Performance Profile: Linda Blair in "The Exorcist" (1973)

As the next entry in this batch, I offer you one of the most notorious and flat-out odd nominations ever given out in the category. It's a strange and misfortunate thing when there is so much hype over something that hardly even exists, when "style" (if you can call it that), triumphs over substance in one's work. I give you the puzzling entity that Oscar chose to nominate, in the form of...

...Linda Blair in The Exorcist (1973)

Linda Blair plays Regan MacNeil, the loved, young daughter of single mom Chris (Ellen Burstyn giving a rich and powerfully haunting performance).

The two live together alone as Chris (an actress) is in the area to film a movie, and without a father nearby, Regan stays close to her mother for love and affection - both of which Chris genuinely endows upon her daughter.

And like most child characters, Blair's Regan is a precocious 12 year-old little girl, but not one is abnormally wise beyond her years. The film sets up the early scenes to show the tight bond between mother and daughter and how that bond is tightened by the fact that they are the only family each other has.

In these scenes, Blair does something that I had missed on previous viewing, and something that actually works for the narrative action to come. In the pre-demon scenes, Blair simply and vividly establishes Regan as an average little girl, who's adorableness and sweet disposition further enhance her mother's devotion and our empathy. She lays down this overlooked yet essential foundation of Regan's true purity and innocence which wins us over, yet only to tear us apart when things happen.

But Blair also conveys that Regan's alot smarter and mature/precocious than she seems at first and how she understands and becomes a part of the conflicts the grown-ups around her, like how her father doesn't want anything to do with her. It's these subtle, darker shades which Blair illuminates and culminates into worse things to come.

And just when things are looking good, Chris starts seeing some strange things happen to her young daughter.

In other words, some pretty freaky shit starts to go down and Regan is caught in the middle of all of it.

It seems that a seriously twisted demon (or the devil?) has found its way into Regan's body and is slowly beginning to take over, which in turn wrecks seriously devastating havoc for those around her.

She begins to "spider-walk" down steps....

...masturbate with a crucifix....

...and vomit green disgusting slime with a mouth she wouldn't dare kiss her mother with. These disturbing outbursts cause Chris to get help for her daughter, and fast. She gets help in the for Father Damien Karras (Jason Miller, in a subtle and textured performance) who believes he can help expel the demon before its too late.

It's from here where Blair's performance falls down into the category of an elaborately, expertly executed stunt rather than directed towards any real acting.

And the sad part is that it really isn't Blair's fault at all -- she's just simply being used as a puppet/device that propels the story's center action forward. The infamy surrounding Blair's performance and nomination derives, of course, from the fact that Blair did not provide the voice of the demon but that it was Mercedes McCambridge who did all of the vocals. Come Oscar time everyone believed it was all Linda, then when McCambridge spoke the truth all hell broke loose for The Exorcist people, and Linda's front-runner status dropped right away.

But, really? Did everyone seriously believe that a fourteen year old girl could do those spot on vocalizations that almost killed McCambridge to do? I think not. However, I do admire Blair's physical dexterity in the role even if it isn't all her, and the facial expressions (combined with her expressive eyes), she's able to project do make me believe that there is something haunting within this child.

I find the character of Regan to be an interesting creation, but although Blair's natural appeal early on draws me in, the rest of my interest is towards McCamridge's fantastic vocal performance, not really any kind of acting because the film allows Blair to do little from here on.

It's a peculiar nomination and a performance where I wish there had actually been more of a performance, rather than having the effects take over in place of an actual character. But, its interesting, memorable stuff and when Blair does get to act, she does it surprisingly right -- thankfully.