Sorcerer
Directed by William Friedkin
Written by Walon Green from the novel The Wages of Fear by Georges Arnaud
1977/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Scanlon: Where am I going?
Vinnie: All I can say is it’s a good place to lay low.
Scanlon: Why?
Vinnie: It’s the kind of place nobody wants to go looking.
This movie was billed as a remake of H.G. Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear (1953). Though it’s an excellent action adventure, it’s quite a different animal from the French masterpiece of suspense.
In the first act, we meet our protagonists and observe them committing major crimes in different corners of the globe. The American Scanlon (Roy Scheider) serves as a getaway driver from the robbery of the proceeds of collection plates from several churches in a diocese. Unfortunately for everyone involved, the priest that is killed during the heist is the brother of a crime lord. Most of the robbers are killed in a car accident but Scanlon survives and gets away. His friend owes him one and arranges a fake passport and a berth on a freighter headed for Latin America. Other criminals include a Frenchman (Bruno Cremer) who is facing jail time for a financial fraud and an Arab (Amidou) who has escaped after blowing up an Israeli marketplace.
All of these people end up in a Latin American hell hole beset with corrupt police, revolutionaries, and squalor. Escape is possible but only at a high cost. The fire resulting from explosion of an oil rig up country can only be stopped by destruction of the source with dynamite. The only dynamite available is highly volatile, is located 200 miles away, and must be transported through the jungle over the roughest possible terrain. The pay will be handsome and our fugitives are willing to risk their lives for a ticket out of dodge.
The journey will test these men to their limits. Adventures with revolutionaries and native Indians add to the danger.
Unlike The Wages of Fear, this is a film full of bloody violence and non-stop action. It has none of the slow build-up and “you are there” feeling of Clouzot’s tense suspense thriller. The performances are excellent and the staging of the elements is convincing. It has William Friedkin written all over it. If you are a fan, I can recommend this movie.
