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Sorcerer (1977)

post #1 of 20
1/16/09 at 12:23am
Thread Starter 
For some strange reason, I picked up Sorcerer on DVD recently. It's a much-maligned movie that has never had a proper video release.

Hell, this Pan & Scan DVD looks like it was mastered off some laserdisc that escaped from the lower bowels of Vestron Video hell.

Watching the film unfold in its bizarre structure, I noticed something. Something that had slipped by me during past viewings. "Sorcerer" had to have some of the most realistic depictions of death on-screen.

That's not to say that fuel truck deaths in the jungles of South America are that prevalent. It's just that when you die in this film, it's sudden and harsh. There's no glamour to the cools and there's no extension of the finality. Homicide (accidental or not) is fierce and fast.

Some have said that the film is exercise in fate. But, I find that to be too much of an extrapolation pulled out of Friedkin's ass in his early 90s Paramount funk.

What do you think of Sorcerer? What's the point to the quest of the four men introduced at the start of the film?
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post #2 of 20
1/16/09 at 12:30am
I've never seen this, but Wages of Fear is a great fucking film. Check it out if you haven't already.
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post #3 of 20
1/16/09 at 12:31am
Thread Starter 
I've already seen Wages of Fear. I remember buying that Criterion for 40 bucks new. Sucks since I'd give my eyeteeth for a Blu-Ray version.

But, the original (Wages) seemed to have a point and a message. Sorcerer seems like an exercise in the futility of human endeavor.
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post #4 of 20
1/16/09 at 1:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anderson View Post
But, the original (Wages) seemed to have a point and a message. Sorcerer seems like an exercise in the futility of human endeavor.
I agree. I actually prefer this to Wages of Fear (which almost everyone says is blasphemy, but whatever). Fantastic movie and Friedkin's true masterpiece.
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post #5 of 20
1/16/09 at 2:30am
Second my preference for Sorcerer over Wages of Fear. The later had 1 dimensional characters in whom I could not emphasize or relate. In Sorcerer he get interesting, desperate characters who have fled everything they knew to wind up driving nitro laded trucks through the jungle.

This film deserves the Criterion treatment on Blu Ray
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post #6 of 20
1/16/09 at 1:13pm
Thread Starter 
I feel something about this film that I can't explain. I don't want to call it nihilist cinema, as it still has a sense of hope from the four-part opening to the survival of the final man.
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post #7 of 20
1/16/09 at 5:03pm
Man, I absolutely love this film. So many great little moments woven into a long, sweaty nightmare where the protagonists slowly realize they're not so much hiding in purgatory as withering in hell.

Jesus, in just one example, Joe Spinell taking the truck driving test. Scheider taking the test!

There's been on again off again talk about a remake and I say FUCK THAT SHIT! Put Friedkin's film back on the circuit. I think this picture has got alot more of a following than people think. And that shit-ass pan & scan release has got to be rectified.

And I'll add to the chorus of those who prefer this to WAGES. It's fascinating to see the elements each filmmaker chose to accentuate, but in the end it's Scheider, the claustrophobic and filthy atmosphere and the Tangerine Dream/Keith Jarret one-two punch that seal it for me. (Oh and the bridge, naturally!)
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post #8 of 20
1/16/09 at 5:45pm
Wages of Fear is for me the far better film. so I haven't seen this since the 80s
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post #9 of 20
1/16/09 at 6:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Anderson View Post
...as it still has a sense of hope from the four-part opening to the survival of the final man.
He survives, but [inviso-text]aren't there a bunch of thugs waiting for him when he gets back to town? It's been years since I saw it, but I seem to remember that he was returning to certain death. Great film, bad DVD release.
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post #10 of 20
1/16/09 at 6:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Rocco View Post
He survives, but [inviso-text]aren't there a bunch of thugs waiting for him when he gets back to town? It's been years since I saw it, but I seem to remember that he was returning to certain death. Great film, bad DVD release.
Yes there are.
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post #11 of 20
1/16/09 at 9:23pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Rocco View Post
He survives, but [inviso-text]aren't there a bunch of thugs waiting for him when he gets back to town? It's been years since I saw it, but I seem to remember that he was returning to certain death. Great film, bad DVD release.
That goes back into the Nihilism that permeates the film. Nothing matters. No matter what strange twist of fate befells you, the end result negates anything learned upon the journey.
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post #12 of 20
1/17/09 at 1:20am
This movie was about the end of the road for men that chose darkly moral paths. They all end up in hell on Earth. This movie was bleak, and very matter of fact in its bleakness. It just shows things they way they are, it does not dress it up at all. So much tension. With main characters who have sealed their fate long before they ended up there. Great movie, and one I am surprised does not get more love.
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post #13 of 20
1/17/09 at 1:30am
Great trailer too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMof5PuQF7w
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post #14 of 20
1/17/09 at 2:28am
Awesome trailer that lays out the movie nicely. I really want to watch it again soon. Though the tension was almost draining the first time I saw it.
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post #15 of 20
2/12/09 at 10:33pm
Watching this today left me with one baffling question: how the hell did this get away with a PG rating? It's brutal as fuck, and its bleak tone doesn't exactly scream family fare. Great movie, though. I think the shitty DVD actually enhances the fever dream aspect of the film.
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post #16 of 20
2/12/09 at 11:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Clarence Boddicker View Post
Watching this today left me with one baffling question: how the hell did this get away with a PG rating? It's brutal as fuck, and its bleak tone doesn't exactly scream family fare. Great movie, though. I think the shitty DVD actually enhances the fever dream aspect of the film.
The crappy transfer and simple DVD made the movie feel more documentary style. It did seem to add to the bleakness, the real worn aspect of the movie.
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post #17 of 20
7/12/10 at 12:01am
Holy fucking shit this movie! For years I've always figured there was no way it could live up to Wages of Fear but I was wrong. it's amazing that this film works like gangbusters because it really does have a strange structure. It spends so much time on each character's background that it's not until halfway through that it gets to the main narrative drive. But it works.

That scene on the bridge was just masterful.
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post #18 of 20
7/12/10 at 5:44pm
Still haven't seen it, but sound like it deserves a nomination among the most misleading titles ever.
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post #19 of 20
7/12/10 at 6:16pm
Sorcerer is the name of the truck IIRC. You can see it written on the fender at one point, though that could just be a scribble from someone labeling which movie/production it was for.

But yeah, I originally thought "Holy shit, the guy who made The Exorcist made a movie about a fucking Sorcerer!!?". Did not feel ripped off when I finally saw it (with a good crowd too).

The bridge seen is incredible. Apparently they lost the truck multiple times shooting that set-piece.

Herzog via Freidkin.


Edit: Imdb Trivia has some interesting bits.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076740/trivia

He's a bit harsh on Scheider but I remember the McQueen story from an in-depth interview somewhere.

On the title:
The film was originally to be titled "The Wages of Fear" from the original French film and novel. Friedkin has stated that the strange title of "Sorcerer" refers to the evil wizard of fate.
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post #20 of 20
7/13/10 at 6:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nardo View Post
On the title:
The film was originally to be titled "The Wages of Fear" from the original French film and novel. Friedkin has stated that the strange title of "Sorcerer" refers to the evil wizard of fate.
Non-domestic versions (some with additional or alternate footage) were titled WAGES OF FEAR.
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