Sorcerer (1977)

I've not yet seen The Wages Of Fear, but I have seed the American B picture remake The Violent Road. That was a good no frills film, but Sorcerer is really first rate and shows what can be done by a good director with the budget to use it. A lot of which was spent by hiring a truly international cast to play his four protagonists.

The phrase 'international cast' is a rather overused description for a group of players of various backgrounds. But in this film William Friedkin used four players who were top names in the cinema of their respective countries. Roy Scheider, Paco Rabal, Amidou, and Bruno Cresson insured that the various countries they represented would be plunking down their money to see Sorcerer as well as guaranteeing some great performances.

These four people who no one would say are the cream of the crop from their society all wind up in exile in a South American jungle working on an oil rig under assumed names. Roy Scheider is a gangster from America on the lam because he pulled the wrong job and shot the priest brother of a Mafioso. Paco Rabal is a contract killer from Spain, he might be there looking for Scheider. Bruno Cresson is a French war hero fleeing a banking scandal. And Amidou who is from Morocco is a terrorist the Israelis want real bad.

There's an oil fire that's threatening to burn over the jungle and the only available explosives to use to blow it out is some really unstable nitroglycerin which has to be transported 200 miles on some bad roads and other hazardous conditions. So four guys who really have nothing to lose volunteer to drive the stuff in two trucks.

William Friedkin made some great use of the location cinematography in the Dominican Republic to show what the great risks these guys are taking. You feel yourself riding shotgun with all of them on the trip.

As it happened I took a vacation in Spain in 2001 and when I got there the Spanish media was full of news of the death of Paco Rabal on a flight from Montreal to Madrid. You would have thought the head of state had passed away, he was that idolized by the people there. He and Roy Scheider played well off each other, their scenes are the best in the film.

Sorcerer is destined to be one eternal classic over the years, don't miss it if broadcast or better revived on the big screen.

Fmovies: Here's one exception to the general rule or opinion that re-makes are not as good as the originals. This is even better than the 1953 "The Wages Of Fear."

"Sorcerer" (a better title might have helped in the status of this film) is divided into three segments. The first part deals with the various criminal acts committed by the four principal characters in their particular part of the world.

The second part shows the seedy life these criminals must now endure in a poor South American town after they are forced to flee their respective countries.

The third segment is the major part of the story. An oil well fire rages out of control and these men are selected to do something that can solve the problem, in exchange for enough money to get them out of that hellhole. The job: transport cans of extremely-volatile nitroglycerin in a truck in a harrowing 218-mile trek through jungle terrain to the site of the disaster.

This long segment is one of the most suspenseful and well-photographed scenes I've ever seen on film. This is good stuff, particularly for the first-time viewer. There are some amazing scenes that just about wear you out.

Added to the no-nonsense story directed by one of the best, William Friedkin, is some unique electronic music by "Tangerine Dream." If you are thinking of the kids watching, there is no sex and very little profanity but some of the violence is very bloody.

An underrated film with a typically stellar Roy Scheider performance, an eerie Tangerine Dream soundtrack, and brilliant visuals. This film's reputation suffers from its inexplicable title and unfavorable comparisons to the original. But it's useless to compare since this film is an altogether different beast. Friedkin gives it his usual nihilist/fatalist/existential stamp, making it a much darker film than the French version. Very suspenseful and well-made. Made by Friedkin at the height of his powers. His third best film after Exorcist and French Connection.

Sorcerer fmovies. SPOILERS This is one of those movies that demands a close second look. At first glance it seems like a unique action movie with some good performances. But upon closer inspection, this movie is almost like a minor horror movie, somewhat reminding one of The Sixth Sense, with its twisted vision of a man in hell. If one were to pay close attention to several scenes in the film, one would come away thinking that the main character played by Roy Scheider, has literally died and went to hell. From the beginning when he is involved in a car crash, what follows is a subtle, yet highly symbolic underlying theme of a man who is on a journey to the devils domain. COnsider the car crash, was Roy Scheider the only survivor, or was he indeed dead, perhaps a ghost. Consider the group that he was forced to join on their suicide mission, an assassin, a terrorist, a swindler and a gangster, all headed for the fall, and a trip to hell for their bad deeds. Consider the burning fires of the oil factory, this is where they are headed, the fires are symbolic of hell itself. Consider the crossing of the bridge in the storm. The sound of that terrifying wailing wind, the demon wind, could that have been the entrance, the gates to hell itself, there are so many slight references to the idea that this is more then what it seems. In a nutshell Sorcerer is simply brilliant, the kind of movie that they just do not make anymore.

Try to clear your mind of the fact that "The Wages of Fear" exists as a previous French movie. I've seen it and its a great movie on its own merits. Would it be better if Sorcerer had not been made so that Wages would have its pristine place in the film pantheon. No, it would not.

I saw Sorcerer in a movie theater when it first came out (having seen and like Friedkin's two earlier films) and was knocked for a loop. I wonder how many of the reviewers here who disparage Sorcerer have only seen it on a TV screen.

Because, I gotta tell you, some parts of this movie seen on the widescreen are mind blowing. Getting that truck (which just about has a personality of its own) across that rope bridge during what looks like a hurricane has to be one of the most intense moments in cinema history. What they pull off in that scene looks patently impossible. And without a speck of CGI.

One of the great adventure movies.

The score by Tangerine Dream ("kings of the German synthesizer") is spellbinding. (For another great TD-drenched movie, see Michael Mann's Thief.) And it has one of the late Roy Scheider's greatest performances.

Sorcerer is directed by William Friedkin and adapted to the screen by Waldo Green from Georges Arnaud's novel Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear). It stars Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Raba and Amidou. Music is scored by Tangerine Dream and cinematography by John M. Stephens and Dick Bush.

It bombed famously at the cinema, was a location shoot nightmare with rows aplenty between cast and director, and even recently a court case erupted over the film as Friedkin sued Paramount and Universal over ownership of the picture. A film with such a mystical sounding title, could it be cursed? All the shenanigans surrounding Sorcerer have sort of had it hovering around the "forgotten" bin, where were it not for the Friedkin purists and 1970s movie aficionados it would have dropped in and had the lid put on it. However, if ever a movie from 1977 deserved to be revisited and treated better on home formats, then Sorcerer is the one. Where in its complete two hour form plays out as a lesson in skilled story formation, letting us know how these guys came to be in the situation they find themselves in, which in turn gives way to utter suspense as desperate men fight nature's jungle whilst perched on the precipice of explosive doom.

There are a number of factors put forward on why Sorcerer failed at the box office. The title itself is a classic case of misdirection, the name given to one of the trucks in the story, it conjured up images of mystical and magical dalliances, it's safe to say that the film is a million miles away from that sort of genre. It also went up against the box office monster that was Star Wars, in comparison, and Friedkin readily admits this, it's dwarfed in production scope and cross demographic appeal. Then there is the matter of the "cut" version that did the rounds, where almost thirty minutes were chopped to allow more showings in theatres, without Friedkin's permission, the resulting film was a travesty of Friedkin's vision. Lead man Scheider, who is terrific, didn't want to promote the film, such was his anger at Friedkin cutting a subplot involving his character being shown in a sympathetic light. Have to say the director was right in keeping it grim.

Also there's the Clouzot's factor and his version of the Arnaud novel released in 1953. Much beloved by many a critic as some sort of sacred cow of French cinema, Clouzot's The Wages of Fear is a very good film, but hardly a masterpiece. Looking back at some of the reviews upon Sorcerer's release, it seems that some big critics of the day wanted to appear cool by lauding from the roof tops about a foreign movie and how it shouldn't be remade. Weird really since Sorcerer isn't a remake, it's an interpretation on Arnaud's source. Inspired by Clouzot? Undoubtedly, but it's not remaking his movie. They moaned about the good hour of build up, calling it slow, but I'm sure I remember it rightly that Clouzot's movie does the same thing, and that didn't have Friedkin's fluid camera and Tangerine Dream laying hypnotic synthesisers all over it.

Though the current Region 1 DVD of the film is full frame and grainy in print, the skill of the director, photographer and actors really comes to the fore. Film is often gritty and realistic and playing better now thematically than it did back in the 1970s. The locations are real and you are easily transported into the character's world, you feel the danger as nature and human bandits enter th