Sadly Over-hyped

Excellent but underrated film

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

SorcererThe funniest jungle game to play is: Who can eradicate the lost tribe first?But a close second has to be transporting dynamite, like in this thriller.In the jungles of Latin America, a hitman (Francisco Rabal), a Middle Eastern militant (Amidou), a fraudulent investor (Bruno Cremer) and a low-level thug running from the mob (Roy Scheider) are brought together for a suicide mission.Out of sheer desperation, each marked man agrees to drive a truckload of dynamite through the rainforest to a nearby oilrig fire. Unfortunately, the dynamite is sweating explosive beads of nitroglycerin that will detonate at the slightest jar.Even though this white-knuckle roller-coaster ride had mega redemption metaphors and an ethereal musical score by Tangerine Dream, Sorcerer's ambiguous title helped it to be obscured by the sci-fi groundswell of 1977. Nonetheless, a dynamite truck in the seventies was less likely to explode than a Ford Pinto. Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca

Many times, I stumble across a movie that tells a great story in such a way, that I'm constantly thinking about it after I've seen it for the first time. Sunset Blvd and Chinatown, among many others come to mind. This is such a movie. It's hard to overstate how good this film truly is. One of the top directors of the new Hollywood 70's William Friedkin, and one of the best scripts you'll ever see put to screen and it makes for a damn fine show. Four men, escaping to South America, after commuting various heinous crimes, find themselves in a place worse than jail, a poverty stricken hellhole where life is cheap, and the options are few. With no chance of really getting out, the men are resigned to their fates, until an opportunity comes calling: Transport highly volatile dynamite 200 miles across jungle terrain in order to put out an oil well fire. Four men of different backgrounds, an American on the run from the mob, a Frenchman who dropped everything after being caught embezzling money from his company, a Palestinian terrorist, and a Mexican hitman. They seemingly have nothing to offer each other until they come face to face with fear, death, and their own fates. An adventure tale that has no lighthearted moments, and an ending that is one of the most twisting you'll see, you'll see why Friedkin talks about the Sorceror of the films title being a metaphor for the fates that control all of our lives. Thrilling, dire, heart stopping, this is a film for the ages! Highly recommended!!m

Being a big fan of Henri-George Cluzot's extraordinary Film Noir The Wages of Fear,a friend gave me the US remake on my birthday. Whilst keen the see the remake,I found myself just going back to the original when I would get a chance to. Taking part in an ICM film exchange project,I was happily caught by surprise,when the title was chosen for viewing,which led to me finally casting a spell.The plot:Caught partaking in various crimes, Nilo, Kassem, Victor, and Jackie each live/hide in a town that has been destroyed by poverty.Wanting to get their hands on any serious cash,they each accept an offer from a company to each take stacks of dynamite to the other side of town in order to close an oil well. Setting off,the drivers soon begin to fear that a fuse has been lit on their lives.View on the film:Backed by Paramount and Universal,the DVD transfer from Universal is shockingly poor,with the print looking like it has been used as a brush,and the original mono soundtrack having a slightly muted quality.Driving deep into the jungle,director William Friedkin & cinematographers Dick Bush and John M. Stephens shred the Film Noir anxiety of the original,to light an Action flick fuse. Building the bridge for real, (with added,hidden safety features!) Friedkin drips the tension of the drivers across the screen with elegant wide shots swaying to the surrounding jungle and picking up every wrong turn that takes place. Turning the wheels with a rapid-fire opening giving each of the drivers an intro,Friedkin blends ultra-stylised overlapping close-ups with Tangerine Dream's great, spidery score to give the jungle a peculiar,other worldly atmosphere. Going down a different road to the original,the screenplay by Walon Green delves into the background of the drivers with a frantic crime edge opening,that reveals the deal that has led to the drivers deciding to put their hands on dynamite. After setting everyone up,Green is disappointingly unable to bridge the action with the personal,as a lack of building any type of bond between Nilo and Jackie Scanlon (played by a very good,tough Roy Scheider and a playful Francisco Rabal) leading the action to look enticing,but lacking a much needed psychological depth to make this sorcerer cast a magical spell.

Four unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous South American jungle.As others have noticed, this film suffers from having a strange title. The original book is "The Wages of Fear", and the film was released under this title in some territories. I suspect that if it had this title today, it might be better remembered. A name like "Sorcerer" clearly suggests a fantasy film, which this is not.That major hurdle aside, it is a good movie and a very ambitious one. With four different prologues, a casual viewer might gt lost or bored or just not know what to think. It pays off as the story progresses, however, and we get a film that is a war movie, a mob movie, an action thriller... it has a little something for everyone.