SO LONG, WILLIAM FRIEDKIN

You were on a level that so few could match, spurring action, satire, outside-the-box melodrama and classic horror, often combining the phantasmagorical with reality to consistent, chilling effect. 

And each and every one of your products rests on that know-how perch: The French Connection; The Brink's Job; Bug '06; The Guardian '90; 12 Angry Men '97; The Hunted '03; Rampage; Killer Joe; Rules of Engagement; Jailbreakers; The Birthday Party; Good Times; Blue Chips; Deal of the Century; Fritz Lang Interviewed by William Friedkin; The People vs Paul Crump; The Bold Men; Mayhem on a Sunday Afternoon; The Night They Raided Minsky's; Jade; The Boys in the Band; Cruising; and the cultish and sardonic To Live and Die in L.A. (And for those in the know, high anticipation now surrounds The Caine Mutiny Court Martial: no doubt, another thought-provoking triumph.) Much can also be said of your contributions to CSI, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, HBO's Tales from the Crypt and the 1980s Twilight Zone. 

Some say (and it's not much of a stretch) that your adaptation of William Peter Blatty's The Exorcist is your crowning achievement: a study in abject fright that continues to resonate, due to your taut, careful direction and remarkable faithfulness to the source. (Your documentary/companion piece, The Devil & Father Amorth, and Alexandre O. Philippe's William Friedkin on the Exorcist only confirm your macabre achievement's impact on the age-old rift of good against evil.) 

However, those of another camp consider Sorcerer (your noble variant of Georges Arnoud/Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear) to be your crème de la crème. Indeed, in the way its nail-biting sequences notch upward and onward from suffocating and sweat-drenched frustration, it stands as a nightmarish, adventure masterpiece all unto itself. 

Right from the start, you were part of the cinematic elite, without ever once wishing to rub elbows with it: a hard, merciless man whose genius was worth ever harsh word and startling stunt. That's because what you gave us is every ounce cinematic gold, and for that, Mr. Friedkin, we give our undying thanks.