When William Friedkin passed on August 7th, 2023, he left behind one of the most varied and exciting filmographies of all time. Best known for his horror classic The Exorcist, Friedkin experimented in nearly every genre, from sketch comedy to basketball drama. As he crossed genres and decades, Friedkin maintained an eye for clarity in chaos and sympathy for his characters, even when putting them through horrible ordeals.
In addition to documentaries, tv movies, and television episodes, Friedkin released 19 feature films in his lifetime. His 20th and final film, The Cain Mutiney Court-Marshall will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September. Until then, here are William Friedkin’s movies ranked from worst to best.
19. Blue Chips (1994)
In the worst of faint praise, it must be said that Blue Chips is the best movie in Shaquille O’Neal's filmography. As much as it would be nice to attribute the achievement to Friedken’s direction, Shaq works mostly because he’s just playing himself, a young basketball player. However, Friedkin’s hand can be felt in the cynical tone of the film, which stars Nick Nolte as a coach trying to recruit a winning team within a scandal-riddled system. Friedkin does his best to stay true to the script from Bull Durham writer Ron Shelton, but the film never becomes as biting as it wants to be.
18. Deal of The Century (1983)
Deal of the Century wants badly to be a wry black comedy, one that pokes fun at the horrors of the military-industrial complex. But it achieves only being a bumbling farce, wasting a talented cast that includes Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, and Gregory Hines. Friedkin wisely zeroes in on Chase’s inherent unlikability, casting him as a cynical American arms dealer. But he can’t overcome a toothless script from Paul Brickman (Risky Business), filming gag sequences with no zip and satirical dialogue with no sting.
17. The Hunted (2003)
The Hunted has an irresistible premise: a special ops soldier stricken with PTSD battles civilians in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Of course, that premise seemed more interesting two decades earlier, when it was used for the Rambo movie First Blood. Stars Tommy Lee Jones and Benicio Del Toro have more range than Stallone, and The Hunted does focus on Jones’s fatherly military instructor more than Del Toro’s rogue soldier. But The Hunted feels more like a prestige project for the Oscar-winning stars, which prevents Friedkin from making the movie as nasty as it needs to be.
16. Jade (1995)
Thankfully for Friedkin, the erotic thriller Jade is best known as the beginning and end of NYPD Blue star David Caruso’s movie career. And to be sure, Caruso seems uneasy on screen as an assistant district attorney investigating a series of murders. But all the blame can’t be placed on Caruso, as the film suffered from clashes between co-star Linda Fiorentino, writer Joe Eszterhas, and Friedkin himself. What could have been a sleazy slamdunk for the trio, all of whom have done great work with similar material, ends up an unappealing mess.
15. The Guardian (1990)
Friedkin directed the greatest horror movie of all time, so it hurts to see him whiff so badly with 1990’s The Guardian. There’s the core of a great idea somewhere in the movie’s story about a young couple (Dwier Brown and Carey Lowell) whose new nanny (Jennifer Seagrove) is a malevolent dryad, planning to sacrifice her charges to protect the life of a tree. Beyond the mystical trappings, the concept plays on the terror every parent experiences when raising a young, innocent child. But a troubled production and frequent rewrites result in a movie that feels inert when not ridiculous, eventually driving Friedkin to remove his name from re-releases of the film.
14. Good Times (1967)
How can it be that the guy who made some of the scariest and most unsettling films ever worked with Sonny and Cher? Everybody’s got to start somewhere, but no one watching the self-impressed sketch comedy Good Times would have foreseen a distinguished career from the man behind the camera. That said, Friedkin does realize that the film lives and dies on the appeal of the lead couple, and he does his best to show off their good sides, making for a competent, if uninteresting, watch.
13. Rules of Engagement (2000)
The weathered, perpetually disappointed Tommy Lee Jones feels like a perfect Friedkin leading man, but neither of his two collaborations with the director worked out. Rules of Engagement holds up slightly better than The Hunted, thanks to the always electric work of co-star Samuel L. Jackson and some grisly wartime imagery. But Friedkin proves the be a poor match for screenwriter Steven Gagan (Traffic, Syriana), whose script spends too much time dwelling on plot reveals than the personal drama that drove Friedkin to the project.
12. The Birthday Party (1968)
After the relative success of Good Times, Friedkin pursued his passion project with The Birthday Party, an adaptation of a Harold Pinter play, with a script by Pinter himself. The Birthday Party earned mostly solid reviews but bombed at the box office. While a much better film than its low earnings suggest, The Birthday Party does suffer from Friedkin still learning his craft. His shot selection doesn’t make full use of the film’s single location, too often flattening the dread in Robert Shaw’s performance and in Pinter’s sparse, menacing dialogue.
11. The Night They Raided Minsky’s (1968)
Post-production delays led to one of the more unlikely pairings of all time, in which the musical comedy The Night They Raided Minskey’s hit theaters exactly one week after the sober drama The Birthday Party. Co-written by television legend Norman Lear, Minsky’s follows a young innocent woman (Britt Ekland) who joins a raunchy vaudeville show. Although he exhibits a deft sense of timing when filming the on-stage gags, Friedkin presents the backstage drama with an unvarnished eye and attention to the shabby details of the theater, bringing a surprising sense of pathos to the wacky proceedings.
10. The Brink’s Job (1978)
Like Minsky’s, The Brink’s Job plays like a comedy but is most effective as a quiet drama. Based on a true story, The Brink’s Job stars Peter Falk and Peter Boyle as members of a sad-sack gang who realize they can easily rob Brink’s trucks. Caper hijinks do ensue, especially as the robberies force Brink’s to defend its public image. But the movie works best when Friedkin slows down the pace to focus on the daily lives of the thieves, revealing them to be human beings standing up to a dishonest company.
9. Cruising (1980)
Few movies come with as much baggage as Cruising. The story of a reporter (Al Pacino) searching for a serial killer who murders gay men, Cruising seemed to offend everyone. Audiences found its subject matter offensive, the gay community felt it dehumanized and sensationalized them, and critics couldn’t follow its shambling narrative. While some of those complaints remain valid, it’s impossible not to be impressed by the atmosphere Friedkin creates. Hard rock and punk music accompany Pacino as his eyes bore into patrons of smokey bars, and shots from hardcore films intercut slasher scenes, resulting in something unforgettable and upsetting.
8. Rampage (1987)
Where Rules of Engagement struggled to bring a sense of urgency to the courtroom, Rampage makes the moral question at the film’s center feel immediate. Michael Biehn stars as Anthony Fraser, a prosecutor whose anti-death-penalty position comes into question in the case of remorseless killer Charlie Reece (Alex McArthur). Not only does Friedkin take advantage of the horrific subject matter for shocking juxtapositions, like those between a kill scene and a church service, but he also creates compelling compositions for even dialogue scenes. Much more than a courtroom drama or a slasher flick, Rampage works as an exploration of evil and justice.
7. The Boys in The Band (1970)
While Cruising was roundly criticized for its portrayal of the gay community, Friedkin’s adaptation of the 1968 Mart Crowley play The Boys in the Band was praised upon its first release. One of the first major movies with homosexual main characters, The Boys in the Band walks a line between self-loathing and camp, which Friedkin captures with steady direction and striking imagery. Modern reactions to the film and play have varied over the years, as queer cinema becomes more complex, but Freidkin’s straightforward and humane portrayal remains valuable, even more than fifty years later.
6. Killer Joe (2011)
Throughout the McConaissance, the 2010s run of films that saw perpetual romantic comedy hunk Matthew McConaughey take on serious and surprising roles, came Killer Joe, one of the most thoroughly unpleasant movies ever brought to the screen. Based on the raucous Tracy Letts play, Killer Joe revels in the comic nastiness of its characters, which includes Emil Hirsch as a craven drug dealer and Juno Temple as his innocent(?) sister. Taking advantage of the lurid set design and fantastic performances from McConaughey and Temple, Friedkin constructs an impressively unlikable film, one that sits in the audience’s stomach like a greasy bucket of fried chicken.
5. To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
Given his grittier work in the 70s and the 2000s, Friedkin seems like the last person to make a slick 80s blockbuster like To Live and Die in L.A. While the film never indulges in the neon gloss of a Michael Mann or a Jerry Bruckheimer film, it is the flashiest entry in Friedkin’s filmography. That said, Friedkin never loses focus on the parts of Los Angeles, even when constructing exciting sequences. A tracking shot following a running criminal keeps the camera low to the ground, and an interrogation restricts the lights to what little sun can sneak through window shades, making the City of Angels feel both dirty and cool.
4. Bug (2006)
The first of two adaptations of Tracy Letts's play, Bug finds Friedkin rediscovering the talent for the relentless terror that he created with The Exorcist. As with many of Friedkin’s movies, Bug takes place in a single house, where a troubled woman (Ashley Judd) falls under the influence of a charismatic but violently paranoid man (Michael Shannon). Tight close-ups of the couple committing desperate and horrific acts left the audience squirming. Still, they never forget the basic humanity of the main characters, making Bug as sympathetic a movie as it is disturbing.
3. The French Connection (1971)
One of the most outstanding three movie runs from any director began with a scuzzy crime story about the international drug trade. Written by Shaft creator William Tidyman, The French Connection stars a thunderous Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle, a crooked cop who thinks he runs his small part of New York City. Friedkin’s camera keeps the action kinetic but easy to follow, whether it's showing a thrilling downtown car chase or Doyle roughing up a suspect. But the real achievement is his ability to capture the depth of Hackman’s performance, that of an insecure man who hides his weakness under bluster.
2. Sorcerer (1977)
As a young man, Friedkin watched and re-watched the French thriller The Wages of Fear, about four desperate truckers who take a job driving highly-explosive nitroglycerin through the mountains. Although Friedkin claims his movie Sorcerer is not a remake of that film from director Henri-Georges Clouzot, it's hard to accept his claim. Sorcerer has the exact same plot, this time with Roy Scheider (Jaws) in the lead. But really, it doesn’t matter what the inspiration is, because Sorcerer is all about the tension of the scenes, not its plot. Throughout the film, Friedkin stages some of the most nail-biting set pieces ever committed to film, without ever losing sight of the downtrodden men whose lives are at stake.
1. The Exorcist (1973)
A committed atheist, William Friedkin is the only person who could have directed The Exorcist, based on the novel by the devout Catholic William Peter Blatty. Friedkin brings a healthy skepticism to the proceedings, one shared by everyone involved, including depressed priest Father Karras (Jason Miller) and actress Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn). Even as the spiritual becomes undeniable, Friedkin still finds horror in the most unlikely places, including the sterile doctor’s office where Regan (Linda Blair) undergoes tests. Even more than its infamous foul language and spectacular head turns, The Exorcist remains terrifying fifty years later because of its deep respect for people’s faith, religious or otherwise.
Honorable Mention:
The People Vs. Paul Crump (1962)
Much of Friedkin’s success came from his ability to focus on real people, even in the most outrageous genre. Friedkin learned that skill in his early documentaries, including his debut The People Vs. Paul Crump. Following what seemed to be the last days of death row inmate Paul Crump, Friedkin gives a voice to the forgotten, never letting the enormity of the case overwhelm the man at the center.
“Nightcrawlers” The Twilight Zone (1985)
The 80s reboot of The Twilight Zone certainly had its low points, but it came out of the gate strong, with a first season that boasted impressive actors and creators, including Bruce Willis and George R.R. Martin. For the fourth episode, Friedkin directed “Nightcrawlers,” in which a Viet Nam vet (Scott Paulin) brings his nightmares to a diner. Friedkin unspools the story at a deliberate pace, creating one of the scariest segments to ever air on network television.
12 Angry Men (1997)
Even as he jumped from genre to genre, Friedkin repeatedly returned to the single-room setting, in which people have intense arguments with one another. So it’s no surprise that he would sign up for a made for tv remake of the teleplay, which became a famous movie by Sidney Lumet. With an amazing cast that includes Jack Lemmon, Ossie Davis, and James Gandolfini, 12 Angry Men could get by just on the personalities assembled. But Friedkin’s claustrophobic visuals make the audience just as uncomfortable as the jurors, effectively turning viewers against Lemmon’s conscientious Juror #8.
