The Eternal Struggle

 

Father Merrin prepares for battle

No, this won't be any recruitment for Christianity or Catholicism. Remaining within the context of the film and Blatty's novel/story, I will stick to that. Whether or not I believe or you believe in God, I think we can dissect and analyze a film when it deals with religion, or if defined down further, good versus evil. But I completely understand when discussing "The Exorcist" (1973), it isn't always so easy to shoo away atheist anti-religious feelings if you don't believe in God. And so the film's impact might not land at all. In fact, I can see why many might fret at Reagan (Linda Blair), her head turning all the way around, her eyes going white, her bed and herself levitating, her tummy yielding HELP ME as a cry for help from within a possessed carcass, stabbing her vagina with the crucifix while asking Christ to do something quite unseemly. All of this, with green pea soup vomited and loogied at priests, among other acts of demonic misbehavior, could be seen from very skeptical non-believers as hooey. So I totally get that this film just won't work. It will be dismissed and discarded. I went through the user comments of the film, something I've done lately out of curiosity, and the number of 1/10 reviews and tags of "overrated" were plentiful. This doesn't hold as much power as it did then. I find plenty of riches in the film, and it works to me, but I don't discount that plenty others will pooh-pooh it as nonsense.

 

But I digress... One of key sequences that left me always fascinated and troubled was Father Merrin's (Max von Sydow) death. The film starts with him in Northern Iraq during a big archeological dig, searching for various historical artifacts, locating a small sculpted image of demon Pazuzu, buried away, unrecovered. Director Friedkin sets up the famous shot of a larger sculpture of Pazuzu complete with wings and torso with hand raised casting this calling to Satan (it would seem). The dust kicked up, dogs fighting, sun beating down, Friedkin shows the aging, weary Merrin looking at Pazuzu, an establishment of the two eventually at battle (again, as we later learn from Catholic priests discussing Merrin as the lead in an exorcism of Reagan with Father Karras (Jason Miller) assisting, a past exorcism nearly killed Merrin). What is ultimately tragic about this and the famous Exorcist poster setting up Merrin with Georgetown streetlight baring down on him in the thick of night as he faces Reagan's window in her actress mom's apartment is that Pazuzu defeats him. In this film's story, Merrin faces and squares off against evil, but he's just too old and weak to truly upend the possession of a sweet little girl. He prays, prepares, coaches a faith-weakened Karras for the fight ahead. But as we are told more than once, Merrin's shaking hand reached into a little tin meds container for his heart. We are ourselves prepared for Merrin's unfortunate demise. 

And what intrigued me is we are never privy to what exactly happened. Karras is outside on the stairs bothered by his lack of faith and how "they" inside Reagan got into his psyche through the use of his dead mother. So whatever happened, Merrin is dead and Karras sees no other option but save Reagan and sacrifice himself. Merrin's failure wouldn't have seemed very Hollywood but in 1973, such tragedy was common in the movies. The script and Friedkin as director don't allow Merrin or Karras, hurling himself out Reagan's window and down the infamous stairs, to leave the film but through their sacrifices, the little girl was salvaged and her mother was able to take her home, even if worse for wear.