Season 1: Episode 20 - BOOK TO SCREEN: The Exorcist (1972)

The Exorcist (1972)

 

Based on a true story of demonic possession in 1949 which William Peter Blatty heard about whilst being a student at Georgetown University in 1950.  Aspects of the character Father Merrin were based on the British archaeologist Gerald Lankester Harding, who had excavated the caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls had been found and whom Blatty had met in Beirut. Blatty has stated that Harding "was the physical model in my mind when I created the character [of Merrin], whose first name, please note, is Lankester."

​

Aspects of the novel were inspired by an exorcism performed by the Jesuit priest, Fr. William S. Bowdern, who formerly taught at both St. Louis University and St. Louis University High School.

 

Recent investigative research by freelance journalist Mark Opsasnick indicates that Blatty's novel was based on an actual 1949 exorcism of a young boy from Cottage City, Maryland, whom Opsasnick refers to using the pseudonyms Robbie Mannheim and Roland Doe. The boy was sent to his relative's home on Roanoke Drive in St. Louis where most of the exorcism took place.

​

Blatty refers to the Loudun possessions and the Louviers possessions throughout the story, mostly when Fr. Karras is researching possession and exorcism to present the case to his superiors.  He also has one of his characters tell a brief story about an unnamed fraudulent Spiritualist medium who had studied to be a Jesuit priest. This story can be found in Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, Vol. 114. 1930, in an article about fraudulent practices by Daniel Dunglas Home.

 

The film was nominated for seven Academy Awards winning two for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound Mixing.  The film would also win 4 Golden Globe Awards including Best Motion Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay. 

 

Opening Credits (.19); Introductions (1.39); Getting To Know Us (2.03); Forming the Plot (10.22); Prologue (13.30); Page to Page (14.26); Commercial Break (1:03.37); Film Trailer (1:04.03); Commercial Break (1:05.47); Lights, Camera, Action (1:06.23); Epilogue (1:51.02); End Credits (1:55.03); Closing Theme (1:56.02)

 

Opening Credits – Five Pieces for an Orchestra by The National Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin from the album ‘The Exorcist – An Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’

 

Closing Theme – Tubular Bells by Book of Love from the album ‘Lullaby’

 

All songs available from Amazon.

 

All rights reserved.