Better than expected. I have been skimming through his autobiography which is pretty good and it shows Friedkin having a really strong memory for his age, but that book is long and filled with loads of information for me to take all in. This documentary is a good summary of Friedkin's career and working methods. And it is funny, loads of good anecdotes from cast and crew of Friedkin's films. It's so good, I am considering buying a DVD copy in the future.
Other documentaries on filmmaking that I also recommend are Electric Boogaloo and Milius.

This is a solid documentary and they cram quite a lot into the running time, fortunately it isn't full of obsequious gushing, but instead good anecdotes, humour and truth. The more I watch his films over the years the more I believe he is one of the greats and this is a fitting tribute. Hopefully he gets to make many more films.

If you like the man's movies this is a must see. There's nothing new here but it's a comprehensive reflection on a phenomenal body of work by the man himself, as well some of the industry's most important figures like Dario Argento, Francis Ford Coppola, ex-cop/consultant Randy Jurgenson and Matthew McConaughey.

William Friedkin, ‘Billy’ to his friends, actors and fellow film makers, has participated in a documentary made on his career, tastes, character, films and general philosophy, by a fan of his. If this man had been a dancer, he’d have been Gene Kelly; if a musician, Puccini; if a filmmaker, Orson Welles, Fritz Lang, Fellini, Keaton, those he calls ‘artists’-wait a minute , he is a film maker! Yes, but he doesn’t class himself as an ‘artist’,he just makes films after taking a subject-exorcism, New York cops, truck drivers in the Mexican jungle, the 80s gay scene in New York-and shoots them in one take.” Just do it!” Billy is well liked, as told in jokes and anecdotes by actor friends, Dafoe, Peterson, McConaughey, Barkin, Gershon and Shannon; or related by directors like Coppola, Scott, Tarantino( mesmerised by ‘Sorcerer’), Lang, Dario Argento. Billy has a great way of choosing actors for his movies who remain lifelong friends. The actors he chooses make his films have the impact they have.

Friedkin has a great taste in art and lives in a typical Hollywood house, but with lavish displays of books and artworks. People, who he invites to his house like a young film maker he loves, are thoroughly impressed, as he wines and dines them. Billy unlike a lot of film makers of his generation never went to film school. So he doesn’t believe in rehearsals, that’s ‘sissy’. He’s even filmed people (Peterson remembers in To Live and Die in LA) who were told to do a run through of a scene and he’d filmed them without them knowing, ‘cut!’. His 1st film was a documentary on a black man on death row in prison, he was innocent, and he got him off the death sentence. This black and white documentary was the template for all his films: a documentary core of reality from which he elicits a story. He researches all his films by getting to know the geography of the locality, or running with cops on the beat who do a drug bust (as in The French Connection). The car chase in that film following the train was done in real time through the streets of New York. The Exorcist is set in reality and the subject matter grows out of it, so you believe it. This doc takes us cleverly behind the making of his major films, interviewing the actors.

Friedkin has a style of talking which is full of devilry and humour, like a latter-day Huston without the self-importance, he even sings to make a point, “I’m singing in the rain, just…” He regales audiences on the continent, in Russia, Venice, Sitges, France, all where he’s won awards, about his style of film making. He even sends himself up, ‘None of you in the audience were born when I made that film!’ (The Sorcerer)He’s been happily married for the last 25 years, so his feet are always on the ground. The actors say you have to give him 200% of yourself, as he gives 200 % of himself. He won’t tolerate bullshit. He’s almost got the character of a well-dressed mechanic. His eyes glimmer and he has even been asked to direct operas. The Europeans can’t get enough of him and love his big-hearted nature. This man both enjoys life and loves life. He meets a real exorcist in Venice and makes a documentary of an exorcism to see how close he got in his fictional film. He aims for reality, but claims the greatest film makers transcend reality. He’s a likeable guy looking to the ‘greats’ not his peers.