Greetings gentle readers, welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today we present Sorcerer, a riveting tale of desperate men and dynamite.
Reviews:
DVD Talk says:
Though it is smarter, more daring, and more artfully crafted than most, it can’t be ignored that Sorcerer is, at its core, a hell of a thriller. The very premise of the movie — transporting highly volatile crates of nitroglycerin across more than two hundred miles of punishing jungle — ought to be an indication of how unnervingly and unrelentingly suspenseful it can be. Sorcerer is so intense that I couldn’t possibly stay perched on my couch, releasing some of my nervous energy by pacing around the room as I watched. The standout sequences of Sorcerer are set on a rope bridge that seem as if they could barely support a 150 lb. man slowly crossing its expanse, let alone trucks weighing many tons and carrying such dangerous cargo. The sight of one of the trucks swinging perilously on the bridge as it sways during a torrential storm may be the most gruelingly intense I’ve witnessed in any film from any era.
The Guardian says:
A fierce, austere and intriguing film: a cinematic concerto of pessimism.
Fletchtalks says:
There’s greatness throughout – the fiercely unsentimental approach makes for a gut-punching, at times shocking journey. There’s no Hollywood glamour at all – even the presence of Roy Scheider doesn’t make it feel like a blockbuster. He’s never looked so grimy, shabby or shaken up. The photography and location work is incredible – you feel like you’re right there in the dirt of the village, the heat of the fire, the density of the jungle. German electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream deliver a stand-out score – their first ever soundtrack, and far, far, far from their last – that really adds to the moodiness. The ending is appropriately downbeat – unimaginable any other way, frankly.
I love this movie. It doesn’t have a “message” as far as I can tell. It’s not trying to teach you something about human nature, at least not intentionally. It’s a grimy, no-holds barred tale of four bastards with nothing to lose who are trying to escape the shithole nowhere town they ran to to hide from their crimes. The story is sparse, a wire upon which to hang the raw cinematography and haunting music. Between the rotting jungles, alien terrains, torrential thunderstorms, and tree choked rivers it could be argued that Mother Nature is the real star of the show. The action scenes are brutal, ruthless. And the crossing of the bridge, well, for the life of me I still can’t figure out how the hell they shot that scene without losing half the film crew.
Director: William Friedkin
Notable Actors: Roy Scheider
Spoiler alert!
Synopsis:
A Mexican hit man looking to lay low after a job. A Palestinian resistance fighter fleeing the IDF. A French banker whose fraud has been revealed. And an Irish-American mobster who picked the wrong guys to rob.
What these four men have in common, besides being on the run, is that they have all ended up in a backwater town in Central America called Porvenir. The town relies on a despised American oil company for it’s economy, where all but the Mexican have found work for miserable pay. The four want to get the hell out of Porvenir but lack the funds to do so.
Then opportunity comes knocking. An oil fire has exploded at the nearby field and it’s going to take dynamite to put it out. The problem is that the nearest cache of dynamite is old and very unstable. Air lifting it is out of the question. Only a laborious trek by truck will be able to deliver the deadly cargo in relative safety.
The four men take on the job for a small fortune in pay. The journey is incredibly difficult, involving hideous weather, dank jungles, fallen trees, and banditry. The Frenchman and the Palestinian are killed when a tire blows out and their cargo is detonated. Bandits wound the Mexican and he eventually dies. Only the American is left and when his truck conks out he finishes the last few miles of the journey on foot, a single case of dynamite in his arms.
Now a wealthy man, the American has returned to the town of Porvenir. He has a passport to Colombia, money in his pocket, and the friendship of the oil company. But his success is short lived. As he dances with an elderly cleaning woman he has come to know, a car pulls up outside and a group of hit men get out. The American’s past has caught up with him.
