Great revue. I went with friends to see Sorcerer when it was released. It was shown at the same theater (The National in Westwood, which no longer exists) where The Exorcist opened. We all LOVED this movie. Funny, we went to see Star Wars and didn't like it at all. To this day I feel the same way. For years I thought we were the only people on earth who held this view. I have to admit, after all these years, it's great to see that My friends and I aren't alone after all!
You're certainly not alone, Gary. Some people have an appreciation of great cinema and the things that make it great. Nothing being made today compares with that sort of artistry and sense of adventure. Thank you for commenting. Appreciated. T.
Thanks for this Tony. Probably my favorite film. My dad told my he saw it with my mum at the local cinema back in 1978 when it was released over here and didn't rate it. It was the 90 minute version which was retitled wages of fear which cut out 30 minutes of footage and told the story in flashback. I have a copy of that version and its ****ing dreadful. This edit was done without Friedkins consent and he was seriously pissed off about it. It was done by a distributor in an effort to get more cinema showings a day. I've got Friedkins autobiography and its well worth a read. He devotes a chapter to the making of Sorcerer. He has a great story about hiring a friend of his who was a professional arsonist to blow up the tree trunk because the special fx guys couldn't do it. He burnt down failing businesses so they could claim the insurance. His street name was Marvin the torch! Btw, I showed my dad the dvd version recently and he loved it. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind talks about the making of sorcerer and has some good stories about Friedkins behaviour on set. Success had gone to the guys head and he was seriously out of control firing people left right and center often for little or no reason. Scheider told him he had to stop firing crew members as he was fed up with going to the airport to say goodbye to them! I agree with your opinion that Sorcerer is a better film than wages of fear. The small town the characters were stuck in in Wages of Fear didn't look that bad whereas the town in Sorcerer looked like hell on earth.
Nat Glick recommended your review to me. I love this film. I was an enormous Friedkin fan in my teens, but in 1977 I was not able to catch its brief theatrical run because I was in a rural area staying with my grandparents at the time. Had to settle for listening to the soundtrack album, over and over for years. I did not see it until I got a bootleg VHS in 1983. Lived up to and beyond expectations.
McQueen was a stupid prick not making this. I've convinced myself that it was called Wages of Fear when I saw it in the Rugeley Plaza when I was eleven years old in 1977. Yes I did or perhaps I didn't. Long time ago. It is stupendous. RS is perfect. The madness carrying the nitro is incredible. We're all dead men. It's just when.
Hang on a second. You are as far from a "limited hack" as possible from writing, visuals and analysis. I guess you (like anyone) can feel frustrated at not being able to to 100% translate your thoughts and feelings about your ultimate favorite films, but your work is always of a very high standard. If you do feel that frustration, then you are in fine company, since almost every director or writer I've read about expressed how they could never realise their ideas as fully as they had originally conceived them before beginning the actual film making.
You like me Tony are a film fan, in the 70s I would go to my local every week without fail ( unless it was Disney crap, and musicals ), when Sorcerer came to the Trocedero i was excited to go, but I was surprised that it was only on for three days. As you quite rightly said the title put people off. ( I thought Saturday Night Fever was a film about getting the flu on a Saturday just as you were going out with your girlfriend ). The film is up there with Get Carter and the Wild Bunch and Cross of Iron. No heroes no big named actors ( I thought McQueen would have made a mess of it ). It really is a brilliant film, and over the years I have had to tie down some of my relatives to watch the film. They all thankfully enjoyed the film and could not understand why it was not popular. Critics now claim it is a lost classic. Critics am afraid don't understand, they follow each other like sheep. Thanks for letting me ramble a bit, take care.
It had a short lifespan in circulation, Gerald, evidenced by it showing up pretty quickly in my hometown. Only out of date or financially unsuccessful product tended to do that. As for being abroad and getting pissed for Queen and Country, I can think of no finer patriotic endeavour. Many thanks for your service, amigo..
IT IS FOR "The Why?" THAT ONE WATCHES! | Ten of ten, again. Thank you, for the straight-talk review and the supporting opinions and facts. Your pithy review reminds me of why I like both versions of the story of "The Salary of Fear" (1950), which I think makes them immersive, mood-piece cinema. The French version, "The Wages of Fear" (1953), is about the politics of capitalist exploitation, and then is about how the men endure and escape the knee-to-the-neck desperation of colonialist poverty; the American version, "Sorcerer" (1977), places politics second to the men transcending the knee-to-the-neck psychodramas that allowed idealising the Third World as place of escape, like "La Isla Bonita" for tourists.
Wasn't impressed on my first viewing, apart from that incredible bridge sequence. Watched it again recently and bloody loved it. I believe it's Friedkin's favourite of his films.
Sometimes it takes another look and the passage of time with some films - happens to me a lot. I really enjoyed and bought into Sorcerer on first viewing, but I think it was on the third time I saw it that I really thought it one of the best pieces of cinema I'd ever seen. Thanks, Paul.
Here's a download link to a .zip file E.P. I've curated for you. It includes the Sorcerer track which is one of eight from sessions dating way back. Hope you enjoy. Many thanks. T. LINK: drive.google.com/file/d/1jjUYpu5gJLok--4Hi9qN8CxJ-llQiQcQ/view?usp=sharing
It's been so long since I've seen 'Sorcerer' that I can't comment directly about it. I was disappointed with 'The Wages Of Fear'. I guess I was expecting something different from it, given all the praise that was lavished on it. I thought the final scene was a bit contrived (it required a level of idiocy that was hard to believe) and from memory 'Sorcerer' manages a much more effective closing. McQueen's demands became more and more outrageous. For 'A Bridge Too Far' (among other things) he expected the producer to buy one of his homes into the bargain (per William Goldman). As for Scheider, his being 'difficult' sounds unusual, as he was often described as a calm, polite professional. I suppose under certain circumstances any actor can become problematic. Gene Hackman eventually drove David Anspaugh to a panic attack while making 'Hoosiers'.
Friedkin directed Scheider on The French Connection and it was his first big break, thus he was more susceptible to acceding to the director's wishes, By the time of Sorcerer, which was post Jaws, he was less susceptible to direction without question and felt in more of a position to put forward his own ideas on scenes and characterisation - which Friedkin might have found challenging or even irksome. And I don't think Sorcerer was an easy shoot for anyone. I watched it again prior to undertaking this review and I enjoyed it almost as much as when I first saw it - in certain ways, even more. If you haven't seen it for a long time, it's well worth revisiting - and the Blu Ray version is a gorgeous upgrade. Goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. Thanks for supporting and commenting. Very much appreciated.
IMO Friedkin’s best film. A gritty and grounded look at an American desspot and how desperate men would go to great lengths to cheat fate. Phenomenally acted, shot, edited and scored. And yet another reason I loathe Star Wars.
i like sorceror a lot but must confess i am a rabid fan of the original wages of fear and watch it at least once a year.why sourceror flopped is beyond me .its well made acted photoraphed and directed with fantasic sets and locations .the central premise re the nitro transport has been a solid box office favourite apart from friedkins movie.vertical limit wages of fear on k2 was a huge hit and the recent liam neeson knock off wages of fear on the ice road did ok.i certainly while saying its not a great movie was gripped and entertained by it simply because of the spine tingling premise.sourceror was vastly superior to those efforts dripped a list quality and screen values .had it come out pre star wars or ten years or so later then i think it would have been a roaring success.also and its no criticism of friedkin had he dubbed his actors or used english speakers rather than subtitles early on then the movie might not have seemed so foreign to us audiences.day of the jackal and pappillon were huge hits despite the action taking place mainly in france or french guiana and the foreign stars in them spoke or were dubbed into english.i see why he did it his way and i agree with him just a suggestion as to why the film died at birth on release.
I have been following your recommendations - big red one, sorcerer and must admit these are superb movies. You have a great taste in movies and I am looking forward to checking your other recommendations.
It’s a shame how film producers go into formula’s for films. One film works and then it’s all the same stuff for the next decade. But you also get the utter crap that the British film makers are making at the moment. No wonder no one is investing in British Film Makers. Anyone with a 4K camera seems to be able to produce and market a film in the UK
Completely agree with you, Clifford. They can't even make good bad films these days. For a long time now there's been nothing produced that has inspired me to think: "Hey, I really want to see that!" I can remember a time when movies that got awards were good entertaining movies, not bland exercises in paint-drying virtue-signaling artless, lifeless tedium. I might sound like a grumpy old...whatever...living in the past, but Dr Strangely Uninteresting in the Marvel Multiverse of Masturbatory Mediocrity or Olivia Coleman as Maladjusted Feminist Icon Who Never Bonded With Her Dead Lesbian Daughter just doesn't do it for me.
@@tonybush555 I just had the unfortunate viewing of Rise of the Foot Soldier - Origins with. Vinny Jones. If I could I would of ask for a refund of my 0.99p rental fee. What was anyone involved thinking of. It was like it was made down the pub with sone mates after a few pints, and sounded like a good idea… Ruins it for all those aspiring film makers that must be out there.
According to Forbes the age of the average Star Wars fan/viewer is 18-44 - adult demographic. Eight year old children are not considered dumb, by and large they are dumb. They're eight year-olds. They're not designed to be Einstein. And most do not visit the cinema unattended or of their own volition. Usually there's an adult in tow. Thanks for commenting. T.
Schieder was always Hollywoods most wasted actor able to flip from good humour to pissed off in a second Sorcerer a great movie before both friedkin and schieders fall from favourites. Beautifully lit, acted, directed. Suitably ambiguous and not a god fearing Christian in sight. A real shame this such a failure, whilst earlier and equally bleak movies had had success-chinatown, the godfather 2, one flew over the cuckoo's nest.
@@graemewilson7975 Yeah, I will hopefully be getting around to it at some point, Graeme. It's on my to do list. Which is so long now it's unreal. Still, I'll keep plugging away at it. T.
Great revue. I went with friends to see Sorcerer when it was released. It was shown at the same theater (The National in Westwood, which no longer exists) where The Exorcist opened. We all LOVED this movie. Funny, we went to see Star Wars and didn't like it at all. To this day I feel the same way. For years I thought we were the only people on earth who held this view. I have to admit, after all these years, it's great to see that My friends and I aren't alone after all!
You're certainly not alone, Gary. Some people have an appreciation of great cinema and the things that make it great. Nothing being made today compares with that sort of artistry and sense of adventure. Thank you for commenting. Appreciated. T.
tony bush hatse star wars@@tonybush555
Thanks for this Tony. Probably my favorite film. My dad told my he saw it with my mum at the local cinema back in 1978 when it was released over here and didn't rate it. It was the 90 minute version which was retitled wages of fear which cut out 30 minutes of footage and told the story in flashback. I have a copy of that version and its ****ing dreadful. This edit was done without Friedkins consent and he was seriously pissed off about it. It was done by a distributor in an effort to get more cinema showings a day. I've got Friedkins autobiography and its well worth a read. He devotes a chapter to the making of Sorcerer. He has a great story about hiring a friend of his who was a professional arsonist to blow up the tree trunk because the special fx guys couldn't do it. He burnt down failing businesses so they could claim the insurance. His street name was Marvin the torch! Btw, I showed my dad the dvd version recently and he loved it.
Easy Riders, Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind talks about the making of sorcerer and has some good stories about Friedkins behaviour on set. Success had gone to the guys head and he was seriously out of control firing people left right and center often for little or no reason. Scheider told him he had to stop firing crew members as he was fed up with going to the airport to say goodbye to them!
I agree with your opinion that Sorcerer is a better film than wages of fear. The small town the characters were stuck in in Wages of Fear didn't look that bad whereas the town in Sorcerer looked like hell on earth.
Many thanks Chris. You always have something of relevant interest to add, and I'm grateful for it. Seriously appreciate your taking the time.
Thanks mate. I really enjoy your reviews. You've put me onto some great films I missed and some that are on my to watch list.
Nat Glick recommended your review to me. I love this film. I was an enormous Friedkin fan in my teens, but in 1977 I was not able to catch its brief theatrical run because I was in a rural area staying with my grandparents at the time. Had to settle for listening to the soundtrack album, over and over for years. I did not see it until I got a bootleg VHS in 1983. Lived up to and beyond expectations.
It is an amazing piece of work. Thanks for commenting, Chance. Appreciated. T.
McQueen was a stupid prick not making this. I've convinced myself that it was called Wages of Fear when I saw it in the Rugeley Plaza when I was eleven years old in 1977. Yes I did or perhaps I didn't. Long time ago. It is stupendous. RS is perfect. The madness carrying the nitro is incredible. We're all dead men. It's just when.
It did in fact do the rounds in some places under The Wages Of Fear title., so you're probably remembering correctly.
Hang on a second. You are as far from a "limited hack" as possible from writing, visuals and analysis. I guess you (like anyone) can feel frustrated at not being able to to 100% translate your thoughts and feelings about your ultimate favorite films, but your work is always of a very high standard. If you do feel that frustration, then you are in fine company, since almost every director or writer I've read about expressed how they could never realise their ideas as fully as they had originally conceived them before beginning the actual film making.
I do like this film, and I like the Tangerine Dream soundtrack (I do in most of the films they scored for).
We're on the same page, Blurredman. Thanks for commenting. T.
You like me Tony are a film fan, in the 70s I would go to my local every week without fail ( unless it was Disney crap, and musicals ), when Sorcerer came to the Trocedero i was excited to go, but I was surprised that it was only on for three days. As you quite rightly said the title put people off. ( I thought Saturday Night Fever was a film about getting the flu on a Saturday just as you were going out with your girlfriend ). The film is up there with Get Carter and the Wild Bunch and Cross of Iron. No heroes no big named actors ( I thought McQueen would have made a mess of it ). It really is a brilliant film, and over the years I have had to tie down some of my relatives to watch the film. They all thankfully enjoyed the film and could not understand why it was not popular. Critics now claim it is a lost classic. Critics am afraid don't understand, they follow each other like sheep. Thanks for letting me ramble a bit, take care.
You're welcome to ramble as much as you like, pambos. I appreciate you taking the time and making the effort to comment. Cheers. T.
Will give it a bash tone, how did I miss this gem in 77 must have been abroad, getting pissed for queen and country 😂😂
It had a short lifespan in circulation, Gerald, evidenced by it showing up pretty quickly in my hometown. Only out of date or financially unsuccessful product tended to do that. As for being abroad and getting pissed for Queen and Country, I can think of no finer patriotic endeavour. Many thanks for your service, amigo..
@@tonybush555 it's my pleasure tone 12 years of running amok around the world before settling down and becoming normal 😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@geraldmorson4522 👍
Tony bush ...i would love a review of the long good friday...by you.
Hi David. Something I'll get around to. Thanks for commenting. T.
IT IS FOR "The Why?" THAT ONE WATCHES! | Ten of ten, again. Thank you, for the straight-talk review and the supporting opinions and facts. Your pithy review reminds me of why I like both versions of the story of "The Salary of Fear" (1950), which I think makes them immersive, mood-piece cinema. The French version, "The Wages of Fear" (1953), is about the politics of capitalist exploitation, and then is about how the men endure and escape the knee-to-the-neck desperation of colonialist poverty; the American version, "Sorcerer" (1977), places politics second to the men transcending the knee-to-the-neck psychodramas that allowed idealising the Third World as place of escape, like "La Isla Bonita" for tourists.
Cheers, Mariano. Nice observations there. Appreciated.
One of my favorites...ever. Thanks Tony
One of mine too, Jatinder.
Wasn't impressed on my first viewing, apart from that incredible bridge sequence. Watched it again recently and bloody loved it. I believe it's Friedkin's favourite of his films.
Sometimes it takes another look and the passage of time with some films - happens to me a lot. I really enjoyed and bought into Sorcerer on first viewing, but I think it was on the third time I saw it that I really thought it one of the best pieces of cinema I'd ever seen. Thanks, Paul.
We need an MP3 download of that, or do we have to wait for the album 🏁
Here's a download link to a .zip file E.P. I've curated for you. It includes the Sorcerer track which is one of eight from sessions dating way back. Hope you enjoy. Many thanks. T.
LINK: drive.google.com/file/d/1jjUYpu5gJLok--4Hi9qN8CxJ-llQiQcQ/view?usp=sharing
Wow I've never even seen this that's tonight sorted with copious beers.
You're song is the best new music I've heard all year, Syd barret is back👍😁
Thank you for your very kind comments. Appreciated. T.
It's been so long since I've seen 'Sorcerer' that I can't comment directly about it. I was disappointed with 'The Wages Of Fear'. I guess I was expecting something different from it, given all the praise that was lavished on it. I thought the final scene was a bit contrived (it required a level of idiocy that was hard to believe) and from memory 'Sorcerer' manages a much more effective closing. McQueen's demands became more and more outrageous. For 'A Bridge Too Far' (among other things) he expected the producer to buy one of his homes into the bargain (per William Goldman). As for Scheider, his being 'difficult' sounds unusual, as he was often described as a calm, polite professional. I suppose under certain circumstances any actor can become problematic. Gene Hackman eventually drove David Anspaugh to a panic attack while making 'Hoosiers'.
Friedkin directed Scheider on The French Connection and it was his first big break, thus he was more susceptible to acceding to the director's wishes, By the time of Sorcerer, which was post Jaws, he was less susceptible to direction without question and felt in more of a position to put forward his own ideas on scenes and characterisation - which Friedkin might have found challenging or even irksome. And I don't think Sorcerer was an easy shoot for anyone. I watched it again prior to undertaking this review and I enjoyed it almost as much as when I first saw it - in certain ways, even more. If you haven't seen it for a long time, it's well worth revisiting - and the Blu Ray version is a gorgeous upgrade. Goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. Thanks for supporting and commenting. Very much appreciated.
IMO Friedkin’s best film. A gritty and grounded look at an American desspot and how desperate men would go to great lengths to cheat fate. Phenomenally acted, shot, edited and scored. And yet another reason I loathe Star Wars.
I think it's his best work too. T.
Friedkin was good at heroes, who followed Fitzgerald's comment, "Show me a hero, I'll write you a tragedy" . . . .
Thanks for commenting, John. Appreciated.
i like sorceror a lot but must confess i am a rabid fan of the original wages of fear and watch it at least once a year.why sourceror flopped is beyond me .its well made acted photoraphed and directed with fantasic sets and locations .the central premise re the nitro transport has been a solid box office favourite apart from friedkins movie.vertical limit wages of fear on k2 was a huge hit and the recent liam neeson knock off wages of fear on the ice road did ok.i certainly while saying its not a great movie was gripped and entertained by it simply because of the spine tingling premise.sourceror was vastly superior to those efforts dripped a list quality and screen values .had it come out pre star wars or ten years or so later then i think it would have been a roaring success.also and its no criticism of friedkin had he dubbed his actors or used english speakers rather than subtitles early on then the movie might not have seemed so foreign to us audiences.day of the jackal and pappillon were huge hits despite the action taking place mainly in france or french guiana and the foreign stars in them spoke or were dubbed into english.i see why he did it his way and i agree with him just a suggestion as to why the film died at birth on release.
Cheers, Mike.
I have been following your recommendations - big red one, sorcerer and must admit these are superb movies. You have a great taste in movies and I am looking forward to checking your other recommendations.
Thank you, Swarnava, for taking the time to leave a comment. Appreciated.
It’s a shame how film producers go into formula’s for films. One film works and then it’s all the same stuff for the next decade.
But you also get the utter crap that the British film makers are making at the moment.
No wonder no one is investing in British Film Makers.
Anyone with a 4K camera seems to be able to produce and market a film in the UK
Completely agree with you, Clifford. They can't even make good bad films these days. For a long time now there's been nothing produced that has inspired me to think: "Hey, I really want to see that!" I can remember a time when movies that got awards were good entertaining movies, not bland exercises in paint-drying virtue-signaling artless, lifeless tedium. I might sound like a grumpy old...whatever...living in the past, but Dr Strangely Uninteresting in the Marvel Multiverse of Masturbatory Mediocrity or Olivia Coleman as Maladjusted Feminist Icon Who Never Bonded With Her Dead Lesbian Daughter just doesn't do it for me.
@@tonybush555 I just had the unfortunate viewing of Rise of the Foot Soldier - Origins with. Vinny Jones. If I could I would of ask for a refund of my 0.99p rental fee.
What was anyone involved thinking of. It was like it was made down the pub with sone mates after a few pints, and sounded like a good idea…
Ruins it for all those aspiring film makers that must be out there.
@@HourBuilding 0.99p? You wuz robbed, Clifford!
It was sort of contemporaneous with Star Wars, late Spring of 1977..
Shock horror. I've never seen this. I have just ordered the DVD. I'll let you know
Be interested to know your take on it. Many thanks.
@@tonybush555 I saw it and adored it. Fantastic tension and set pieces. Brilliant.
@@thatguyfromcetialphaV Well done, that man. Glad you enjoyed it, bodie of ci5.
Yes, because I am sure 8yr old children should be considered dumb because they would rather see Star WRa than Sorcerer...lol come on man....
According to Forbes the age of the average Star Wars fan/viewer is 18-44 - adult demographic. Eight year old children are not considered dumb, by and large they are dumb. They're eight year-olds. They're not designed to be Einstein. And most do not visit the cinema unattended or of their own volition. Usually there's an adult in tow. Thanks for commenting. T.
Schieder was always Hollywoods most wasted actor able to flip from good humour to pissed off in a second Sorcerer a great movie before both friedkin and schieders fall from favourites. Beautifully lit, acted, directed. Suitably ambiguous and not a god fearing Christian in sight. A real shame this such a failure, whilst earlier and equally bleak movies had had success-chinatown, the godfather 2, one flew over the cuckoo's nest.
Schieder was a class act.
@@tonybush555 your doing a 52 pick up I think you mentioned. Much underated movie. Like last embrace & wonderfully none pc blue thunder.
@@graemewilson7975 Yeah, I will hopefully be getting around to it at some point, Graeme. It's on my to do list. Which is so long now it's unreal. Still, I'll keep plugging away at it. T.