William Friedkin is a resolutely dark and subversive American filmmaker who has adapted his style to documentaries, social thrillers, horror, and comedy. Many of his movies have been controversial to the point of public outcry and protest, yet he never compromises on his approach, which relies on extreme violence and intense studies of troubled characters.
Friedkin is most famous for his take on William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, still considered one of the most horrifying movies of all time. He’s also known for making film versions of successful plays. Friedkin is influenced by the psychological dramas and suspenseful works of directors like Alfred Hitchcock, Orson Welles, and Henri-Georges Clouzot. Here are his 10 best movies according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Cruising (1980) – 50%
Probably Friedkin’s most controversial film, Cruising is based on the true story of a serial killer who targeted gay men in New York City’s leather and S&M communities between the 60s and 70s. Al Pacino plays a rookie cop who is tasked with going undercover in order to find the killer.
Not only is the movie considered problematic for casting straight actors, but it’s been criticized by the gay community for its reliance on negative stereotypes. While well-known critics have come out both for and against the movie, Cruising ultimately has developed a reputation as a seedy and unnecessarily violent look into a marginalized community that was struggling for acceptance and respect at the time it was released.
Bug (2006) – 62%
One of the Friedkin movies based on a play, Bug is a deeply disturbing psychological horror movie starring Ashley Judd and Michael Shannon. Judd plays a bartender named Agnes attempting to get her life back together after the death of her son. She meets Shannon’s character, Peter, who is a Gulf War veteran.
The two develop a romantic relationship, and Peter soon later reveals that he believes he’s been infected by a bug, one he believes he was exposed to intentionally by the U.S. Military while in the Middle East. Agnes’s own trauma melds with Peter’s, and the pair soon dive into a world of paranoia and madness.
The Brink’s Job ( 1978) – 1975
Veteran actor Peter Falk stars in this ensemble, slapstick comedy about a bunch of half-witted crooks who manage to pull off a major heist. Falk’s character, Tony, while staking out the safe at a Goodwill, sees an armored car company next door and changes his plans. He begins studying the company, and he realizes it would be quite easy to break in and steal its cash holdings.
He assembles a crew that includes characters played by Paul Sorvino and Peter Boyle, and they are able to get away with over a million dollars. The movie is based on a true story about one of the few successful robberies of the Brinks company.
Sorcerer (1977) – 79%
Friedkin based this movie off the same novel that inspired his favorite French filmmaker, Henri-Georges Clouzot, to make the masterpiece Wages of Fear. Friedkin’s movie stars Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, and Amidou as four men stranded in South America. When they are offered citizenship and an opportunity to become legal citizens, they decide to accept, despite the task they are expected to complete.
In order to get the money and legal status, they must transport nitroglycerin through 200 miles of rough country. Even though it’s a taut and daunting thriller, the movie bombed because of its title.
Killer Joe (2012) – 79%
Another movie adapted from a play, Killer Joe stars Matthew McConaughey as a rogue police officer who is a killer for hire on the side. McConaughey gives an engrossing and perplexing performance in the title role, a sign of the greatness to come for him in True Detective and other successful dramatic features.
Joe is hired by Ansel, played by Thomas Haden Church, who hatches a plan with his loser son Chris, played by Emile Hirsh, to have his ex-wife murdered so his kids can collect on her life insurance money. In order to sway Joe, they offer up Dottie, Ansel’s daughter, and Chris’s sister, as collateral. Dark and unforgiving, Killer Joe exposes people at their absolute worst.
The Exorcist (1973) – 84%
The Exorcist is one of the most infamous movies of all time. This terrifying horror film follows a 14-year-old girl named Regan after she’s possessed by a demonic spirit. As Regan’s behavior gets more and more strange, and her health declines, her mother, actress Chris MacNeil, who is played by Ellen Burstyn, finally reaches out to the Catholic Church for help.
The film reaches its climax when a troubled priest named Father Karras brings in an exorcist, Father Merrin, to remove the demon from Regan’s body. Brutal and realistic, The Exorcist doesn’t hold back on psychological deterioration or body horror.
The Boys In The Band (1970) – 89%
Yet another play brought to the big screen, Boys In The Band is the first Broadway production to explicitly deal with homosexual themes. Friedkin’s film includes performances from all the original stage version’s actors.
The movie and play focus on a group of male friends in New York. A man named Michael throws a birthday party at his apartment, and his old college friend Alan pops in unexpectedly. While Michael and his friends are gay, Alan is straight, which creates tension amongst the party-goers. Convinced Alan is secretly gay, Michael ups the ante for the festivities, which leads to some seriously unexpected psychological unravelings.
To Live And Die In L.A. (1985) – 91%
Another one of Friedkin’s dark comedy crime films, To Live and Die in L.A. stars a relatively young Willem Dafoe and William L. Petersen. Dafoe plays a counterfeiter named Eric Masters who has evaded arrest for years. When Petersen’s character, Richard Chance, learns his partner has been murdered by Masters, he makes it his life’s duty to track him down and take him out.
As Chance pursues Masters like Ahab pursues the white whale, everything falls apart around him. This stylish and hip ultra-80s action movie was both a theatrical and critical success.
12 Angry Men (1997) – 92%
Friedkin was commissioned by Showtime to remake this 1957 judicial drama from director Sidney Lumet. This ensemble drama follows a jury deliberating upon a trial that has just wrapped up. While eleven of the jurors agree the defendant is innocent, there is one stand-out, played by Jack Lemmon, who claims reasonable doubt.
Friedkin’s film also stars George C. Scott, and it proves to be a tense and effective look into what happens behind the scenes in a courtroom.
The French Connection (1971) – 98%
The French Connection is a near-perfect thriller starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider. They play narcotics detectives in New York City trying to track down the European source for loads of heroin making its way into the United States.
Friedkin, not a fan of Hollywood endings, relies on gritty realism to tell his story here. The action sequences in the movie set the standards for crime movies, and Hackman’s unlikable performance as a gruff and racist detective foreshadowed the anti-hero obsession to come.
