon because he can.  It's mano a mano with some pretty tough fight scenes between the two of them.

For a director who never met an excess that he wouldn't put on film this is a fairly restrained film considering how violent it is.  The action is tough but realistic, and there are no apparent over done special effects with computer imagery.  Connie Nielsen is the hot looking FBI agent assigned to the case but Friedkin is having none of that lovely dovey stuff in his film.

The film is a fast moving hour and a half.

94 minutes.

1971 - THE FRENCH CONNECTION, classic cop thriller still holds up.

I didn't particularly care for The French Connection when it came out in 1971.  But  I will have to admit re watching this film on Blu-Ray impressed my quite a bit.  It definitely set the standard for the crime thriller going forward.

The documentary like photography of early 1970's New York, particularly Brooklyn in all it's seedy glory  and the standout performances of Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider are two of the best things in the film.

The French Connection was the breakout film that William Friedkin had been looking for.  His decision to shoot it like a documentary really paid off.  The other important decision in the film was the insistence of the producer Philp D'Antoni that Friedkin add a car chase to the film.

 Friedkin has always had the reputation of a "bad boy" film director.  Apparently Hackman had more then a few run ins with the director.  The antagonism between Hackman and Friedkin probably helped Hackman stay in character, as asshole detective "Popeye" Doyle.

104 minutes, written by Ernest Tidyman.

2006 - BUG, horror film from Friedkin,

You get what you get from a film directed by bad boy William Friedkin.  Bug has something to do with everyone's favorite character the "deranged war veteran" hooking up with a white trash waitress working at a southwestern lesbian bar.  The film evolves into a horror/black comedy as the crazed veteran projects his nutty vision that aphids planted by the United States government are crawling around inside him.  Eventually the waitress ends up acting as crazy as he is. 

Friedkin has seemed to find his soul mate in the playwright and screenwriter Tracy Letts who takes an already crazed situation and ramps it up with lots of loony theories about the government, lesbian girlfriends, cocaine and a crappy southwest motel setting that wouldn't have been out of place in Hitchcock's Psycho.

The picture above gives you an idea of what you're getting in for when you watch this film.  I suppose if you are in the mood for one of these extreme films where the director lards on the violence, crazy dialog and over the top performances you can get a kick out of this film.  I wasn't in the mood this time.  

Since the commercial success of the Exorcist, Friedkin has seemed to think that these over the top stories have a potential for commercial success.  On the other hand maybe Friedkin is just attracted to this type of material.  Who knows, who cares.

102 minutes, written by Tracy Letts.

1980 - CRUSING, Al Pacino great performance but can't hold the film together

102Al Pacino an undercover cop looking for a serial killer in the gay S&M New York City scene of the late 1970's.  Pacino definitely goes for it and takes it out about as far as a big time Hollywood actor ever would in a role like this.

Cruising was directed by William Friedkin a notorious director.  Friedkin's films are pretty strong, he directed The French Connection and The Exorcist.  On the set he's tough on the actors and the crew.  For Cruising, Frieidkin also wrote the screenplay and that's where the film runs into big trouble.  The murder mystery becomes completely unfocused and the screenplay spins off in so many directions that it finally brings this interesting film down.

Friedkin has so many sub plots that he starts and drops, it finally harms the main focus of the film, the search for the serial killer.  It's almost like he couldn't stay focused on what he wanted his film to be. 

Pacino doesn't have any such problem, he builds his character of the sexually conflicted cop carefully from clueless undercover officer to a guy who starts to embrace the gay scene.

Friedkin and Pacino pushed the limits of this R rated film about as far as the general public could probably have actually handled it.  The film contains no real hard core stuff but also not a whole lot left to the imagination.  A sleazy film in many ways but there does seem to be an effort made to show the gay lifestyle in somewhat of a sympathetic light.

I have no idea if this is even a remotely realistic depiction of the gay bar scene in New York around the late 1970's,  but you have to give Al Pacino full credit for this great performance.  Pacino's acting in Cruising is a real contrast from his over top craziness as a cop in Heat.

102 minutes.

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