Sorcerer (1977)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

William Friedkin

Writers:

Georges Arnaud (novel)
Walon Green (writer)

Release Date:

24 June 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Thriller

Plot:

A group of outcasts from different backgrounds/nationalities are forced by misfortune to work in a remote oil drilling operation in South America...

Plot Keywords:

Fire | Jungle | Nitroglycerin | Fate | Remake Of French Film

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Roy Scheider	...	Jackie Scanlon / "Juan Dominguez"
Bruno Cremer	...	Victor Manzon / 'Serrano'
Francisco Rabal	...	Nilo
Amidou	...	Kassem / 'Martinez'
Ramon Bieri	...	Charles Corlette
Peter Capell	...	Lartigue
Karl John	...	Marquez
Friedrich von Ledebur	...	Carlos
Chico Martínez	...	Bobby Del Rios
Joe Spinell	...	Spider
Rosario Almontes	...	Agrippa
Richard Holley	...	Billy White
Anne-Marie Deschott	...	Blanche
Jean-Luc Bideau	...	Pascal
Jacques François	...	Lefevre

Also Known As:

Wages of Fear

Runtime:

121 min | Sweden:93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | French | Spanish | German

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

UK:AA (1978) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 (1978) | Sweden:15 | USA:PG | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Angel Peak National Recreation Area, Bloomfield, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Film Properties International N.V.

Trivia:

Despite its look, the rope bridge was actually quite elaborate in its construction and contained numerous safety devices as well as hydraulic lifts in order for the special effects crew to manipulate it into motion. It cost one million dollars to build. After it was completed, the original river for the scene (in the Dominican Republic) went almost completely dry for the first time in its history due to a drought. The bridge had to be torn down and a new location in Tuxtepec Mexico was found. The bridge had to be rebuilt at the cost of another one million dollars. However once again at the new location the raging river started to dry. The crew had to put a 24 hour guard around the bridge because the superstitious locals threatened to blow it up believing it was the bridge/intruders that caused the river to become shallow. By the time filming began the water was only 18 inches deep and looked completely nonthreatening. The crew didn't have the time or the money to find yet another location so Friedkin decided to add an artificial current and rainstorm (using helicopters/wind machines and men on towers with giant hoses.) The bridge itself was so rickety that despite the safety precautions the truck (often with an actor inside of it) slid off the side and into the shallow water five times during rehearsals and filming. The entire sequence took three months to shoot. Friedkin stated it was by far the most difficult sequence he ever filmed in his career.

Goofs:

Continuity: The monetary amount paid to the drivers is inconsistent throughout the film. The oil company first says they will pay "8,000 pesos to each driver". The driver's later demand double that amount (which would be 16,000 pesos). Later when Scanlon crosses the rope bridge he boasts that the two of them will get "double shares of 20,000 apiece" (double shares would actually be 32,000 apiece). At the end, Scanlon is given a check for 40,000 Pesos which would only amount to 10,000 per driver.

Quotes:

Scanlon: Where am I going?
Vinnie: All I can say is it's a good place to lay low.
Scanlon: Why?
Vinnie: It's the kind of place nobody wants to go looking.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex, Drugs and Rock 'N' Roll Generation Saved Hollywood (2003)

Soundtrack:

I Remember April

Friedkin's Swan Song before Sinking into Mediocrity

A remake of Henri-George Cluzot's 1953 film The Wages of Fear (also on DVD in a lovely Criterion Disc), this William Friedkin film stars Roy Scheider (at his weary, doomed finest) as one of four men exiled to an unnamed South American country by their mistakes and crimes. Trapped in squalor (and it's damn convincing looking squalor, too, far beyond the sunbaked black-and-white compositions of Wages of Fear; this film looks like it's leaving mud on your shoes), unable to return to the lives they abandoned, they're driven by circumstance to accept a normally unthinkable job. They have to drive old, unstable dynamite from its storage site hundreds of miles over mountain terrain and washed-out roads to the location of an oil well fire so the blaze can be snuffed out. The pay is exorbitant -- but it's commiserate to the danger. The risks are colossal ... and they ultimately have no choice.

Sorcerer is tense, suspenseful film-making at its finest; you become physically uncomfortably during this film thanks to the incredible sense that at any minute our heroes would literally be blown to hell. (I mean, we all walk around with the philosophical knowledge we could die at any moment, but talk about your concrete metaphors ... ) Friedkin creates a palpable sense of place, and Scheider is immensely powerful as a man whose every move suggests that he knows he's doomed. Taut with suspense, completely convincing and breathtakingly human, Sorcerer is an unfairly maligned film that delivers in every way.

And the Score is unique and nightmarish. A new DVD would be welcome to many happy fans.