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William Friedkin

William Friedkin

11 Films

William Friedkin

11 Included Films

William Friedkin photo

William David Friedkin (August 29, 1935 – August 7, 2023) was an American film, television and opera director, producer, and screenwriter who was closely identified with the "New Hollywood" movement of the 1970s. Beginning his career in documentaries in the early 1960s, he is best known for his crime thriller film The French Connection (1971), which won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, and the horror film The Exorcist (1973), which earned him another Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Friedkin's other films in the 1970s and 1980s include the drama The Boys in the Band (1970), considered a milestone of queer cinema; the originally deprecated, now lauded thriller Sorcerer (1977); the crime comedy drama The Brink's Job (1978); the controversial thriller Cruising (1980); and the neo-noir thriller To Live and Die in L.A. (1985). Although Friedkin's works suffered an overall commercial and critical decline in the late 1980s, his last three feature films, all based on plays, were positively received by critics: the psychological horror film Bug (2006), the crime film Killer Joe (2011), and the legal drama film The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023), released two months after his death. He also worked extensively as an opera director from 1998 until his death, and directed various television films and series episodes for television. Description above from the Wikipedia article William Friedkin, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

The French Connection poster
Letterboxd
1080p Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

2012 Fox remastered Blu-ray

Best Video:

Fox remastered Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Fox remastered Blu-ray mono track

Additional Info:

This disc defaults to a lossless 5.1 remix, however in the setup menu, the original mono mix is included as a lossy alternative for the first time since the dawn of home video. The film was given a stereo remix very early on and remained stuck that way for decades.

Best English-Friendly:

2012 Fox remastered Blu-ray

Best Video:

Fox remastered Blu-ray

Best Audio:

Fox remastered Blu-ray mono track

Additional Info:

This disc defaults to a lossless 5.1 remix, however in the setup menu, the original mono mix is included as a lossy alternative for the first time since the dawn of home video. The film was given a stereo remix very early on and remained stuck that way for decades.

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray retains the revisionist colors with minor tweaks, has OG mono

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray retains the revisionist colors with minor tweaks, has OG mono

Best Audio:

Theatrical: 1985 WB LaserDisc (mono). 1997 WB DVD has the 1979 70mm reissue remix.

Best English-Friendly:

WB 4K Blu-ray retains the revisionist colors with minor tweaks, has OG mono

Best Video:

WB 4K Blu-ray retains the revisionist colors with minor tweaks, has OG mono

Best Audio:

Theatrical: 1985 WB LaserDisc (mono). 1997 WB DVD has the 1979 70mm reissue remix.

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray. See Chris's review

Best English-Friendly:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Criterion 4K Blu-ray. See Chris's review

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Arrow 4K Blu-ray

To Live and Die in L.A. poster
Letterboxd
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

 Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)

Best Video:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray >
Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray  Kino Lorber US Blu-ray, see caps

Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.

Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some better in the Capelight.

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow  4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LD track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout BDs was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LD audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.

Capelight and old Arrow BD included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.

The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.

Best English-Friendly:

 Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray (damage removed, improved color/HDR, and best audio) or Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray (best compression but no damage removal and LaserDisc audio from Arrow)

Best Video:

Arrow UK 4K Blu-ray >
Capelight DE 4K Blu-ray  Kino Lorber US Blu-ray, see caps

Arrow has done additional cleanup work removing nearly all the damage in the transfer. They have massaged the color timing and HDR to try and improve what they could. The Capelight may have better encoding but it does not have these improvements. The Arrow encoding is solid and in motion there are no issues whatsoever. The Kino release has the damage and other issues plus frequent noise due to the lesser encoding.

Some scenes in the Arrow transfer are better, some better in the Capelight.

Best Audio:

Original matrixed Dolby Stereo: Arrow  4K Blu-ray or Image Entertainment LaserDisc
(Arrow is a port of the LD track, see spectrograms) This track has the best fidelity of any release but does have some channel bleeding baked in. The 2017 2.0 on the Arrow and Shout BDs was the Dolby Stereo original mix without channel bleeding but that had heavy noise reduction resulting in a very flat and underwhelming presentation. The surround winds up being lessened as well due to the processing. It's a tough choice between the two but the Image LD audio wins out because it hasn't been messed with and the impact is so unrestrained that no other version hits in the same way.

Capelight and old Arrow BD included the original stereo mix, but with excessive noise reduction rendering it much less detailed. Kino only included a painfully defective 2.0 track sourced from somewhere with limited fidelity, volume spikes and screechy high end which frequently ruins the music. The 5.1 remix on most modern release is a processed version that does not sound as good as it once did.

The best and most accurate of the 5.1 mixes is the original version from the 2003 Special Edition DVD in lossy AC3 form.

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

Jade poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Australia Imprint 4K Blu-ray

Upcoming Release:

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or France 4K Blu-ray for the extras?

Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Best Video:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or France 4K Blu-ray for the extras?

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or Paramount Blu-ray

Best Video:

Both Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray and Paramount Blu-ray are problematic. One reel of the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray looks inferior, and the Paramount Blu-ray has some edge enhancement. Pick your poison between the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or the Paramount Blu-ray? Maybe the Kino Lorber Blu-ray included in the 4K Blu-ray is better

Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or Paramount Blu-ray

Best Video:

Both Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray and Paramount Blu-ray are problematic. One reel of the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray looks inferior, and the Paramount Blu-ray has some edge enhancement. Pick your poison between the Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray or the Paramount Blu-ray? Maybe the Kino Lorber Blu-ray included in the 4K Blu-ray is better

UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

Bug poster
UHD Blu-ray
Best English-Friendly:

Kino Lorber 4K Blu-ray

11 films