Eric Red Recommends #9

Last Updated on July 28, 2021

By ERIC RED


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SORCERER
(1977)

Director: William
Friedkin..

Cast:
Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, Amidou, Ramon
Bieri.

BUY THE DVD HERE

Remakes are the flavor
of the month these days and mostly a four letter word to horror fans and
filmmakers alike.  Director John Huston had it right when he said people should
just remake the bad films they didn’t get right the first time.  I myself have
two of my films in the remake pipeline, “THE HITCHER” and “NEAR DARK,” which is
surreal because we only made them a few years ago and when we did the goal was
to do something original, which is always more exciting to me.

But as
remakes go, “SORCERER” is the textbook example of what a great remake should
be…a full reimagining.  It is based on the classic H.G. Clouzot thriller “THE
WAGES OF FEAR” (the first film I reviewed on the site) about four desperate men
on a suicide mission to drive two trucks full of explosive nitro glycerin
through the jungle to blow out an oil fire.  One bump will blow them to
smithereens.  Directed by William Friedkin (“THE EXORCIST” and “THE FRENCH
CONNECTION”), this is a spellbinding exercise in pure visual filmmaking. 

 “SORCERER”
succeeds as a similar yet totally different experience from the first film. 
While the storyline remains the same, every action scene is new or changed,
every character is reinvented, and the original was in black and white, but the
remake is in color.  The original provided no back-story for any of the
characters, but the remake spends almost an hour setting them up…

For first
part of the film, the action jumps internationally across the globe.  We are
introduced to four desperate criminals and shown why they each must flee their
countries to the asshole of the world to ultimately become the drivers of the
trucks of deadly explosives…In Jerusalem, a Palestinian terrorist (Amidou) blows
up a bus, narrowly escaping a machine gun retaliation raid on his hide out by
the Israeli military that mows down his accomplices…In New Jersey, a small time
hood, (Roy Scheider) and his gang rob the local church bingo game, shooting a
parish priest in a botched getaway that ends in a terrifying and bloody car
crash. 

Scheider
escapes, but too bad for him the priest’s brother turns to out to be the local
mafia don who puts out a worldwide contract on Roy’s ass…In Paris, an upper
class French embezzler (Bruno Cremer) under investigation by the authorities
sees his last chance evaporate when his partner commits suicide by blowing his
brains out.  Like “WAGES,” the four walls of this cynical film are an
existential, upside down and hopeless universe where priests are brothers
to mobsters, you have to blow up explosions with nitro and there’s no escape for
anyone.  In Friedkin’s quest for cinematic reality, he cast as the leader of the
Jersey thugs the actual Boston gangster who went to prison for the real life
church robbery the scene was based on. 

The film
presents us blatantly unredeemable main characters, attempting to make them
sympathetic by pure audience involvement in their sweaty moment-to-moment
survival during their impossible mission.  It’s a risky gambit by the director
that will work for some viewers but alienate others.  Roy Scheider, who I
directed in “COHEN AND TATE,” told me he hated the film for just that reason. 
Friedkin now says Roy was miscast!  

These
fugitives, along with an aging and cunning South American hit man, end up broke
and homeless in a sweltering hellhole oil company town in the depths of the
South American jungle called Porvenir.  It’s Hell and they all deserve to be
there.  And in Hell, there are flames.  A distant oilrig explodes.  The only way
for the company foreman (Ramon Bieri) to put out the fire is to blast it out
with nitro.  Trouble is the cache of explosives is 200 miles from the rig, it’s
too unstable to be choppered in, so it has to be driven by truck.  For that, he
needs men desperate enough to take the job.  If you’ve seen the original, you
know the story.  The company offers a bounty if four men will drive the two
trucks of nitro across brutal jungle to the oil fire.  The guys get the job, and
the excitement begins…

“SORCERER”
has one of the most awe-inspiring action sequences ever filmed, by itself worth
watching the film for.  The trucks and drivers must cross a raging river over a
vast and rickety rope bridge.  Hurricanes of rain, rogue trees, snapping bridge
slats, slipping tires and slowly fraying ropes impede their grueling progress
through a storm seemingly summoned by angry Gods.  Supposedly taking three
months to film, watching this incredibly convincing and mythical bridge sequence
you just know no CGI was used and it was all shot live with amazing real
stunts.  That’s true moviemaking.

In another
valuable change from “THE WAGES OF FEAR,” there’s a gripping sequence where the
guys have to rebuild several truck wrecks to get them in working order and load
the nitro by cable.  It’s a great directorial touch that the decrepit trucks in
this movie look like mechanical monsters or rusted Pagan demons.  The headlights
are staring eyes, the grills resemble fanged mouths, and they look like faces. 
The film enhanced immeasurably by the moody, eerie electronic score by Tangerine
Dream, which gave us the idea to use these composers in “NEAR DARK.”

They
really don’t make films like this or “APOCALYPSE NOW” anymore, where
productions shoot for a year, take three months to film a single action
sequence, and no expense is spared.  Today, the average Hollywood film shoots
for 45 days, and most horror films have 24 day schedules or less!   That’s
plenty enough time if the director knows what he’s doing.  On one hand,
“SORCERER” is a throwback of an indulgent kind of filmmaking, but on the other,
they got stuff up on screen you just don’t see in other movies.

A gigantic
production that reputedly cost 100 million dollars to film, “SORCERER” was a
commercial failure on its release (‘WAGES” ironically was a hit) but gets better
with age.  It is a long and uncompromising film that makes few concessions in
terms of pace and character likeability, but has truly jaw-dropping action
scenes, vivid and primal location photography and genuine moments of
white-knuckle suspense.  A hell of a piece of film, “SORCERER” will grab you in
its gritty, epic grip.

BUY
THE SORCERER DVD HERE

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ALL OF ERIC RED’S REVIEWS HERE