I’m not sure we’ve ever had a case of a great director’s final movie being their best, but a number of iconic filmmakers have capped their careers with memorable works, from Douglas Sirk’s “Imitation of Life” (1959) to Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” (1984) to John Huston’s “The Dead” (1987) to Akira Kurosawa’s “Madadayo” (1993) and Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut” (1999). When Chicago native William Friedkin died last August at 87, it was just weeks before the world premiere at the Venice Film Festival of his final film, the crisp and engrossing and bluntly effective “The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial.”
While Friedkin will always be heralded primarily for the towering twin achievements of “The Exorcist” and “The French Connection,” this is a more than respectable farewell.
