Word: exorcistic
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...uproar justified? Not entirely. True, Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist) is up to his usual grisly tricks: the killings are gruesome, and the simulation of S-M couplings will appall many moviegoers of all sexual persuasions. Yet Cruising is not antigay, any more than a film like American Gigolo is anti-heterosexual. Friedkin repeatedly - even tediously-reminds the audience that the S-M crowd is but a small, atypical subculture within a diverse homosexual world...
Still, Cruising's most crucial matters are hopelessly fouled up. As a simple detective story, the film is defeated by narrative loopholes, unconvincing plot twists and the last-minute injection of a demon who seems to have drifted in, half-baked, from The Exorcist. The psychological drama is forfeited by the handling of the central character. Though Pacino is in sensitive, even witty, form, he just does not have enough to do. Except for a few costume changes and some brief, cryptic conversations with his girlfriend (Karen Allen), his personality transformation is left undramatized. There are no scenes that...
...film, also, the decade witnessed some notable contributions--foremost among them The Godfather, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Annie Hall and The Deer Hunter--but they were overwhelmed by a procession of disaster films (The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake), occult films (The Exorcist, The Omen and sequel films (The French Connection, American Graffiti, Rocky, Jaws and most everything else, part II) that provided the standard fare for most of this country's theaters during much of the decade. We tended to stumble into the trap of praising a movie just because it made money when our critical instincts should...
Some may be disappointed by Time After Time's lack of social satire. Eschewing any real criticism of contemporary values, Meyer takes only an occasional jab, as when Amy takes Wells to Exorcist IV. Nor does Time After Time make any deep comment about the development of society, beyond the obvious one that the present's no paradise. "Ninety years ago, I was a freak. Today I'm an amateur," Stevenson says, treating Wells to a typical TV smorgasbord of news reports, war movies, and sadistic cartoons. Early on, Meyer sets up two conflicting theories of man's capacity...
...persuaders seem to be making a comeback. A television commercial for children's toys included the subliminal message "Get it!" until the Federal Communications Commission issued a warning against further TV or radio subliminations. In the movie The Exorcist the image of a death mask was flashed before audiences to give them an extra scare. The tactic may have worked. Warner Bros, is being sued by an Indiana teenager who fainted during the movie, breaking his jawbone and several teeth. His lawyer contends that the fleeting death mask is "one of the major issues" in the case...