The great American filmmaker William Friedkin made movies about a police officer whose methods were scarcely discernible from criminals (The French Connection), a priest challenged on his own failings by the devil (The Exorcist), and a detective who blends in far too comfortably with the murder suspect he is pursuing (Cruising). Friedkin, who died in August at the age of 87, did not merely tell the stories of these flawed figures, but seemed to comprehend their essential universality. Each of us, Friedkin was saying, shares in the flaws that make an officer compromised, a priest doubtful, and a detective enigmatic. He spoke of his interest in what he called “the thin line between good and evil.”

Friedkin’s harsh, harsh vision is as far from being touchy-feely as imaginable, yet his works are possessed by a peculiar empathy for those scoundrels, outcasts, and misfits who are judged by a society that nonetheless cannot proffer any alternatives to them.