William Friedkin’s 10 Most Jaw-Dropping Movie Moments
4. To Live And Die In LA (1985)
The 1980s were a leaner decade for Friedkins output than the 1970s, but despite this he did produce one of his best ever movies right in the middle of the era with To Live and Die in LA, which also pulled off the seemingly impossible task of equalling - and perhaps even topping - his iconic car chase of 14 years previously from The French Connection. To Live and Die in LA starred CSIs William Petersen as an LA cop chasing Willem Dafoes high-rolling counterfeiter. Its up there with the better known titles in Friedkins oeuvre and deserves to be recognised as a classic 80s cop movie. But once again, it is a car chase which stole the show. Apparently Friedkin got the idea for staging the chase down the wrong way of a Los Angeles freeway some twenty years previously - after falling asleep at the wheel and waking up on the wrong side of the road. It took him the next two decades to figure out how to use it, but the results are pretty spectacular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVzWkdCauS4
Since studying Film and Art History at University, I’ve been an actor, movie stand-in and journalist. I have contributed to a number of media websites, worked on national daily newspapers, written fiction of all kinds and worked as a gravedigger.
