Hmmm...now what to say about this movie that hasn't been said before? Of all the movies, horror or otherwise, that have been made since...well, since they started making movies...this has to be right up there alongside Citizen Kane as one of the most talked about, debated and analyzed. Why? My guess is that it's because it's one of those rare films that strikes individual viewers with such diverse and personal resonances. For some viewers the movie is painful to watch. For others it is an uplifting affirmation of deeply held faith. Some people laugh at it, some cry. As director William Friedkin has said, what you get from the film is what you subconsciously bring with you when you see it. That said, very few people remain unaffected by the film for better or for worse. For those who don't know (all 10 of you), the movie, said to have been based by author William Peter Blatty (who wrote both the screenplay and the novel upon which it is based)on a true account of the exorcism of a young boy in Mt. Ranier around 1948, centers around eleven year old Regan MacNeill (Linda Blair), who has apparently become the object of attention of a rather nasty demonic presence. Progressively, this presence begins to take control of Regan, causing increasingly bizarre and violent behavior. Eventually, the little girl is transformed into a hideous and malevolent monster who speaks in a gutteral baritone no eleven year old could possibly produce (But which veteran actress Mercedes McCambridge can...and did.) and who needs to be strapped into her bed with hospital restraints. The scenes where we first see the transformed Regan are unnerving. There is a terrible knowledge in her luminous green eyes that shouldn't be there. After every possible diagnostic test (The film was made in 1973--medicine has thankfully come a long way since then--and these scenes, involving needles to the jugular vein and such are exceptionally hard to watch.)fails to show any abnormality, Regan's desperate, agnostic mother Chris (Ellyn Burstyn in an Academy Award nominated performance)turns to a priest, Father Karras (Jason Miller). At first skeptical, Karras, who is doubting his own faith in God, eventually determines that whether or not Regan is truly possessed, she needs his help. With the aid and guidance of the older, more experienced Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow), who may actually have confronted this same demon many years before, he undertakes an exorcism to drive the demon out of the girl. The demonic personality inhabiting Regan's body is evoked brilliantly. It is physically violent and ugly, but under the surface is where it causes it's real damage. It has an unerring ability to sense weakness and fear, and it preys upon these things. Such, suggests the film, is the nature of evil. It works not so much through personal insult as by mockery of that which one holds deeply, passionately sacred. Through the not so subtle suggestion that our actions may have harmed those we love and hold dear, and that those same loved ones are themselves probably as basically unworthy of love as we are and will suffer eternally. That in the end all that remains is ugliness and futility and mindless chaos. The exorcism itself, which comprises roughly the last twenty minutes of the film, is riveting. It is an emotionally involving vision of the abyss between faith and doubt. Between the orderly, comfortably modern church and an ancient, very real evil that it seems ill prepared to confront. It is a vision of innocence stripped violently away from a child through no fault of her own. Why was Regan chosen by the demon? There are many possible answers to the question, and the film makes none of them easy or comfortable. I recommend this film, but with a couple of cautions: It is not for children. The visual and verbal content of the film is strong enough that I think it takes a mature sensibility to put it in some perspective. For those who might not be able to do that, the movie could be overwhelming and even traumatic. Also, any prospective viewer should be forewarned--the movie is quite graphic. The extreme profanity, while much of it is familiar, is used throughout in such a blasphemous and irreligious way that those with strong feelings on the subject may well be shocked. Further, there are onscreen depictions of vomiting, urination and masturbation that may be very upsetting to a lot of viewers, especially in context. The twenty-fifth anniversary edition dvd of The Exorcist contains, amongst other things, a documentary on the making of the film. Titled The Fear Of God: The Making Of The Exorcist , it was originally shot as a BBC documentary and it features some very interesting information and interviews with the cast and crew. The VHS version of this edition also contains the documentary, though somewhat edited. The movie is also available in an edition titled: The Exorcist. The Version You Never Saw. Prepared originally for the 2000 theatrical re-release of the picture, it contains about twelve minutes of footage originally cut from the film as well as a few digital effects. If you like the movie, you'll find this interesting, though I don't think it adds anything significant to the experience. 