Tuchergson Truly the worst movie I've ever seen in a theater

Executscan Expected more

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

jayspeedrt Although "Sorcerer" is the name of a truck, it works so well for this film's title given the cursed nature of the 4 protagonists- one really feels they are cursed, and doomed for their sins. A curse of suffering and woe has been placed upon them.Scanlon's character in particular - is part of a gang who robs a church, roughs up priests and one is even shot during the robbery; hard to imagine anything that could bring the wrath of the Almighty upon one more certainly than that. There is also irony there, in that the church itself doesn't seem terribly pious -the priests are counting the lucre from the most recent bingo tournament, seeming more like bookies, with the piles of cash laid out in a smoke-filled room - than men of God. Curtain Call - I had just bought the Blu-Ray - and realized in the last 10 seconds of the credits - the loping idle of a truck can be heard - a curtain call of sorts for the title character - "Sorcerer"?

Joe Critics can get a hard rap, but prime British film critic Mark Kermode has been recently championing this mostly forgotten film for its anniversary. Granted it has the benefit of being by the director of his favourite film (The Exorcist), but still it piqued my interest, and I'm glad it did.What we have is a very harsh film, where the characters and story lack empathy, as we watch the central group of men go through their Heart of Darkness moments. We have an American mob man, a Middle Eastern bomber and a French banking fraudster (no this is not the start of a joke) who are thrown together after their world collapse and they have to escape their looming punishments.Forced by circumstance to win a job that will see them have to cross the Central American jungle in clapped out trucks with highly volatile explosives in the back, they are on a journey to nowhere to win the purse and passports needed to survive.I don't want to spoil anything at all here, as there are some great suspenseful scenes here which will have your heart in your mouth. It's got the full direction and style that those who loved The Exorcist will understand, and again sound is a major part of the movie and the clincher. Wonderful soundtrack and sound effects, and on a big screen it all comes together.I can't think of how they could have got better than our leads in the film, with Roy Schneider being the most recognisable, who finds this job from hell one he has to finish but at what cost? The only question is how was this gem forgotten for so long? Wonderful tough viewing, but really original and something that is a great 70s contemporary snapshot of great filming of the era, a true golden age of cinema movies.Crank up your motors and go traipse through whatever growth you have to get to watch this, recommended viewing.

jwsanfrancisco yes, I think I saw this movie in 1983,just caught it now on a library DVD; movie takes place in 70s,must be an apolitical thriller(shadowdancer?); as there is no mention of politics; although there are many political graffiti posters pasted everywhere on walls of buildings, hotels, taverns('El cossario' bar),giant oil pipes on shoulder of roads from airport to makeshift town in middle of nowhere;a generillisimo(Somozista?) in full uniform w/ the caption,'UNIDOS HACIA EL FUTURO'; have no idea?(Make America Great Again?); this would be the perfect place to hide, where nobody in their right mind would even think to look for fugitives on the lam?(Palestinian terrorist,Kassem; Elizabethtown gangster fleeing the mafia,Scanlon; French 'Bernie madoff' inside trader on the lam, Serrano; drug cartel hitmanunnamed actor who laughs hysterically as he lay dying from Nicaraguan contra rebel truck ambush). The 4 fugitives reluctantly work for the oil company,'Companie de Recursios Petroleros'(subsidiary of Exxon?,BP? Russian Gazprom?, doesn't make clear); while it doesn't make clear how the oil rig exploded(somebody was seen connecting some wires to a bomb);it was clear that many indigenous peoples in south America equate US government w/ capitalist American latex factories, oil companies, sugar plantations, & make their terrorist sympathies quite clear[---'to tear treasure out of the bowels of the land was their desire, with no more moral purpose at the back of it than there is in burglars breaking into a safe.'--Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness.]. So this is set in the 70s, the era in which this film is set,which also, ironically, is the time(from 1979-to early 90s), that the left-wing socialist Sandinista government was in all out war against the US militarily backed Nicaraguan Contras who, by 1986, were reduced to isolated acts of commando raids,as the Sandinista government gained more popular support from the population. This was one of the most ambitious,costly paramilitary & political action campaign for the 'hearts & minds' mounted by the CIA in decades. So if you multiply the political turmoil in Ukraine by 10, you have the setting ..In the last 3 heartbreaking minutes

kgprophet This film is a worthy successor to "The Exorcist". In an alternate universe, this gritty thriller would have topped the box office and brought crowds to the theatres in 1977. But the studio didn't market it. No one saw it. The movie everyone saw instead that years was "Star Wars". That movie cost $11 million dollars to make. "Sorcerer" cost $12 million dollars to make. I sincerely regret not knowing about the film and trying to see it on the big screen. My first exposure to this film was when it debuted on a cable movie channel in the 1990s. At first, I was convinced that I had screwed up searching the TV listings, because the beginning of this film includes a sequence shot in France, starring French actors, and spoken entirely in French. This didn't fit in the synopsis of the movie I read: 4 desperate men are hired to move explosives through the jungle. Based on a classic foreign film "Wages of Fear", which I was able to see in a revival theatre, there is a story setup that pushes the tension and almost dares you the audience to live through the experience. The movie begins immediately with a murder, without any setup or dialogue. The movie abruptly cuts to another country and three new characters who commit a terrorist attack. I mention one word as the title of this review, and that is "Riveting". William Friedkin, with a background in documentary filmmaking, directs this sequence with an immediacy that feels real. He achieved this with great success in "The French Connection". Using hand-held style of cinematography, Friedkin popularized this style that has seen a resurgence in recent years (Bourne films). The French sequence I mentioned has a completely different timbre, as if we switched the channel to another movie with another director. Credit Friedkin for creating a provocative opening sequence that can challenge an audience, and which they find their reward for following the unorthodox setup of the story. I am reminded of the opening sequence of "The Exorcist", which approaches the story with seemingly detached characters, and allows the audience to be intelligent enough to fit the pieces together later. The fourth sequence returns to New York, and almost feels like an deleted scene from "The French Connection", complete with car chase. Here, we also recognise Roy Scheider, the costar of "The French Connection". Except he is now on the opposite side of the law. Nevertheless, Scheider now is the central character of the film, and it his charisma that is necessary to carry the film through the rough ride ahead. Scheider always has been a good guy character and well liked by audiences. He carries "Jaws" very well. His tough guy role in "Marathon Man" also was memorable. Friedkin makes a deliberate decision to minimise the dialogue in this film, instead letting the action tell the story for us. With the first act setting up the four main characters, the last being Roy Scheider, now on the run from the mob, we the audience are given the setup as Scheider is told his fate. He is getting on a boat to (presumably) Latin America or South America. An unnamed village in a third world country, through a montage of shots of fantastic cinematography, reveals that it is a corrupt government with a militant leader, and a poor population working for a western oil company. Again, all this exposition is told without a spoken word. There is also a deft approach to the story setting up the oil field explosion. Special care by the filmmakers makes sure each character in the films feels pressure. From the oil field foreman who must keep the quota, to the local police that must manage rioting workers, to the very survival of our four main characters who have bounties on their heads. The four men are hired to move very volatile explosives to the oil field (the explosives are used to snuff out the flame). Again, the setup of the macguffin, the explosives, is done expertly and causes the audience to twitch, knowing that the slightest slip could cause the nitroglycerin to blow up. As I mentioned, it is at this point that Friedkin dares the audience to live through the experience, as the explosives are driven along a crumbling mountain road that also encounters rivers and jungles. Watching these trucks navigate almost impossible driving conditions is nerve wrecking. Just when you think the truck has negotiated a formidable obstacle, a group of banditos or something else gets in the way. Watching this film for the first time in a few years (I deliberately held off until I could watch the Blu Ray copy), I was thoroughly entertained at this masterfully constructed thriller. This films should be considered a classic, by way of how expertly the story was told through new but yet entertaining and effective methods. Your heart pounds almost through your chest at times. I was even entertained when we learn the fate of Scheider at the end of the film. A film that successfully maintains tension from almost the very beginning should end the story with something to twist the knot even tighter. I give this film an 8, a kind of film achievement that can't be duplicated (even though plans have been made for another remake).