The Friedkin Connection: A Memoir Paperback – April 1, 2014

I bought this book in preparation of seeing a lecture/book signing by the author at San Francisco's International Film Festival. Quite honestly, my initial motivation was so I can say something smart upon meeting him. But I was really sold browsing the book online and seeing some interesting tidbits.Friedkin Connection is a must read for movie buffs, especially for fans of the Exorcist or French Connection. The book is highly entertaining, however it has its flaws.The Good Parts:Friedkin (or perhaps his editor) is a great story teller. The writing is concise, clear and to do the point. It's packed with numerous vignettes and stories that are engaging, funny, informative that you can later retell at parties.Friedkin seems honest and the book is filled with countless episodes of mea-culpas. He comes across even-handed at retelling his side of the story by taking both the blame and credit. That said, the book comes across as a medium for him to set the records straight.The book is rather inspirational despite author's career not ending on a high note. It makes you feel with hard work, talent and quite a bit of good luck or mercy from the "Gods", as he calls it, you can do anything, even win the Oscars.The book reads a bit like a movie/documentary treatment. Reading it you can get a sense of his imagination and his story-telling abilities.The book's metaphors and lessons in life not only serves people well in the movie industry, but it has many parallels in my world of startups as well and I can't recommend it enough. Startups are filled with egos, and hubris and the process of making a movie from dealing with producers to talents and creative people is rather similar to what we deal with in startup community. Many times I had flashback to my work.It's informative on many aspects of directing and readers will take away valuable lessons from a battle-tested director. Sometimes you learn more from mistakes than successes and Friedkin sure has made his share of them and it's all out there to learn from.The book is filled with many gems. His meeting with then a young Barry Diller is both hilarious and tragic. Inside stories about Exorcist will give you goosebumps if you're easily spooked like me. Missing out on some amazing opportunities and his casting woes with Sorcerer can be the trace of the beginning of his end are just a few to name.The Not so Good Parts:My chief complaint with the book is that it's informative and entertaining without being revealing. Reading it you hope to get a sense for the director and feel like you've known him for a while. The book is filled with many interesting factoids. The kind you can probably find on IMDB's trivia section or wikipedia entries. You don't walk away understanding the inner demons that led to his demise. Nor are able to understand his genius-which he truly is!The book reads like a documentary where the filmmaker doesn't really turn the camera on himself. It seems like Friedkin might have gotten the same feedback by his editors or trusted friends and as a response added the final chapter, "REEL TWELVE" only as an afterthought where he finally opens up. Its only at the very last couple of pages, when you feel like the book is changing tone from a distant author to someone who is sitting across from you and is having an intimate talk with you.Mr. Friedkin's life can be a modern Greek tragedy of early success followed by a destructive hubris and a realization that comes too little too late. With a touch more introspection and intimacy this modern tragedy can become alive and it can turn this rather entertaining book into an instant classic. Unlike movies, he doesn't need the blessing of studio executives to remake his memoir. Perhaps it could be the redemption he has been seeking.

I enjoyed reading this book very much. William Friedkin explores how some of his important films were made, how he cast the actors, his method of directing, etc. I was surprised that some of his works that I respect (such as Sorcerer and To Live and Die in L.A.) were financial flops. On the opposite end The French Connection and The Exorcist were great critical and commercial successes. Friedkin has a quick mind and superb memory, he also knows history of studio filmmakers and talks about various movie figures. There is also personal information about his life and family but mostly this book is an insight into his film making. The writing style is like a sit down conversation with the man. Easy going and at times self deprecating. After reading this I reran the movies I own of his and got more from my local library. I have the utmost respect for him.

I'm enjoying this memoir by my favorite director, William Friedkin. It's very informative about some of the best films ever made: The Exorcist, French Connection, Killer Joe, To Live and Die in L.A., and Sorcerer.

I thought this was a great memoir. Friedkin writes well. He keeps a good pace and rhythm. Reading it was effortless and kept me up until dawn two nights in a row.Not that I'd would've wanted to hang out with him (or he me!). Unpredictably explosive people make me nervous. But I loved his honesty. He admits to being difficult, having a bad temper, being arrogant, thinking he could do no wrong.I adored his beginnings in Chicago because I grew up in Chicago. It's always fun to read about people and places you know. I went to school with Red Quinlan's daughter, etc. I was riveted to the entire story of his first documentary (Crump). (By the way, Friedkin refers to the Chicago police habit in the 60's to beat confessions out of people. I dated a Chicago cop briefly in the late 90's. He told me they beat up prisoners - black prisoners specifically - for no reason at all. I stopped dating him. Of course there are good Chicago cops, but such treatment hasn't stopped as far as I know. Not to be incendiary or anything.)It was great fun to read about behind the scenes of The French Connection and The Exorcist. I was surprised to know he directed operas. He made that interesting, too, although it's not something I'm into.I liked that he eventually was willing to re-evaluate the portions of The Exorcist that he edited out, which Blatty was upset about for decades although I agreed with Friedkin's original take on it and don't think adding in those parts help the movie. To each his own. But it's a great thing to be less rigid.Highly recommended.