Sorcerer
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Movie Reviews of Sorcerer
Movie Review: We Need Widescreen!!
Summary: 5 Stars
Roy Scheider plays a Mafia gang member who participates in a botched hold-up of a rival crew's operation. As the getaway car crashes, Scheider's character, forced to abandon the money, is left to escape the police who are fast closing in. This is how "Sorecerer" opens - at a point where you'd think less ambitious movies would usually end. Scheider, now hunted by the Mob and the law, and with time running out, accepts a hurriedly arranged escape-plan to flee the country that's fraught with unanswered questions. From this point on, every step he takes, however expedient or desperate, to extricate himself from his dire circumstances, takes him deeper into a nightmarish world where events are ever-increasingly beyond his control - all the way up to a shattering, surreal conclusion. I hadn't seen "Wages Of Fear" before this movie, but "Sorcerer" left a tremendous impression on me. It's as convincing as any "descent-into-hell" picture I've ever seen, like "Apocolypse Now", "Deliverance" or "Angel Heart". Friedkin's universe here is devoid of heroes - everyone is a villain. And trust is viewed with suspicion, even when it's a matter of survival.The acting is convincing and, yes, I even like the directing. The script, what there is, is good and the score is phenominal, but, it's really about how they (along with the various plotlines) all converge to create such a singularly gritty, horrifically surreal and numbingly Noir-ish universe - the sheer force of which is a little hard to shake off, even after it's over. In fact, one critic called it: "The toughest, most relentless American film in a long time". Other critics panned it as some sort of monumental directorial failure, but personally, I actually enjoy it when a filmmaker makes demands on my attention span. If it's a failure, then it's one of my favorite kinds.
The union of film and music in this movie is outstanding. Almost unbelievably, Friedkin, paying homage to Tangerine Dream, writes in the liner notes for the CD: "One day in the middle of a primeval forest in the Dominican Republic, about six months into the shooting, a tape arrived from The Dream, containing ninety minutes of musical impressions. It is from this tape that the film is scored, though the musicians had not then nor even now as this is written seen any of the footage". I can only ponder the degree to which the music must have impacted the remaining production and post-production, but I can't imagine the synergy of this film/music combo having been improved upon.
According to at least one source, this film was shot in Panavision. That scope is always 2.35:1. And from looking at the compositions on the full-frame DVD, I'd say that's a safe bet. It's true that Friedkin dictated the laserdisc to be pan&scan. I suppose that he may have felt, on the small screen anyway, that facial expressions were more important than vistas in this film, but, that's just my speculation. Maybe it was done for art-direction concerns, I dunno. Even so, things have changed since the original LD release and video display devices (mine among them) have increased in size and resolution steadily over the years and I (the above art-direction concerns notwithstanding) would jump at the chance to own an anamorphic DVD of this unforgettable movie.
Movie Review: A remake as good as the original, if not better
Summary: 5 Stars
When it comes to making remakes of classic films, it's almost a guarantee that the newer picture won't live up to expectations. One of the few that does is Sorcerer, a 1977 remake of The Wages of Fear. The movie begins with introductions of four characters, all of them running for their lives as something goes wrong, one is a terrorist, another a banker, one a getaway driver, and the fourth a hitman on the run. On the run from their pasts, these four men find themselves in a desolate, rundown Nicaraguan village. When it seems all hope is lost, a solution presents itself, a very dangerous one. A local oil company needs nitroglycerin transported to one of their wells. Driving two trucks, the foursome heads out through the jungle where the slighest disrpution might set off the nitro. The movie creates a sense of doom and dread like few others. With every bump, your stomach drops. The last hour is nerve-wracking all the way until the twist ending that caught me off-guard completely, and hopefully will surprise you too. It's a very real movie, almost like a documentary, putting you in the driver's seat with the characters.
Leading the four main characters, Roy Scheider plays Jackie Scanlon, a getaway driver of a robbery gone horrifically wrong. Scanlon is on the run, a mafioso on his tail looking for revenge. Scheider is very strong here in an incredibly physical part. Bruno Cremer is Victor Manzon, a French banker who discovers $15 million francs are missing from his bank, completely unaccounted for. Manzon may be the most sympathetic character, a man who just wants to see his wife again. Franciso Rabal is the most mysterious as Nilo, a hitman hiding out in the village, but we never find out why. Amidou stars as Kassem, the lone survivor of a terrorist bombing, the rest of his men being arrested or killed. These characters all have their faults, but the actors do such a good job you find yourself rooting for them. Ramon Bieri has a good supporting role as Corlette, the man who sends these men on a suicide mission.
The DVD is a dissappointment unfortunately, but it's not expensive so that's good. The movie's shown in a grainy fullscreen presentation that does make the movie look grittier, more realistic if nothing else. Special features include a trailer and cast and crew info. Maybe there's a special edition somewhere down the road, but for now this might have to do. It's a fantastic movie that will keep you pinned to your seat until the final shot, check out Sorcerer!
Movie Review: Harrowing Cult Classic!
Summary: 5 Stars
If you are considering this film, no doubt you know that it is a remake (or hommage to) the classic French thriller Wages of Fear. Chances are everyone is also familiar with the outlines of the plot--a group desparate men agree to transport cargoes of unstable dynamite through 200 miles of South American jungle to put out an oilfield fire. Of course the drivers know they have voluneered for a suicidal job and the odds are against the survival of any of the truck drivers. That alone puts Sorcerer (along with Runaway Train & Sam Peckinpaw's The Wild Bunch) into the rarest category of films: the big-budget Hollywood existential! My view, a distinct minority view, is that William Friedkin's remake surpasses the orginal as an exercise in suspense and harrowing, relentless action. Like many other fans of this movie, my introduction came during the 1980s on cable movie channels. Few people saw Sorcerer on the big screen. The film was initally panned by critics and cited as a prime example of a young director with too much ego, power and money creating yet another Hollywood box-office disaster. Gradually, the film acquired an audience and a legacy through word of mouth. Today many critics see Sorcerer as the last great product of the seventies generation of young Hollywood film-makers. It is no accident that Sorcerer and Star Wars opened the same day!In many ways, the film marks the transition from the courageous experimental Hollywood of the seventies to the family blockbusters and action franchises of today. Fans of Sorceror appreciate the director's commitment to the story of desperate men risking everything to escape a very realistic, modern version of hell on earth. The opening backstory sequences show us how a small-time New Jersey criminal, a disgraced French banker, a Mexican assassin, and an Arab terrorist find themselves driving old trucks that can (and will) explode at any moment. The film has a hypnotic, dreamlike feel and the viewer will be drawn into a dark journey that can only end one way. The score by the German band Tangerine Dream is at once seductive and chilling and contributes to the growing atmosphere of susense and dread. If you like stylish action and relentless story-telling, you should not miss this film. The DVD quality is OK but perhaps we might hope for a remastered director's cut with better special features at some point.Movie Review: One of my top 10 favorite movies of all Time
Summary: 5 Stars
A truly great movie.
Just in case you haven't read the other reviews, a partial summary of the plot: the movie revolves around 4 losers who have committed some kind of major mistake in their life. These mistakes are shown by what are essentially 4 separate opening vignettes. Then in order to escape the consequences of their actions, they have ran away and end up in HELL! Hell is a small really crappy South American town from which they have almost no chance of escape. It is in this hell that the four losers are brought together. Then if they brave almost certain death, they are offered a slim chance of redemption and an escape from this self made hell. Watch the movie to learn the rest.
The other reviews may talk about comparison to the original classic french film. Others may discuss the director and the production problems. What they all miss and don't discuss is the realism of this movie. All you have to do is watch this movie and you'll be convinced that they are truly in hell. The prettiest looking woman in town next to a toothless used up prostitute is the drawing of a woman on an old coca-cola tray. Even then when these losers stare at the tray it is open to question as to whether they lust more for this imaginary woman or the ice cold coke next to her. The hopelessness of their initial situation is made quite clear as is the fact that unless presented with a miracle this is a self created hell from which there is no escape.
This is not a movie for people who go to the cinema for escape and good feelings. This is not a chick flick where you cry twice and rejoice in a happy ending. This is a movie for those of us who are tired of such films and enjoy the total realism of this movie.
And the best thing of all is that the stark realism never lets up. Even when you think the hero(?) of the movie has escaped from his self made hell, there is one last surprise.
God, I love this movie.
Movie Review: An overlooked gem
Summary: 5 Stars
Forget "Wages of Fear" for a moment and look at the merits of the DVD release of William Friedkin's "Sorcerer."I would have overlooked this film had Siskold and Ebert not flagged it as an under-rated film and under-rated it is. I caught it on HBO and later purchased the Laserdisc.
But the DVD is a step up from there. The color is excellent and the DVD sound is spectacular with the score by Tangerine Dream. Vivid is the word.
Friedkin, who cut his teeth in commercial television, doggedly sticks to his 1:1.33 aspect ratio for this release, but one sees his way of looking at the scenes in this way.
And, oh the cargo! Cases of sensitive dynamite leaking nitroglycerine carried in two trucks driving 15 minutes apart over "pre-Columbian" roads for 200 miles through a South American jungle past, over, or through every danger one can imagine. Dynamite truckers are sometimes called "suicide jockies" even on regular roads. This is downright kamakazi.
Once the journey starts and Tangerine Dream plays the score, it becomes a white knuckle journey not only for the drivers, but for the audience as well. Not good men (after all their are on the lam) but I wound up caring for all of them -- and that says something for the way Friedkin draws the viewer in.
Perhaps the "superior characterization" of the earlier film appeals to those who like the personal stories and certainly there is a place for that, but for the raw imagery of the journey, "Wages" does not touch Sorcerer. If anything, both films should be seen and enjoyed, each for their different focus.
I especially liked the opened ended ending of Sorcerer -- open to debate -- does the theme music mean the end, or yet another spin of the wheel?
Is this a never-ending story? Is it the story of "everyman?"