How good a director was/is William Friedkin? There was a moment there in the early 70s when he was one of the most sought-after in the business, coming off two big hits. He failed to repeat that success in any way shape or form - he's tried to make tough commercial films again (Sorcerer, To Live and Die in LA and Rules of Engagement were meant for broad audiences) but has failed.
I think part of the reason - and this is hindsight of course - is that he follows his instincts and his instincts are often bad. To his credit Friedkin freely admits this in the book - he turned down a chance to produce Star Wars, returned gifted art works from Basquiat, would have made a number of dumb decisions on both The French Connection and The Exorcist had he not been reigned in by his producers (Phil d'Antonioni who made the former really shot up in my estimation after reading this book).
Still he had passion and drive - as well as a quite amazing ability to get powerful people to sponsor/support him: he was picked up early as a star client by the William Morris Agency, benefited from the patronage of Sidney Korshak, was given some top rate early projects (eg The Night They Raided Minsky's) on the basis of what he admits was an undeserved reputation, had Phillip d'Antonioni champion him for The French Connection for no real god reason, then later in life managed to hook and marry Sherry Lansing, which helped get him big budget studio gigs in the 90s.
And lots of his movies do have energy and definitely move. They're also a really varied, interesting bunch, with some real stinkers (eg Deal of the Century), a lot of flawed cult classics (eg Sorcerer), gutsy play adaptations and in your face gay dramas.
Friedkin is pleasingly candid about his flaws - rampaging ego, megalomaniac tendencies, pushing the boundaries of occupational health and safety, intense passion. He is unfortunately coy about his private life which made his section of Easy Riders, Raging Bulls such fun to read - there is no mention of Kitty Hawks, Jennifer Nairn-Smith, Lesley Ann Downe, Kelly Lange or Jeanne Moreau ("the loves of William Friedkin" could be a book on his own).
Nonetheless this was a highly entertaining, fascinating book. It talks a lot about his two big hits but there's plenty of other stuff in there too - the hey-lets-just-make-it-up shenanigans of Good Times, the struggles of The Boys in the Band, the passion project that was The Birthday Party, the antics of Cruising, rediscovering joy of cinema by working with Tracy Letts. Friedkin seems like a bit of a dick but he has a go, and he's written a good memoir.
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