Cheap Sorcerer (DVD) (Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer) (William Friedkin) Price

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Customer Reviews of Sorcerer

The first hour of this movie seems to be comprised of random events involving four individuals that have absolutely nothing to do with each other. The only commonality is that they are all men of dubious character. Probably the most recognizable actor in this film is Roy Schieder, who plays a low level New York gangster participate in a robbery that goes bad, and forces him to flee the country due to the fact he managed to step on some pretty well connected toes. The second man, a French businessman, escapes from the threat of prosecution due to some shady business dealings. The third man, a Middle Eastern terrorist flees his captors after being caught participating in a bombing, and the fourth man is a shady assassin type apparently on the run from repercussion from his last hit.

The key is all four men end up in a South American rat-infested stink hole of a town called Vera Cruz. After awhile, they find their sanctuary has become more of a prison and all begin a desperate search for a way out, but that involves money, a commodity that's in short supply, with the only work available in the area is provided by an oil company that runs a well and is building a pipeline for the bubbling crude. Dangerous work, and the pay is so low that it would take years to earn enough to leave. Salvation for the men comes in a catastrophic disaster, an explosion damaging the well and causing the oil to burn.

The only way to close the well proper for repairs is to blow it up, and the only explosives available are 200 miles away. Turns out the explosives, sticks of nitro, haven't been tended very well, and, in turn, are highly unstable. The company decides to hire four men to drive two trucks to carry the dangerous materials through 200 miles of dangerous jungle, including prehistoric rope and wood bridges, treacherous mountain passes, deadly bandits and swampy roads laden with fallen trees. The suicide mission draws the four men, as the money would allow them to escape the oppressive town. The most intense scenes for me involved the men trying to traverse a rickety, rotting wooden rope suspension bridge over a raging river during a heavy rainstorm. There were times when the truck on the bridge was at such an angle, I thought it would flip right off. And all the actors performed most all their own stunts, adding to the realism of the movie. Do they make it? See the movie and find out. I especially liked the very end. A very nice touch that reminded me of an ending of a certain Alfred Hitchcock movie. Which one? I won't say, as it would give it away.

The movie runs just under two hours, and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Friedkin and the actors do a wonderful job in developing tensions between the characters and the environment and the between the characters themselves. The pacing is a bit slow, but it's deliberate, cranking the suspense up, notch by grueling notch.

There are sparse special features, including pretty thorough productions notes and a trailer. If you enjoy thrilling adventure, you will most likely like this movie. I would have happily given this movie five stars but it is only available in the full screen format. Something I didn't understand is the title for the movie. I wasn't able to figure out what it had to do with the movie....

Cookieman108

An overlooked gem
Forget "Wages of Fear" for a moment and look at the merits of the DVD release of William Friedkin's "Sorcerer."

I would have overlooked this film had Siskold and Ebert not flagged it as an under-rated film and under-rated it is. I caught it on HBO and later purchased the Laserdisc.

But the DVD is a step up from there. The color is excellent and the DVD sound is spectacular with the score by Tangerine Dream. Vivid is the word.

Friedkin, who cut his teeth in commercial television, doggedly sticks to his 1:1.33 aspect ratio for this release, but one sees his way of looking at the scenes in this way.

And, oh the cargo! Cases of sensitive dynamite leaking nitroglycerine carried in two trucks driving 15 minutes apart over "pre-Columbian" roads for 200 miles through a South American jungle past, over, or through every danger one can imagine. Dynamite truckers are sometimes called "suicide jockies" even on regular roads. This is downright kamakazi.

Once the journey starts and Tangerine Dream plays the score, it becomes a white knuckle journey not only for the drivers, but for the audience as well. Not good men (after all their are on the lam) but I wound up caring for all of them -- and that says something for the way Friedkin draws the viewer in.

Perhaps the "superior characterization" of the earlier film appeals to those who like the personal stories and certainly there is a place for that, but for the raw imagery of the journey, "Wages" does not touch Sorcerer. If anything, both films should be seen and enjoyed, each for their different focus.

I especially liked the opened ended ending of Sorcerer -- open to debate -- does the theme music mean the end, or yet another spin of the wheel?

Is this a never-ending story? Is it the story of "everyman?"

THERE IS NO WIDESCREEN DEBATE ON THIS FILM.
THIS IS NOT THE INTENDED VERSION!!The Spotlite review by ZENCIRCUS is WRONG!! Yes, William Friedkin was a television director. And yes, he has been quoted as saying he hates widescreen formatting. But this version HAS BEEN MODIFIED to fit a standard TV screen at 1.33:1. When you play this DVD version; IT STATES THIS at the beginning of the film. This underrated masterpiece was SHOT in a ratio aspect of 1.66:1. What that means for those of you who don't understand: if your screen was 1 foot high it would be 1.66 feet wide. This version is only 1.33 feet wide as it is 1 foot high. So, this version is NOT as wide as it was originally shot. Some of the image on the sides HAS been lost. Although, when you look at the ratio, not much is being lost. But to a real film purist, THERE IS A DIFFERENCE.

YOUR WRONG ZENCIRCUS!! Another version of this classic DOES EXIST. Get your facts straight. And don't hold strong opinions about things you don't understand. Anyone who really loves film, should go to GOOGLE, type in "UNDERSTANDING ASPECT RATIOS," and learn about it. I did. Apparently ZENCIRCUS didn't do his homework. Unless William Friedkin chimes in here to correct me, his review is WRONG and should be removed from the Spotlite.