Director: William Friedkin
Writers: Walon Green (screenplay), Georges Arnaud (novel)
Release Date: 24 June 1977
IMDB Synopsis: Four unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous South American jungle.
My progress: 1/1000
First Time
This time.
What I Think
Sorcerer is grubby and dirty and dangerous. Its pleasures are the vicarious pleasures of watching men act confidently as men, sure of their actions and ready to do whatever it takes regardless of risk. None of the main characters are moral men. Each one that we are introduced to has been involved in violent crime and deserves what is coming to them. Yet each one of them wants to survive and so Friedkin effectively creates in the viewer a desire for each to live. Even as we may frown on their criminal activity, we admire their nobility of spirit, a sort of regal disposition that allows them to live their lives as free men even as they are forced to hide in the jungle.
I'm often too hard on the 70s American scene, and there is plenty to hate in the rampant exploitation and overall lowering of moral standards that accompanied the film brats rise to power in Hollywood. But I've come to forgive them more than a little when I consider that they were operating in a world of bankrupt morality, hypocrisy, exploitation, etc, and were expressing themselves accordingly. Friedkin is no exception. Of all of his films that I've seen, this one is actually the most joyful, the one most brimming with life as it skirts death many times. Friedkin's film somehow gives me the same feeling that the Indiana Jones films gave me as a kid. There's a sense of high adventure to the film, but it's more adult. It's grimier. It's more dangerous, it's brutal and savage. Each set piece in the film is a high wire act. It's difficult for me to truly feel suspense/thrills at most Hollywood products. Sorcerer gave me the feels. Even when I knew that something would play out a certain way, the way it played out pleased me. Some of the action (trucks across bridges) seemed like Herzog-level of manly commitment to getting great shots.
Since watching the stupid horror movie Revenge a couple of weeks ago, I've been thinking about the "male gaze" (which I prefer to refer to as the "sleazoid gaze" in most ways in which it is used). One of my favorite moments in Sorcerer is a playful series of shots of a Coca-Cola advertisement poster and Scheider's character's response to that ad. It's obvious that the ad works perfectly, creating a desire for sex and soda, but there is also an undercurrent of sadness in being so far away from these sources of pleasure. It's a very earthy moment, which perfectly conveyed the feeling of exile and loneliness. Regardless of what else I am, I am a culturally conditioned American, and the sight of a well-proportioned woman in a bathing suit pointing at a bottle of coca-cola on the beach is ridiculously comforting. It is very easy for me to imagine how wonderful that image would be in a wasteland of testosterone and terror.
There's more to say, but, ya know, life and family over film chatting.
Finally, the Tangerine Dream score is so good.
Additional Notes/Stats
- I have not seen The Wages of Fear so can't compare the two.
- I'd love to just do a Roy Scheider marathon
- Andrew Sarris: "What Friedkin, with all his enormous resources, has managed to fabricate in "Sorcerer" is a visual and aural textbook on everything that is wrong with current movies."
- https://criticsroundup.com/film/sorcerer/
- Wow, critics were not impressed with this in '77. Things have changed now.
My Meaningless Star Rating
4 out of 5 stars.