Sorcerer
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Movie Reviews of Sorcerer
Movie Review: Gritty Reality Play
Summary: 5 Stars
I first saw "Sorcerer" when 14, and I thought it was terrible. In my 40s, I see it differently as a mirror on reality and as a great movie.
Whatever your current problems, they aren't as bad as those of the principal characters in this movie. They are four men who are refugees from greater society (a terrorist, a man wanted for high-stakes financial malfeasance, a petty criminal wanted by the Mob, and a professional assassin). They all flee to a nasty South American back water town, and then the sabotage of an industrial facility 200 miles distant causes an oil well fire. Dynamite to put out the fire is located near the back water town, but it is very old and copiously leaching nitroglycerine. It has to be driven the 200 miles over truly bad third-world mountain-and-jungle roads, and the only available vehicles are a scrap heap of ancient trucks. The company asks for volunteers, and the four get selected. They cobble together two working trucks, and then the road trip begins.
What's great about the movie is watching how the men react to the enormous stress placed on them by the task they've accepted and how it tears them apart. They are beset by truly awful conditions (old and rotten rope-and-wood bridges, giant trees across the road, endless rain, crumbling mountainside roads, bandits, etc.) that take an enormous toll on the participants. It ends with the Roy Scheider character, clearly insane, hand-carrying the dynamite to the fire fighters. There is no happy ending here for anyone.
This was the movie William Freidkin made after "The Exorcist." Called, "The toughest, most relentless film in a long time" by a contemporary Newsweek review, it lives up to that and more. The score by synthesizer band Tangerine Dream helps propel the story along.
It is a great adventure movie.
Movie Review: Riveting Suspense
Summary: 5 Stars
I saw this film in theater in when it was first released in 1977 and knew right away it was something special. The first part of the film is a bit disconnected but sets the context for the story. Four men have run afoul of either the law or powerful people and must flee--by some quirk of fate they all end up broke and desperate in the same godforsaken tropical hell-hole. Their only of chance escape is to undertake a well-paid but extremely dangerous, almost suicidal, driving mission--they must transport unstable dynamite over primitive mountain roads to blow out an oil well fire deep in the jungle. They are driving rehabbed 2 1/2 -ton army-surplus trucks, one of which is named Sorcerer (hence the title of the film). The actual journey, filled with all sorts of obstacles and risks, is the heart of the film. A camera mounted near the front wheel gives you a view into the canyon as the tire skirts the edge of a sheer drop-off, knocking rocks into the void. The scene where they have to cross a raging river in a torrential rainstorm on a flimsy rope and wood bridge is one of the most riveting and suspenseful I've seen in any film. Roy Scheider does a great job portraying the driven energy of his character and is clearly the star here.
The dark quality of the film is greatly enhanced by Tangerine Dream's ominous and menacing soundtrack. I'd never heard of Tangerine Dream before seing this film but became an instant fan. Definitely consider getting the soundtrack CD also.
This is one my all-time favorite films and I've always wondered why it has remained so little-known. If you're a fan of the noir/suspense genre you'll like this one.
Movie Review: Amazing all the way around
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is in my top 3 all time favorites (American Graffiti & Crumb)
I hate to say that I first saw it on cable not knowing anything about the movie and really loved it.
After multiple viewings the Roxie theatre in San Francisco showed both 'Wages of Fear' & 'Sorcerer' w/ William Freidkin in attendance.
I went figuring he would talk for about 5 minutes and split.
After both movies were shown he spoke for about 45 minutes taking questions from the audience.
What an amazing evening as he went into detail about the genesis of Sorcerer...
- when he arrived into the town as they were preparing to shoot the movies 1000's of people were leaving in fear because the Director of the Excorcist was coming to town, and how a river in it's own history had never dried up did just that costing another 100K to rebuild the bridge that you see in the movie earning him the name 'Freddie the Bridge Builder'.
- his chance meeting w/ a band member of Tangerine Dream at a party and that person taking him to an abandoned church in the middle of the night where they lived and rehearsed waking up the other band members and performing till sunrise.
Friedkin told them that he was interested in them scoring the music for his next movie.
He sent them the script during movie production and every few weeks he would get these cassette tapes w/ bits and pieces of what ended up being the soundtrack for Sorcerer.
He had a ton of stories and my biggest regret was not videotaping this event as I brought a camera but chickened out at the last minute!
Arrrrggghhh!
A Great Movie indeed.
-E-domo
Movie Review: "Wages of Fear"... II
Summary: 5 Stars
Long before I went to the public library and read "The Wages of Fear"-- a fantastic book-- I became intrigued with "Scorcerer".It had an edgy soundtrack and an edgy look. Much of the tension and suspense was understated... and being plugged in to a more international view of the cinema, I loved the grit.
The characters are rock-hard and chisled tough. You feel their intensity with a look or a phrase. The setting is the stuff only B. Traven, and the guys from "Treasure of Sierra Madre" would be proud of... I could see Bogart playing Scanlon,the New York hood, Belmondo, Omar Sharif, and many other fantastic international actors in these parts.
The way the jungle [stinks] you in might seem, outwardly hokey, but Frankenheimer is masterful at using incliment weather and 3rd world rotting structures (like the rope bridge) to heighten the effect of man versus nature... and man is small in this.
How greed and ambition overcomes seemingly hopeless odds is amazing. You root for the main characters, despite the fact that they are seedy criminals. Amazingly enough... a great sense of humanity is defined, and you are transported into another world.
"Scorcerer" does not have the aires of "Agguire, Wrath of God" or its presumption. These men are not fools or blustering dreamers... just desperate souls seeking some sense of practical salvation.
What a stroke of genius to have "Tangerine Dream" modulate the soundtrack... the mix of electronic moog musak and a dark, hungry jungle are magnetic.
BUY THIS DVD... they have really cleaned up the negatives and it looks great!
Movie Review: Proof that "Sorcerer" WAS shot in widescreen!
Summary: 5 Stars
Yes, 5 stars is for the film itself. It is arguably THE MOST nerve-wracking cinematic experience ever filmed. Now with that said, here is the proof that "Sorcerer" was shot in widescreen:
1. Look at the picture of all five men on the back of the DVD cover. You can see only a trim of the German's face on the right side, and the man to the far left side has his head in full view. Now watch that sequence on this full-frame DVD and you cannot see the German at all, and you can only see half of the man's head on the left. Then after the man tells the others that they leave in four hours, it cuts back to them again, AND YOU CANNOT SEE THE MAN ON THE LEFT SIDE ANYMORE, AND THE GERMAN MAN IS IN FULL VIEW.
2. When you watch the original theatrical trailer, there is a shot from the sequence when the hitman and Domiguez are being questioned about the contents of their truck at gunpoint by a terrorist group. When the two first see the group, there is a shot where you see three men pointing automatic guns at the screen. BUT THIS IS ACTUALLY ONLY SEEN AS TWO MEN IN THE FULL-FRAME FILM. THE MAN YOU SEE TO THE RIGHT IN THE THEATRICAL TRAILER IS CUT OFF.
3. Supposedly, there was a Laserdisc version of "Sorcerer" presented in it's original 1.66:1 ratio.
So please, don't gimmie any bull about this film being shot in full-frame. Friedkin may have his wishes to keep this movie in a 1.33:1 ratio, but I say that Universal Pictures is just being lazy in keeping the movie this way.
"Ask Jon Mulvaney" at Criterion Collection and let's get a proper treatment for this film!