The Exorcist - 1973 and 2023 -- Ellen Burstyn commands the screen
By Moira Jean Sullivan
The Exorcist made in 1973 is a classic because its construction commands new audiences ever since its conception by William Friedkin. The film initially was about a professor Chris MacNeil who wants to help her students who are sitting out and missing classes because of a bad university administration. She has a daughter who has become possessed. The film establishes the point of contact from an evil spirit in Northern Iraq that Father Merrin (played by Max von Sydow) out on a dig has gotten mixed up with and he is a presence that the evil spirit fears. Somehow the spirit makes its way to Georgetown and possesses Regan (Linda Blair). Ellen Burstyn plays her mother beset with grief in trying to fix her daughter and enlists the help of Roman Catholic priests who live close by their home. As a famous actress she asks the priests to heal her daughter and she's magnificent in this role. She implores them to conduct an exorcism which requires special permission from Rome for its execution. As Regan's mother she is not allowed in the room while the exorcism is conducted so she doesn't really know what they've done but we've seen what they've done with holy water and chanting from the Bible as they make their way through this exorcism ritual.
In 2023 a sequel to the film was released Exorcist Believer even though there's been several mostly which focus on the possessed Regan by Linda Blair who was chosen out of 600 young women for The Exorcist. Two girls, Angela and Katherine, go on a walk in the woods and come back three days later, though they claim they’ve only been lost for a couple of hours. Their behavior starts to manifest itself as it did with Regan and Chris MacNeil is called in to help. Katherine’s parents are concerned with restoring the faith of their good Christian daughter.
Why this film doesn't work although it's great that Ellen Burstyn is in it and Linda Blair who makes a cameo guest appearance, is that there are just too many characters. It would have been enough with the father of Angela (Lidya Jewett) (Leslie Odom Jr) whose wife died in Haiti during an earthquake in which the possession took place, which was already enough. But not another girl with parallels between Christianity and African spirit religion made by director David Gordon Green. An African spirit religion priestess prepares rituals with sacred drawings in chalk for the entrance of the gods where the two girls are strapped to a chair so that they can't move. The Catholic priest that was called on to do this gets afraid but fortunately we have an ex-nun Ann Brooks played by Ann Dowd who broke her vows who's just fabulous, but she doesn't stay the whole ritual as Father Merrin does and Father Damien Karras who assists So, it's not as powerful and all this mixing of religious concepts is confusing. The characters back out or can’t commit themselves. It's no fault of the girls. They do a great job as usual. The possessed usually manage to wing it through but it's great to see Ellen Burstyn again and too bad that it wasn't a film where she is equally cast with Linda Blair.
Movie Magazine International
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