On April 10, 1972, the late film director William Friedkin (1935-2023) earned an Academy Award for the 1971 crime thriller ‘The French Connection‘ which was filmed in my hometown of New York City. The gritty tale starring the late Gene Hackman (1930-2025) as New York City Police Detective Jimmy “Popeye” Doyle and the late Roy Scheider (1932-2008) as his partner, Detective Buddy “Cloudy” Russo captures the raw energy of 1970s New York and made Friedkin a Hollywood great. But who was the man behind the camera who never went to a film school? This autobiography came as a surprise and as a fan of Friedkin’s work, I knew it would capture my attention.

Before I began the book, I disregarded anything I thought I knew about Friedkin so that I would have a blank canvas as the details about his life filled up. The story begins in Chicago, Illinois, where Louis and Rachael Friedkin have made a life after leaving their native Ukraine. It is a classic midwestern immigrant family tale with William being the first generation American. But soon he discovers his passion for motion pictures and following high school, he lands a job at television station WBKB-TV in Alpena, Michigan. And this is where his path in life is altered permanently, and the film director is born. But before we reach his accolades in the film industry, Friedkin looks back on his 1962 documentary film ‘The People v. Paul Crump‘ which examined the life of a man sitting on death row for a crime he says he did not commit as his execution date rapidly approaches. I have not seen the film but made a mental note to watch it soon. Friedkin continues to evolve and after he relocates to California, his network of connections and opportunities expand, and he eventually finds himself in the director’s chair for the French Connection. If you like the film as much as I do, you will find the information about the difficulties behind the scenes interesting. On screen, we see the final product, but Friedkin breaks down the technical aspects and how they created the magic moviegoers came to love. It is beyond fascinating and a testament to the arduous work required to create a motion picture.

Following the success of the French Connection, Friedkin reads a book called ‘The Exorcist‘ by author William Peter Blatty (1928-2017) and the two eventually meet for a discussion about a movie based on the book. And again, Friedkin walks us through the challenges the crew faced while creating a movie which changed cinema and the horror genre. But to create the terror we know, a tremendous amount of work took place off camera in the editing room and in approval screenings from the Motion Picture Association (“MPA”), formerly known as the Motion Picture Association of America. Film students will thoroughly enjoy Friedkin’s analysis of the editing process, screenings, casting decisions, and revisions to meet the MPA’s guidelines. The Exorcist is a classic but the incredible amount of work to bring it to life should not be overlooked.

While I enjoyed reading about Friedkin’s career and the films he directed following the Exorcist, I did notice there is a lack of information about his personal life. In fact, I had finished more than half the book before he mentions three prior marriages and children. There are no discussions about the marriages or the births of his sons. I did find that to be a little strange, but I must assume that he had his reasons for not discussing those parts of his life. However, he does mention his fourth wife Sherry Lansing, to whom he was married from 1991 until his death in 2023. I did notice that he is more forthcoming regarding the health scares which nearly took his life. The first occurs as he is driving his car and sets the stage for what is to come later in life. The impact of that event and subsequent health issues is frightening, and had things gone slightly differently, he may not have lived well into his eighties. Yet he continued to direct and there is one final film he discusses in the book which he labored to create called ‘Killer Joe‘. I have not seen the movie but from what Friedkin reveals, creating a movie was nothing short of chaos. But it was his vision and he made it a reality.

Friedkin died on August 7, 2023, at the age of eighty-seven, and his passing marked the end of an incredible career launched by atypical circumstances. This autobiography is a solid look into his life with a mix of humor, suspense, success, and humility. As he explains himself, he burned bridges and made decisions he would not make a second time but his reflection that life can only be understood backwards is spot on. If you are a fan of this legendary filmmaker and curious about his life and the motion pictures he helped bring to life, this book is for you.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0089LOLXO
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper, April 16, 2013