
A gangster, a crooked banker, a hit man and an Arab terrorist are stranded and on the run in a small village in South America. Their only chance of escape is to drive two trucks filled with unstable dynamite (leaking nitroglycerin) up a long and rocky mountain road in order to plug an escalating oil refinery blaze. With their deadly cargo likely to explode at the slightest bump, the four men must put aside their differences and work together to survive.... (Full plot summary below)
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A gangster, a crooked banker, a hit man and an Arab terrorist are stranded and on the run in a small village in South America. Their only chance of escape is to drive two trucks filled with unstable dynamite (leaking nitroglycerin) up a long and rocky mountain road in order to plug an escalating oil refinery blaze. With their deadly cargo likely to explode at the slightest bump, the four men must put aside their differences and work together to survive.
Leave your thoughts about Sorcerer.
| Slant MagazineClayton DillardRather than a fleeting image of violence, however, Friedkin’s cyclical, almost Kafkaesque insistence that politics revolves around now globalized, corporate power delegating hired guns to do under-the-table bidding across national boundaries announces itself through the soundscape, with Tangerine Dream’s electronic basslines substituting for bloodshed. No one escapes the suffocating corrosion of Sorcerer’s polysemous diegesis—not even Friedkin himself, as audiences and industry would have it. |
| Boston GlobePeter KeoughPerhaps the elusive, uncanny soundtrack of Tangerine Dream brings this about, or maybe it’s Friedkin’s juxtapositions of close-ups and stark long shots of the tiny trucks lost in jungle or desert landscapes, but Sorcerer eventually seems to be happening someplace not of this world. Not hell, exactly; maybe Limbo. |
| Time OutJoshua RothkopfBy the time Sorcerer gets around to its rain-soaked, rickety-bridge set piece, you’ll either be obsessed or fully checked out. Give yourself a chance to pick sides. |
| The DissolveSam AdamsA defiant, mad gesture of a film that features some of the most exhilarating sequences in movie history. |
| NewsweekJack KrollWilliam Friedkin's remake of the French thriller Wages of Fear represents an above-average effort by the director of The Exorcist—meaning it's marginally watchable. Friedkin senselessly complicates the simple story—four men drive a truckload of nitro through a South American jungle—with a lengthy exposition and some unfortunate existential overtones. The rhythms are all off—it's either too fast or too slow—but most of the set pieces are effective. |
| The A.V. ClubA.A. DowdThough there’s gunplay, and more than a few explosions, the focus of this grim jungle odyssey is on the prevention of carnage, the heart-in-throat attempts not to blow something up. |
| TimeRichard SchickelFriedkin's pretensions do not entirely defeat the film, and his craftsmanship often rescues him from self-betrayal. But Sorcerer lacks the kind of low cunning — the sorcery — that is Friedkin's strong suit. |
| Washington PostGary ArnoldBoth The French Connection and The Exorcist gave Friedkin a reputation as a talented manipulator, but it appears that he may have begun to overestimate the appeal of manipulation for its own sake. The characters and episodes in Sorcerer seem totally arbitrary. They're used to implement certain pictorial or inconographic notions, but they're never developed dramatically. |
| User ReviewasgrrrOld school movie, slow buildup, slow start for the main story, gritty road scenes, genuine feelings for the drivers because they have been set up so carefully before. Very satisfying watch. |
| User ReviewDanielGrimes94Usually Blockbusters tends to have a "Happy Go Lucky" vibe...this movie was heavy! Plague with misery and gut wrenching scenes, masterfully directed by William Friedkein where the suspense is the main character rather than the actual Actors... |