Streaming Quick Picks: William Friedkin

Streaming Quick Picks: William Friedkin

On Friday, September 12, the UW Cinematheque begins its six weeks long series of films directed by William Friedkin, starting with the Oscar-winning The French Connection (1971). Friedkin’s career has had its ups and downs—you know as much when you read the word “underrated” more than once on the UW Cinematheque Friedkin series page. But he’s certainly one reason people regard the 1970s to be the most interesting decade in Hollywood filmmaking, and four of the six films in the Cinematheque series are from the 1970s. His career extends beyond the 1970s, however, and below we provide links to streaming and DVD resources for those who want to follow up with his earlier and later work. Note that one of his films from the 1970s, The Brink’s Job (1978) is not currently easy to find on home video (you can order it as an on-demand DVD-R from Amazon), so mark the Cinematheque’s 35mm screening on September 19 on your calendar.

As I assembled these links I was actually surprised how busy Friedkin has been in recent years (I focused on his feature film work and excluded his work on television). If you watch the extras on the French Connection Blu-ray where he sits down with the color correction team, it seems like he has a lot of time on his hands. But his most recent feature, Killer Joe (2012), fared reasonably well with the critics and he still has enough clout to release a Director’s Cut. His highest Tomatometer rating is 100% for The Boys in the Band (1970), and his lowest is a firm 0% for Good Times (1967), the Sonny and Cher vehicle (personally, I’m more curious about the latter). He turned Gene Hackman into a major star with The French Connection, but pretty much ended the feature film leading man career of David Caruso with Jade (1995). And while some still praise The Boys in the Band as a breakthrough in the mainstream representation of homosexuality, Cruising (1980) remains controversial for its portrayal of the gay S&M community (both films have been re-evaluated in recent years). The 1990s seemed to be his toughest decade, but even then he fared well with his remake of 12 Angry Men (1997). Perhaps examining all of the films, along with the UW Cinematheque series, will lead you to decide whether Friedkin is an auteur with a personal touch or a journeyman who knows how to work within the Hollywood system.

I did not include The Guardian (1990) because I could not find a local DVD source (Four Star Video Cooperative or Madison Public Library), but those with a Netflix DVD subscription should be able to rent it. The rest of the list again demonstrates that one should not be dependent on Netflix streaming to explore what is available. Only three of the titles below are available to stream on Netflix, and none of them would be a good starting point for your Friedkin retrospective (but one of them would be a good starting point for your Shaquille O’Neil retrospective).

Update 9/10/14: Here is a pretty good career overview interview with William Friedkin recently posted at the Mick Garris Interviews YouTube channel.