William Friedkin on His Near Death Experience, the Afterlife, and Christopher Hitchens

[@timvitkuske]

Rest in Peace, William! You will be remembered!

[@tomobrien563]

Absolutely a brilliant and thoughtful human being. His mix of toughness and sensitivity is so unique. I wish I could have known him. Really interesting guy.

[@SailfishSoundSystem]

When Bill died, God was like fuck! Send him back for a couple more films please, I can't deal with him now.

[@GreenTeaViewer]

Just let the man speak

[@John-ku5uu]

Upon watching the Exorcist in 1973, I knew exactly what the director was trying to show us. I was never more deeply moved. Years later, he said he really believed in the teachings of Jesus. I had never heard of exorcism even though brought up as a Catholic. I was never the same since

[@zorantaylor3190]

I didn't even know he was a Christian, he's one of these guys where that feels surprising in a very specific way, like Alice Cooper or Norm MacDonald. "They're too irreverent for it", or something.

[@matthewcrome]

@@zorantaylor3190 Norm MacDonald was a Christian? That is shocking!

[@benjamingentile1660]

Where is the full interview?

[@SailfishSoundSystem]

Bill burned it on Pacino's front yard while eating a donut.

[@John-ku5uu]

I would have loved to have met him and discussed life.

[@acec4461]

i was actually slated to meet Billy as part of a film festival in the summer of 2020 -- the pandemic took that away from me and i'll always regret not meeting him.

[@kevinwhelan9607]

Thanks for posting this- I had no idea. I think it's so ironic that it took a Jew to make a great Catholic film, ie The Exorcist. What a mensch! RIP and thank you to a great artist of the cinema who gave me so much pleasure❤❤❤

[@billjones8503]

I read Hitchen's book The Missionary Position on Mother Teresa. Makes a strong case, & I'm Catholic.

[@beeroftherat1]

Same. Haven't read that particular book, but I'm familiar with Hitchens' points on the matter. She certainly wasn't the person she was made out to be when I was in Catholic school.

[@billjones8503]

@@beeroftherat1 Hitchen's book piqued my interest, so read 2 more bios of her: One quite critical & one more conciliatory. Still, didn't change my opinion much. Vy sus!?

[@Smoomty]

Hitchens had a tendency to lie about church figures he wasn't a fan of. He lied about Pope Pius XII and his book on Mother Teresa is full of either misunderstandings on his part of full on fabrications. For the lies about Pius XII the atheist blog "History for Atheists" tears him apart pretty thoroughly but you'll have to do some other research to find the debunking of the Mother Teresa disinformation because I don't remember off the top of my head where that is.

[@c.a.savage5689]

Exceptional interview. We all want to be "a believer." It's just that rational thought keeps getting in the way.

[@shawnm2709]

That's not as rational as you may think .

[@topskek9786]

NPC

[@groovi35]

Not rational imo, just something that seems „illogical“ but when you think about it; there are a lot of things that don’t make much sense but are still true. Trying to make sense out of it won’t make it more real. So Maybe not everything needs to be „rational“ „logical“ to be the truth

[@crusader7991]

Reason is only as good as what we know and understand. We keep learning, but we don't know and understand everything, and never will.

[@dónalÓNiadh]

Poor you. It's a shame that you can't figure out the mystery of faith with your rational mind.

[@John-ku5uu]

I hope Billy Saud, "OH this again. I did this before".....

[@umbrella0326]

Underrated director. Even his bombs were still pretty good.

[@John-ku5uu]

BILLY was actually an under rated director.

[@johnmorgan4405]

How was he underrated? He is an Oscar winning director who made the Exorcist and The French Connection.

[@ModernPlague]

1) Lots of good reasons to seriously consider the survival of consciousness after death. 2) Mother Theresa had a sadistic, fetishized enjoyment of others' suffering.

[@bnpzarie9511]

Which Roy Scheider film are these scenes from?

[@badinfluence3814]

All That Jazz.

[@daveg5857]

And Hitchens was right.

[@katoness]

Anyone that has NDE always talk about the white light.....!!

[@billysnickers]

After re watching The Exorcist recently I couldn't shake the feeling that it was a DEEPLY religious film, and after hearing this it all makes sense. I like that movie but I cannot stand the religious tone and this reinforces that.

[@JckSwan]

You object to the religious tone in a movie about an exorcism?

[@dónalÓNiadh]

​@@JckSwan The lack of awareness of some atheists is something to behold. Fancy being offended that a film on the battle between good and evil somehow manages to shoehorn in religion, eh? 😂

[@grisflyt]

@@JckSwan People watch it because it's famous and supposedly great. Yes, the religious theme hurts it. The depiction of doctors as cold and uncaring. And the whole "your puny science can't help you now." It's a well made piece of garbage. Maybe garbage is too much, but it is silly. Rosemary's Baby has effing Satan's child in it. It still has no religious theme. To quote the author, Ira Levin: "I feel guilty that 'Rosemary's Baby' led to The Exorcist, The Omen. A whole generation has been exposed, has more belief in Satan. I don't believe in Satan. And I feel that the strong fundamentalism we have would not be as strong if there hadn't been so many of these books [...] Of course, I didn't send back any of the royalty checks."[1]

[@marklanders6833]

@@grisflyt Let me just enlighten you for one second. The movie *The Exorcist* was based on a true story. The _"depiction of doctors as cold and uncaring, and the whole your puny science can't help you now"_ that you've mentioned were elements that _truly_ characterized those dark events that had taken place in real life. None of that was added to the story if not actually reduced and minimized. The movie *Rosemary Baby,* on the other hand, is based on Ira Levin's 1967 homonym novel. Therefore the story narrated in Rosemary Baby is purely fictional.

[@grisflyt]

@@marklanders6833 Both are pure fiction. The difference is that one is great. The other isn't. The Exorcist is a Christian anti-modernity movie. It's as stupid as Christian rock. _The thing with "The Exorcist" is it's not ambiguous in the slightest. It's an unsubtle reactionary screed that lambasts the female half of the species for maturing from adorable little girls to grotesque women. The ending is uneasy not just because the priest dies, but because we in the audience know that Regan's salvation was a temporary reprieve---sure, the demons are out of her, but the demons of puberty are marching in and no amount of praying will stop that. There's not a note of self-righteous Christian piety missed---the priest who is violently forced to reconsider when he starts questioning his faith, the unsubtle hint that Regan's mother brought this on herself by daring to be single, and of course the undisguised horror at the female body. The demons inside Regan know that above all else (in this universe), female sexuality is disgusting and blasphemous, which is why they whole masturbating with a cross thing. The priest who sacrifices himself to save her feminine purity? Yeah, pure glorification of the sacrifice of celibacy. The whole thing is stupid._ _ Jon Landeau, in the Rolling Stone, described the movie as "nothing more than a religious porn film, the gaudiest piece of shlock this side of Cecil B. DeMille (minus that gentleman’s wit and ability to tell a story) …" Indeed. "The Exorcist" helped mainstreamed misogynist religious schlock, helped make the case that you could smuggle repulsive religious ideas into pop culture and make them more palatable to people who just want to take in a good story._ www.rawstory.com/2008/10/pandagon-the_case_against_the_exorcist/ I bet the people who like this Christian schlock film also like the Holocaust schlock of the equally stupid Schindler's Lint. You really can't account for taste. Also "based on" means liberties were taken. Like Argo. Fiction.

[@rs7458]

I hope he accepted Jesus before he passed away.

[@lemasteraustin12]

Based on his many available dialogues, I’m pretty sure he did.

[@rs7458]

@@lemasteraustin12praise the Lord!

[@NathanielRises606]

Let’s hope he retained enough scepticism not to dive right into one guess in a thousand.

[@Alexander-tj2dn]

Why do you want other people to believe the same fairy tale as you?

[@rs7458]

@@Alexander-tj2dn why do you want to believe it’s a fairy tale when you’re afraid of facing your own accountability/sins?

[@TheHandsomeman]

God makes saints, not men.

[@ganglabesh]

she was a bad woman

[@oldhickory4686]

Speaking from the standpoint of a Born Again Christian, the words, "It's all right, it doesn't matter" would never be spoken by God. He didn't send His Son to die because "it doesn't matter". This was the devil.

[@indigohammer5732]

You venerate human sacrifice and torture so your opinions are worthless

[@pitmclord]

You’re claiming to know how an omnipotent being would respond in that unique situation where you weren’t even there? You must be the omnipotent being

[@oldhickory4686]

@@pitmclord Didn't need to be there. Jesus Christ said who makes it to heaven. John 3 KJV 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

[@pitmclord]

@@oldhickory4686 what does that have to do with my point? With minimal context of the environment this guy is describing you’re claiming to know things you cannot. Exaggerating the substance of your opinion based on partial information.

[@oldhickory4686]

@@pitmclord Mr. Friedkin is describing his experience, and he refers to it as his near death experience and the afterlife. Jesus Christ; who is God, explains very clearly what happens in the afterlife. Mr. Friedkin's experience doesn't correlate with Biblical doctrine. Why would I need more information, enough was said already. You believe what you want. I base my beliefs from the King James Bible.