Sorcerer (1977)

Sorcerer (PG) - Review

"Trundle In the Jungle"

A former mafioso is on the lam in South America, murder and incarceration keep him from returning home to America.  The town he lives in is filled with birds of his feather, 3 fellow exiles with shady pasts from different lands, each looking over their shoulders for the long arm of justice.  When an oil well deep in the jungle catches fire and Corporate America comes with the promise of vast wealth and hero status for anyone courageous (or greedy) enough to drive a truck full of highly unstable nitrogylcerin through impassable jungles, mountains and swamps to snuff out the conflagration, well hot damn you have yourself a 1970s hardcore action film!

A remake of the highly regarded french film Wages of Fear, Sorcerer stars Roy Schnieder and is directed by William Friedkin (both of The French Connection fame).  The movie is a tense Sunday drive over rickety suspension bridges and fraught with 8 foot potholes.  The tension between the men is also palpable as they compete for the prize and suspect each other of treachery.  The questing antihero Schneider also have a deadly load of dirty consciences along for the ride that we are frequently reminded of.  They are all hoping for redemption amid the impassable, for a life of value as they recklessly risk them, a suicide run spiked with Nature's fury.  Sorcerer has a terrifically made tension that must eventually snap.

The majority of the movie is running on the fumes of the French New Wave period and doesn't quite reach its destination.  Character motivations and longevity remain a mystery, how this movie ever got made and out of that real jungle alive another.  The scope is just a little too big for the film to grasp a safe handhold, its a marathon of adrenaline that wears down filmmakers and audience alike.

7 Flashbacks out of 10 (GOOD)