Holy Crap! Talk about your nailbiters. William Friedkin's "Sorcerer" is one of the best cliffhangers (literally) that I've seen in a long time.
An American remake of Henri Clouzot's excellent "Wages of Fear" - Friedkin pulled out all the stops putting together something that most definitely is not a horror flick or a cop flick - even if it has elements of both included.
Four characters from around the world wind up in a small non-descript, South American town, miles from real civilization with no way to get back out. An assassin, an embezzler, a small-time hood and a terrorist. We know all four are villains from their individual introductions at the beginning of the film - there's not a good reason to root for any of them at the start....but that changes.
An American oil company is drilling in the jungle - over 200 miles away from their local headquarters, when it all goes South and the the rig catches fire. Good thing there are supplies and contingency plans in place - too bad nobody checked on them in a few years. The explosives meant for these situations are in pretty bad shape...too unstable for airlifting...but maybe a few desperate men could be persuaded to drive them there...for the right price.
Of course, first they've got to [re]build the vehicles they need and hope and pray they can hold together long enough to deliver the cargo.
Keeping with the general plot of "Wages of Fear" (probably the same as the original book that inspired it) - with a few twists. Gone is the "washboard" - although it does feature on the map - instead, we have a mind-blowing sequence (twice!) on a rope bridge over a river in the middle of a storm (see poster above). This thing barely looks like it could support a horse, much less a truck....and when it starts swinging in the wind - good gravy! One of the tensest scenes I've watched in a loooong time. No CGI here at all folks.
All the actors do a good job with their respective roles, but Roy Scheider - as the American...and probably the second least offensive criminal among the lot - is the general protagonist.
The blu-ray looks and sounds excellent (still got to work on getting better levels out of my receiver) - but sadly is completely devoid of special features - with the exception of the "digibook" packaging that includes some excellent photos and written material by Friedkin on the making of the film. While putting this review, I just had to look up Tangerine Dream's soundtrack for it you itunes and review a few of the tracks again - their first full movie OST - haunting techno that somehow fits a movie taking place entirely in a jungle wasteland.
An amazing film that I cannot recommend highly enough. I've waited a long time to watch it and it was worth it. Seriously...the only reason you haven't heard of this baby is because it had the bad luck to open the same summer as "Star Wars". A Must-Watch!
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