I was on the set of The Caine Mutiny: Court-Martial in February. Friedkin was shooting in a wheelchair due to circulatory issues, and Guillermo Del Toro was serving as his stand-in director, a kind of assistant to the main director provided by American productions when the director isn’t in top form. It was the last day of shooting, and Friedkin had managed to finish a couple of days ahead of schedule. He was genuinely thrilled and enthusiastic about the work he was completing, after twelve years since his last project, Killer Joe, which, by the way, had been presented in competition at Venice just two years before he was awarded a well-deserved Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
What struck me and touched me deeply was the immense admiration of the entire crew for him; they considered him a god! After all, not everyone gets to work with such a giant of filmmaking. In that small studio, where they had reconstructed a military courtroom, there was a palpable reverence for him. None of us could have imagined being here now, mourning him; it was truly a heavy and unexpected blow.
