Whelp, I watched Sorcerer last night, I resisted picking up Wages of Fear as well so as to judge Sorcerer on its own merits.
(I have seen both before, but its been over ten years)
Random thoughts…Larry King style…
…I like how in the 70’s, Garish meant wealth. Serrano’s apartment, office and the restaurant where his brother-in-law offs himself are wonderful examples…
…those trucks have more charisma than half of the major actors working in Hollywood today…
…The movie exists in a moral vacuum. Nilo shivs Marqez and they sign him right up…
…While there may not be any baby-raping American Stereotypes madkevin is so fond of, there is enough ambiguity surrounding the oil company (and the oil company’s man) that you don’t actually care if they get their oil well fire put out…
…What you are left with is rooting for the drivers all of whom are skunks…must have been a very hard sell in the black and white morality of the Star Wars days…
…The action is very good, especially getting the trucks over the wet rope bridge …
…man, that refinery blew up good, didn’t it?..
…what kind of gun did Serrano’s brother in law use? A howitzer?..
…Did the guy who did the title script do the title script for The Warriors as well? Was he the lead singer for Tangerine Dream maybe?..
…The intro vignettes - I liked Serrano’s interaction with his wife, it shows how far he has fallen, (which undercut the impact of his death somewhat as he was never going to return to Paris and his beautiful erudite wife). But I can’t help thinking it could have been shorter…
…The others are pretty plain, with the exception of the Arab guy’s, can’t help thinking portraying that guy in any sort of a positive light wouldn’t happen today (even if Steve Spielberg ham-handedly tried to have his Israeli soldier have a nice chat with a Palestinian terrorist, 'cause we’re all so alike in the end…don’t you see? …
…for a movie with a lot of action very little of it has any impact on the viewer - quite a bit of it happens during the character’s vignettes - bomb, car crash, assassination, but before the viewer even know whom the protagonists are, so the violence doesn’t mean much (the exception being Serrano’s brother-in-law’s suicide)…
…I’d of like to have seen more action in the jungle with the trucks and less intro stuff…
…I hate Spielberg…
…I like Roy Scheider in just about anything he is in (even Blue Thunder), he always seems slightly overwhelmed and world weary, but game…
…the manliness factor is very very high here, Nilo’s dying wish that Scheider hump two Nicaraguan whores for him was especially grizzled…as was his mustache…
…why cant Roy go to Managua? Would seeing a whore make him think of poor Nilo the murderer?..
I could go on, but bottom line, its a very good movie, a must see for fans of 70’s style gritty action. While its not easy to actually get invested in the characters, you do empathize with their desire to escape their situation.
EDIT:(one more) …a funny alternate ending would have been for the oil company to give Scheider a giant size novelty check…