X
- 1977
- PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h 1 m
- 1977
- PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h 1 m
Summary Four unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous South American jungle.
Directed By: William Friedkin
Written By: Walon Green, Georges Arnaud, William Friedkin
- 1977
- PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h 1 m
- 1977
- PG
- Universal Pictures
- 2 h 1 m
Sorcerer
68
8.3
Where to Watch
Summary Four unfortunate men from different parts of the globe agree to risk their lives transporting gallons of nitroglycerin across dangerous South American jungle.
Directed By: William Friedkin
Written By: Walon Green, Georges Arnaud, William Friedkin
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
68
54% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
46% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 13 Critic Reviews
68
54% Positive
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
46% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Rather than a fleeting image of violence, however, Friedkin’s cyclical, almost Kafkaesque insistence that politics revolves around now globalized, corporate power delegating hired guns to do under-the-table bidding across national boundaries announces itself through the soundscape, with Tangerine Dream’s electronic basslines substituting for bloodshed. No one escapes the suffocating corrosion of Sorcerer’s polysemous diegesis—not even Friedkin himself, as audiences and industry would have it.
By the time Sorcerer gets around to its rain-soaked, rickety-bridge set piece, you’ll either be obsessed or fully checked out. Give yourself a chance to pick sides.
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 17 User Ratings
8.3
88% Positive
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
6% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
6% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
User Score
Universal Acclaim
Based on 17 User Ratings
8.3
88% Positive
15 Ratings
15 Ratings
6% Mixed
1 Rating
1 Rating
6% Negative
1 Rating
1 Rating
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Friedkin's Sorcerer is just as gripping and spine-tingling an adventure film as The Wages of Fear and, at times, surpasses the original film with breathtaking photography and a superb use of sound (the scene on the bridge is truly amazing). The musical score by German electronic experimental band Tangerine Dream is brilliant and haunting. The eerie electronic music adds immeasurably to the overall effect of the film, complementing the exotic imagery perfectly.
Though there’s gunplay, and more than a few explosions, the focus of this grim jungle odyssey is on the prevention of carnage, the heart-in-throat attempts not to blow something up.
William Friedkin's Sorcerer is a painstaking, admirable, but mostly distant and uninvolving suspenser based on the French classic The Wages of Fear [from the novel by Georges Arnaud]. Friedkin vividly renders the experience of several men driving trucks loaded with nitro through the South American jungle, yet the characters are basically functional. 'Sorcerer' is merely the name of one of the trucks.
Friedkin's pretensions do not entirely defeat the film, and his craftsmanship often rescues him from self-betrayal. But Sorcerer lacks the kind of low cunning — the sorcery — that is Friedkin's strong suit.
Friedkin hints at political themes, but the film suffers most from condescendingly over-emphatic direction, and a generally tedious, relentless grimy realism in the opening half hour
Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA
• 1 Nomination
Melbourne International Film Festival
• 1 Nomination
