Exorcist II: The Heretic
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| Exorcist II: The Heretic | |
|---|---|
 US movie poster |
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| Directed by | John Boorman |
| Produced by | John Boorman Richard Lederer |
| Written by | John Boorman (uncredited) William Goodhart Rospo Pallenberg (uncredited) |
| Starring | Linda Blair Richard Burton Louise Fletcher Max von Sydow Kitty Winn Paul Henreid |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
| Release date(s) | June 17, 1977 (USA) |
| Running time | 118 min. (theatrical release) 110 min. (recut version) |
| Language | English |
| Budget | US$17,500,000 (estimated) |
Exorcist II: The Heretic is a 1977 American horror film and the sequel to the 1973 film The Exorcist. It was directed by John Boorman who also co-wrote the screenplay with William Goodhart from an original story by Rospo Pallenberg. The author of the original, William Peter Blatty was not involved in the production, and received credit only for creation of the characters.
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[edit] Plot summary
Richard Burton stars as exorcist Father Philip Lamont in John Boorman's sequel to The Exorcist. The cleric, who is struggling with his faith, is assigned by the Archbishop to investigate the death of Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow), who was killed in the course of exorcising the Assyrian demon Pazuzu from Regan MacNeil (Linda Blair). While Lamont, who's had some experience at exorcism, thinks of Merrin as a saint, he is actually up on posthumous heresy charges. Some Church authorities are not sure the exorcism should have been performed (even though it was officially approved by the local Bishop). Merrin’s writings are considered very controversial. Apparently Church authorities are trying to modernize and don't want to acknowledge that Satan (in terms of an actual evil entity) exists.
Although now seemingly normal and staying with guardian Sharon Spencer (Kitty Winn) while her mother is on location, Regan continues to be monitored at a psychiatric institute by Dr. Jean Tuskin (Louise Fletcher). She claims she remembers nothing, but Tuskin believes her memories are only buried or repressed. In an attempt to plumb her memories of the exorcism, specifically the circumstances in which Merrin died, Dr. Tuskin has hypnotized the girl, to whom she is linked by a "synchronizer" -- apparently a kind of biofeedback device that is used by two people to synchronize their brainwaves. Tuskin finds herself telepathically "witnessing" Regan's memory of the event. She is so overcome that Lamont has to rescue her.
After a tour of the Georgetown house where the exorcism took place, Lamont returns to be coupled with Regan by synchronizer. The priest is spirited to the past by Pazuzu to observe Father Merrin exorcising a young boy, Kokumo (Joey Green), in Africa. Learning that the boy developed special powers to fight Pazuzu, who appears as a swarm of locusts, Lamont journeys to Africa, defying his superior, to seek help from the adult Kokumo (James Earl Jones).
Lamont learns that the reason Pazuzu attacks certain people is that those people all have some form of psychic ability, or in some way helped others. The exorcism he himself performed was for a Mexican lady who said she "healed the sick". Kokumo has become a scientist, studying how to prevent locust swarms from attacking native crops. Regan, possibly taking a cue from her experience with the synchronizer, is able to reach telepathically inside the minds of others; she uses this to help an autistic girl to speak, for instance. Father Merrin belonged to a group of theologians who believed that psychic powers were a spiritual gift which would one day be shared by all humanity in a kind of global consciousness (akin to the ideas of Teilhard de Chardin, on whom Blatty originally based Merrin's character); he thought people like Kokumo and Regan were foreshadowers of this new type of humanity. In a vision, Merrin asks Lamont to watch over Regan.
For some reason, this necessitates Lamont and Regan returning to the old house in Georgetown where she was possessed. The pair are followed by Tuskin and Sharon, concerned about Regan's safety. En route, Pazuzu tempts Lamont (and apparently Sharon) by offering them unlimited power. Lamont resists and continues with his original plan. In the house, a swarm of locusts deluge the pair. Pazuzu appears as a kind of tarted-up version of Regan herself, and Lamont has to resist this temptation as well -- by cutting out her heart. Once he's done this, Regan banishes the locusts (and, one assumes, Pazuzu) by enacting the same ritual used by Kokumo to get rid of locusts in Africa. Outside the house, Sharon is apparently possessed by Pazuzu, but kills herself. Tuskin gives Regan's legal guardianship to Lamont and remains at the house to answer police questions.
[edit] Production notes
Exorcist II: The Heretic, the much-anticipated sequel to one of the most financially successful films in Hollywood history was the most expensive film produced by Warner Bros. at the time. Director Boorman contacted William O'Malley to reprise his role as Fr. Dyer from the first film (in the part that became Fr. Lamont); however, O'Malley was busy and could not take up the part. Boorman then chose Richard Burton, and the character of Fr. Dyer was changed to Fr. Lamont.
The film ended up becoming one of the most notorious commercial failures ever released. Because reports indicated that the film inspired audience laughter at its premiere (Blatty confessed in interviews that he laughed at the premiere: "You'd think we were watching The Producers"[citation needed]), prints were hastily pulled from release and quickly recut by Boorman in an attempt to make the film's narrative more comprehensible. The revised version fared no better (some critics commented that Boorman's restructuring made the film even more incoherent) and was the only version of the film available for many years, until the release on videocassette of the original cut in the early 1990s.
[edit] The alternate version
Boorman's re-edit of the movie has the following differences to the original cut:
- A faster reworking of the opening theme is featured, with a bass rhythm similar to that in Richard Burton's stoning scene.
- An introduction with narration by Burton and stills from both movies is shown; a shot of Burton climbing the steps to the chapel in the opening exorcism scene is added as well.
- In that opening scene, Burton's momentary prayer to Father Merrin and the touching of Merrin's picture is cut out.
- Generally, scenes are switched about so that all of those at the Institute are together and those with Burton alone are together. This is probably because they realized that the first two scenes at the Institute feature everyone wearing the same clothing, even though the original cut indicated that they took place days apart.
- The first scene with Linda Blair practicing her tap-dancing is cut out.
- Just about all of the first conversation between Burton and the Cardinal is cut out; only the very beginning and ending are shown.
- During the hypnosis scene, Burton’s line of “I know where she is” in reference to the palpitating Fletcher is cut out, since the next thing he says is “help me to find her”.
- Instances in which Burton voices his fascination with the demon Pazuzu are cut out: his line of “horrible…and fascinating” is cut to just “horrible”, and a later conversation with Louise Fletcher is cut short also, with Fletcher's line “You're obsessed with the idea” dubbed over the original “How about adulation?” as she storms away.
- More voice-overs of “We're going flying” and such are added to Blair's dream about Africa as she wanders to the edge of the roof.
- A couple of lines are edited out of the scene where Blair talks with the autistic girl and the girl's mother walks into the room.
- The Communion scene in the mountaintop church is almost entirely cut out, as is part of Burton’s explanation for knowing the location of the missing body a few minutes later.
- Lots of snippets are cut out near the end: Fletcher playing with her children in the bathtub, Kitty Winn whispering “stupid bitch” under her breath, Burton telling the conductor “She is mine!”, Winn and Fletcher stopping to help the injured man in the car crash, Winn telling the cab driver “Someone is dying”, Burton telling the bus driver to go because Blair has to get home, and a couple others.
- Blair’s line of “Let me reach you” to Burton as he is slumped in the hallway is dubbed out.
- Stock footage of Blair from the first film is spliced in as she enters her old room.
- The “be joined with us, Father” bit is cut out entirely, dubbed over with the later “Kill her” line instead.
- The final three or so scenes are mixed around a bit differently, perhaps to cover up deleted lines. As a result, we don’t see Fletcher running around in the street yelling “Help!” or trying to get Winn out of the fire.
- The very end is totally different: Burton apparently doesn’t survive, and the shot with the roof falling in is mixed with a recording of him yelling “REEEEEGAN!”. Thus, the entire last scene is removed in which Winn finally dies and Fletcher says goodbye to Burton and Blair. Instead, after the locusts disappear, we see a shot of Regan walking out of the rubble, another of Fletcher standing in a crowd of onlookers (originally the last shot of the movie), a cut back to a close-up of Blair, and then a fade to the credits.
- Lastly, the slow theme played during the ending credits is replaced halfway through with a rock version of the opening theme, which was used for the original theatrical trailer.
[edit] Poster photo order
First Photo- Linda Blair Second Photo- Richard Burton Third Photo- Louise Fletcher Fourth Photo- Max von Sydow Fifth Photo- Paul Henreid Sixth Photo- James Earl Jones
[edit] Goofs
Exorcist II: The Heretic features many goofs and differences from the first movie. The Church appears to be posthumously indicting Father Merrin on charges of heresy for performing Regan's exorcism - yet in the first movie, not only did the Church officially approve the exorcism, they specifically selected Merrin to perform it. Also, throughout Exorcist II, Father Merrin is frequently mentioned by the characters as having saved Regan, yet no mention is made of Father Karras (who actually did save Regan).
Linda Blair refused to wear makeup during the flashback sequences. A different actress was hired specially for the scenes showing Regan's exorcism.
Another goof is during the end of the movie. When Sharon steps on the light to start a fire and kill herself, the fire should burn her entire body like the woman in the beginning of the movie but does not.
[edit] Response
While most reviewers were extremely unkind to the film, Pauline Kael greatly preferred Boorman's sequel to the original, writing in her review in The New Yorker that Exorcist II "had more visual magic than a dozen movies."
In recent years, Exorcist II has developed a cult following; fans of the film point to the movie's often stunning cinematography (by acclaimed cinematographer William A. Fraker), the pounding, eerie musical score by Ennio Morricone, and Boorman's customarily stylish direction as major attributes. The film's critical reputation has also grown over the years. Kim Newman wrote in Nightmare Movies (1988) that "it doesn't work in all sorts of ways ... However, like Ennio Morricone's mix of tribal and liturgical music, it does manage to be very interesting." Acclaimed director Martin Scorsese asserts, "The picture asks: Does great goodness bring upon itself great evil? This goes back to the Book of Job; it's God testing the good. In this sense, Regan (Linda Blair) is a modern-day saint — like Ingrid Bergman in Europa '51, and, in a way, like Charlie in Mean Streets. I like the first Exorcist, because of the Catholic guilt I have, and because it scared the hell out of me; but The Heretic surpasses it. Maybe Boorman failed to execute the material, but the movie still deserved better than it got."
The film reportedly greatly damaged Blair's career, who went from the enviable position of one of Hollywood's hottest young actresses to being relegated to a future in low-budget exploitation films. Boorman recovered from the film's financial failure with the successful Excalibur a few years later, and the Exorcist series would eventually get a more conventional, audience-friendly sequel in 1990's The Exorcist III, adapted by William Peter Blatty from his own novel Legion. Blatty's film serves as the "true" sequel to the original, completely ignoring the events of Boorman's film, much as the general public had a few years before.
Louise Fletcher's presence on-screen as a psychiatrist and mind-imagery specialist, and near-death while in-machine is significant in reference to her role in Brainstorm, where she has a similar role. The scene in her character's office is also significant in having a very sophisticated 1970s science fiction atmosphere, almost out of keeping with the film's material.
The scene in which Regan apparently "heals" an autistic girl has also attracted the ire of some in the autism rights movement. One of the more controversial participants in the movement, himself an amateur director, responded to the scene with a statement online to the effect of "If your God is a curebie, why are you so surprised I am an atheist?". Regan is only shown helping the girl to speak, not making her completely neurotypical. However, the scene as it is played, combined with the popular misconception that "autistics don't talk," probably leads the majority of uninformed viewers to assume that if the girl can now speak, she is "cured".
Bob McCabe's The Exorcist: Out of the shadows (Omnibus Press, 1999) contains a chapter on Exorcist II: The Heretic in which the following responses to the movie are cited:
- William Peter Blatty: “A couple of weeks before it was to open, I called Frank Wells at Warners…I was living in Georgetown at the time and he said ‘We’ll be glad to set up a screening for you, Bill but please give me your word – a handshake agreement – if you don’t like it, you won’t go on television or go to the press.’ I said ‘Hell, Frank, I can’t do that. If it’s really bad, don’t show it to me.’ He said ‘We’ll get back to you.’ He didn’t. So I paid my three, four dollars, went down to see it – unbelievable. Amazingly bad. Extraordinarily bad, if I remember. I called the producer Dick Lederer the next day and said, ‘Dick, I beg you, take the film out of release. Give it to me and, without touching a single frame of the film, I will create an entirely new plot, new dialogue. It’ll all be in subtitles or we’ll dub it and pretend it’s a foreign film, but it will be a comedy.’ And I was serious. My favourite bit was when the cab driver gets out and runs over to Kitty Winn, and she’s an ember, she’s charred, her car as been burned to a crisp and she has also, and he says ‘Are you alright?’ I couldn’t believe it.”
- John Boorman: “The sin I committed was not giving the audience what it wanted in terms of horror…There’s this wild beast out there which is the audience. I created this arena and I just didn’t throw enough Christians into it. People think of cutting and re-cutting as defeat, but it isn’t. As Irving Thalberg said: ‘Films aren’t made, they’re remade.’”
- William Peter Blatty: “You know they rioted in the theatre where Exorcist II opened in Westwood, in Los Angeles…And they called John Boorman over and I believe it was John Calley, the creative head at Warners, who personally took him to the theatre in the wee hours of the morning and showed him the destruction. They ripped the box office out of the ground; they tore the place apart. And Boorman, according to the reports, looked around and said ‘Well, the film is obviously too good for them.” At the time, I remember John Boorman saying ‘I’ve redubbed everything. I’ve improved the performances one hundred percent.’ I thought the performances were appalling. And that dialogue and that situation – ‘I’ve flown this route before, on the wings of a locust’ – Jesus!”
- Linda Blair: “It was a really good script at first. Then after everybody signed on they rewrote it five times and it ended up nothing like the same movie. That was one of the big disappointments of my career.”
- William Friedkin: “I saw half an hour of it. I was at Technicolor and a guy said ‘We just finished a print of Exorcist II, do you wanna have a look at it?’ And I looked at half an hour of it and I thought it was as bad as seeing a traffic accident in the street. It was horrible. It’s just a stupid mess made by a dumb guy – John Boorman by name, somebody who should be nameless but in this case should be named. Scurrilous. A horrible picture.”
[edit] References
- The Making of Exorcist II: The Heretic. By Barbara Pallenberg. New York City, Warner Books, 1977.
- The Exorcist: Out of the shadows - the full story of the film. Bob McCabe, London, Omnibus Press, 1999.
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[edit] External links
