The Exorcist- A Cultural Memory

I knew about Luke Skywalker's paternity before the Empire struck back. I knew what Sophie chose before Stingo did. I didn't have to see The Crying Game to know what he was crying about. If I grew up where it actually snowed, my sled would have been named Rosebud. It took me several years to get around to seeing American Pie, but I was still well aware of what happened one time at band camp. I didn't need to watch Alien to know why John Hurt. Hannibal Lecter didn't have to tell me the proper wine and side dish pairing for human liver. I didn't need The Shinning to tell me what all work and no play make Jack.

Some movies are so embedded in the cultural memory. That you don't actually have to see them to know everything about them. You just pick them up by osmosis. The Exorcist is one of those movies. One of the reasons I put off seeing for this long is that I was sure I knew everything about it. The other is that I was born a coward and only recently realized that scary movies don't actually scare me. In fact, I tend to find them hilarious. The Shining is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I mean when the black guy received a physic signal to help, traveled all the way across the country through a terrible snowstorm, and then proceeded to get axed in the back before doing anything useful, I nearly busted a gut. Sorry, I seem to have lost my train of thought...Anyway in this post, I present things I knew about The Exorcist before I ever saw it and how a few of those things weren't quite true.

I knew the exorcism team was an old priest, who had done this before, and a young priest, who had lost his faith. All true.

I knew it was about a little girl possessed by the Devil. Maybe true. It was definitely a demon of some type, but despite its claim it may not have been the Devil. There may have been as many as three demons in her. The name and quantity of possessors was never clear.

I knew there was projectile pea-soup vomiting. True. That happened and frequently.

I knew that there were psychokinetic powers and murders. Probably true. The demon frequently exhibited psychokinesis and committed several murders, but the murders were off-screen so it's not clear how they were actually committed.

I knew a scene involved crucifix masturbation and another living room urination. Yep, that happened.

I knew the girl had the inexplicably creepy name Linda Blair. Kind of true. Linda Blair is the name of the actress. The character's name is Reagan, as in Ronald "Mr. Gorbachev, let me take credit for your socioeconomic collapse that I had little to nothing to do with while I raise taxes and give weapons to terrorists" Reagan. (Now that I think about it Reagan being possessed by the Devil would explain a lot.)

I knew that the girl does a 360 head spin. False. We see her go 180 at least once, but she never lands the 360 and that's going to cost her with the judges.

I knew it took the title character forever to appear before he is quickly dispatched. Mostly true. The Exorcist appears in a brief scene at the beginning which does nothing to move the plot forward or become important later. He them disappears until the movie is almost over and dies soon after returning to the film. But while he didn't get much screen time, he was certainly an important figure.

I knew that the power of Christ compels you. True. Rhythmic chanting: our greatest weapon against the Devil.

I knew that it was highly sacrilegious. False. When you think about, the crux of the story is about the young priest finding redemption through faith and the power of good over evil, hardly anti-religious messages. There are several comments about the Catholics being out of date and kooky for performing exorcisms, but as the entire medical and psychiatric community is unable to help the girl and the demon turns out to be real, the Catholic church is more than vindicated. There is desecration of religious icons, but as these acts are performed by the living embodiment of evil, it's hard to call the film sacrilegious for that. The Exorcist is the most ardently pro-Catholic film I have ever seen.

Never trust a cultural memory to get it right. They tend to get altered and corrupted until you are saying "Beam me up, Scotty" and thinking Reagan is the Republican ideal. You know nothing until you have done the research for yourself.