What they were able to get away with, content-wise, back in 1973 remains kind of staggering, but the great thing is that even at its most shocking, THE EXORCIST never, ever feels gimmicky or cheap or schlocky. The inherent tension between director William Friedkin’s uncompromising dedication to realism and writer William Peter Blatty’s very Catholic perspective is one of the film’s greatest strengths, and it achieves an equilibrium between the two that works superbly. It also contains the most effective and nuanced “crisis of faith” ever put on film, and Jason Miller gives one of the great unheralded performances of the 1970s to bring that arc to life in a way that defies cliches or easy emotion. On a technical level, the film is beautifully-crafted, from the chilly cinematography to Dick Smith’s striking makeup to the ground-breaking sound design, and there is not a bad performance to be found among the excellent cast (Ellen Burstyn and Linda Blair -- as well as Miller -- should have walked away with Oscars). I find THE EXORCIST relentlessly unsettling, but also surprisingly meaningful in the way it subtly wrestles with concepts of faith and good & evil. This is one of my all-time favorite films.