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| Special Features: |
Widescreen format.
Chapter selection.
Director commentary.
Theatrical trailers.
Production notes.
Radio spots.
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| Video Format: |
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1)
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| Languages: |
English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
English (Dolby 2.0) Surround.
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| Captions: |
English, Spanish, French, Portugese.
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| Casing: |
1-Disc Keep Case
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One of the greatest missed opportunities in DVD history. A great movie stuck in the middle of a terrible DVD.
My rating for this DVD is due to the horrible extras, including the WORST director's commentary track ever!
What was left out also counts for the low rating. The movie is great and the picture and sound are also good.
This is a major case of "Oh, what could have been!"
The scariest movie ever made returns with new scenes. I snuck out of school in 10th grade with
fellow film critic for Pioneer Press Bruce Ingram and renowned artist David Mah to see the first
showing of the Exorcist in Memphis back in 1974. I enjoyed this new version with some reservations.
I felt that some of the digital images of the demon's face added to the wall or kitchen ventahood
were overdone. I loved the crab scene. A couple of other scenes should have been left out. It is
still a bad ass piece of audience manipulation. You know the story. To read Ken Miyamoto's brief rave click here.
Picture Quality: 8/10
There are some glitches which are due to the age of the source material. Still, it is a better than average picture.
Sound Quality: 10/10
Excellent sound. Set up the home theater and try not to jump with fright.
Menu: 7/10
Not much imagination went into this. It does work though.
Extra Features: 0/10
This DVD contains without a doubt the worst director's commentary that has ever been put on a disk. Maybe 5%
of the commentary track contains interesting trivia and production information. Friedkin adds some historical
commentary during the Iraqi scenes which only prove that he slept through history class and never read the Bible.
He talks about the walls of Ninivah as the walls that Joshua tore down with his horn. (That was Jerhico.)
He also says that one of the digs took place above the tomb of the prophet David. (David was the King
buried in Jerusalem. Daniel was the prophet. Oh well.) What really makes this commentary track stink worse
than a Mississippi garbage dump in July is the fact that a typical commentary section goes something like this.
THE SCENE: Ellen Burstyn tells the butler that she has heard noises in the attic and wants him to put down some
traps. Director Friedkin's comments are as follows: "She is telling him that there are rats in the attic.
He tells her that he can't get any traps because it is Sunday and the stores are closed." This goes on and on.
His commentary track is nothing more than him telling us what is going on on the screen! "Linda is vomiting
on the priest now." "Jason Miller just jumped out the window." And so forth. Pathetic. This movie had such an
interesting and trouble history from preproduction on. None of this history is in the commentary track. Warner
Brothers also should have added some vintage behind the scenes documentaries or commentary tracks from the cast.
Also missing are references to the Mercedes McCambridge controversy.
The Final Word:
Great Movie! Lousy DVD!
Rusty White
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