I wasn’t pleased with the socio-political overlay which ill-fit the main drama of the movie, and which conflicted with the theme.
The original French film possessed authenticity. The switch-back road that required the driver to back up onto a precarious wooden extender; something that seems real. The characters seemed real in that 30-50s movie way that the time period possessed. The part of the road that they had to “drive fast” on to prevent the truck from shaking IS real, because i’ve driven on oilfield roads quite similar. The enemy was capitalism and despondency but they were not egregious villains but subtle forces compelling men to risk their lives, like being swindled by a natural force in the game of life. The movie asks; isn’t there a better way? And leaves it at that.
Sorcerer had to throw into the mix these vignettes of socio-political commentary that were tangental to the original’s theme and which turns the movie on it’s head. The heartlessness of the evil oil company and it’s government sponsors, carrying the (somewhat gratuitously disfigured and charred) bodies of workers back to the riotous village which provides the needed labor. Without labor, where is the oil well? Like a page out of those cookie cutter 70s anti-corporate screeds that populated social studies and university classrooms. The immediate drama of the journey is shadowed by these complicated characters’ lives. The Israeli (or Palestinian) terrorist. The gangster that refuses to carry a gun. The swindling French banker whose bearing and manner, were at least, noble and philosophical. The mysterious man and his vendetta (which was very poorly done).
I also preferred the older cinematography. The close in shots and unsteady camera angles better emphasized the danger.
I suppose the setting was rather inferior as well. Algeria made sense in the context of the French participants, sort of the ass-end of the French world, these capitalistic, modern Legionnaires. A bit odd that 4 white boys get picked out of dozens of natives.
In the end, though, what i liked best was it’s setting itself. The rich luxuries of the upper crust of France; the cold, dreary rust towns of the US Northeast; the vibrant and bustling young nation of Israel, the ramshackle poverty and humid disease and decay of a blighted South American backwater.
When I was a kid, I thought the four guys were “sorcerers” for getting past all those obstacles using their “magic” bags of sand and control of the elements but since their powers unlocked dark forces, they ultimately had to “pay” with their souls.
Now I find out it’s the name of the truck, which I guess is also poetic.
Man, I have to tell you though, I’m really glad things were supposed to be so disjointed at the beginning of the film. Here’s me:
Man what the fuck is this fruity 70s relic art house bullsh
BOOOM!!!
Sweet. Wait, what? Aw, fuck it. In for a penny, and all that.
My only other thoughts on the film that haven’t been expressed (mostly by Desslock, with whom I totally agree regarding comparison’s to AN and Coppolla) is the fact that I guess Roy Scheider has pretty much always looked at least 50 years old. I think he and Charles Bronson had a mild form of progeria.
I’m way late to this party, but my wife refused to watch this (it looked scary) so I had to wait for a night she wasn’t home.
Nilo’s backstory: Nilo is a Nazi hunter. I thought the crack about the guy being a high ranking Nazi in the bar was directed not at the bartender, but at the old guy (Marquez?) that Nilo ends up killing (Marquez was sitting down at the end of the bar and gave them the stinkeye for making the crack). So Nilo is in town to off that ex-Nazi when he sees the Palestinian. The Palestinian isn’t on his list, but does attack Nilo with a knife and what the fuck is a Palestinian doing in east bumfuck anyway? Must be a terrorist, so he signs up for the truck ride to take out the Palestinian.
It bothered me that all the others were murderers except Serrano. Serrano should’ve been on a beach drinking Mai Tai’s because a banker who embezzles 15 million francs might not have 15 million francs lying around, but he’d have 15 million frikkin’ pesos. I also missed that the suicide guy was his brother-in-law, so, in my “what would the 70’s consider worth this kind of punishment?” way, I figured suicide guy was Serrano’s gay lover.
That’s why suicide guy commits suicide, and why his father won’t give him the money. Dad knows his son has been seduced, and that’s why Dad hates Serrano. It’s also why the movie punishes Serrano by sending him to Hell. He had that totally hot wife who likes discussing battles (Hawt Wargamer Wife!!!), and he cheats on her with middle-aged fruitcake. It’s the only reason he ends up driving a truck full of nitro, and it’s why he blows up when he’s talking happily about the watch, because he betrayed her.
Besides he’s French.
Okay, it may be out of left field, but that was totally the scenario I built up during the course of the movie.
The truck driving audition scene (and is someone going to choose Audition as their movie?) was hilarious because these assholes can’t drive, and they’re signing up basically to get blown up.
Finally, I loved Sorcerer’s teeth, but when cutting to Scanlon and Nilo, I kept thinking, “Who’s smoking?” and then realizing that it was the diesel exhaust from the front-mounted exhaust pipes. That’s so stupid it’s awesome.
Interesting that even though Friedkin spent a lot of screen time and real-world money building everyone’s backstory, there is still tons of room for interpretation. Crazy jingoistic homophobic interpretation, but, in retrospect Serrano did wear a powder blue suit and smoke cigars (like all the time - hint hint).
Sympathetic vibration. The “frequency” of the road is a function of your speed and the distance between road grade grooves; the frequency of the car is a function of it’s weight and resistance provided by the shocks. Many of these strips of road have ridges at almost the exact same distance apart (sometimes caused by a road grader, sometimes by wind, sometimes a combination of both). At a certain speed the body of the car is moving up and down at the exact same time the wheels are going up and down on the road bumps; this causes the car to bounce violently. Go faster, however, and by the time the body of the vehicle is moving downward again, the wheels are already going over a bump and the suspension is pushing back up, thus causing it to cancel out some of the roughness felt.
OK, just finished watching this and rereading the thread. Never heard of the film before, so score one for the Qt3MC. I skipped over some of the Wages of Fear spoilery type posts, so I hope I don’t double up on anyone’s observations.
Sorcerer. Totally missed the trucks havings names. I thought Sorcerer meant the men delivering the explosives. As in “he who brings fire”. Obviously if they just named the movie Pyromancer there would be no need for discussion on this detail.
Serrano. This cat kept winning arguements due to something the French call “a certain I don’t what”. He was the only one of the four who didn’t use physical violence as a means of profession or protest. Even when he was in the wrong (the low vs. high road; getting the brother-in-law in on a bad unsecured investment) he had a confidence that others bowed down to. Having knowledge of how far a conversation between adults made his life bearable in his hell. He had a bare minimum of relationships with the bar owner (special customer scotch?), waitress and Marquez. All the while Scanlon can only manage to sweat out out in a transient hotel in Jersey and a really realy really poor version of a YMCA in the unnamed town.
They did pick the low road and it was the wrong one, right? The one that ended up in the moonscape canyon? The high road was the correct choice.
Nilo. I thought he had come to kill Scanlon up until I read this thread. I thought he killed Marquez to get a spot on team in order to get closer to Scanlon outside of town, where he could be more easily disposed of. You see since Marquez had the single room to him self, where as Scanlon always around other people in the communal living space. When they confronted by the fallen tree and he believes the other crew wouldn’t be able cross and keep up…out comes the revolver.
But the Nazi hunter wanting to get in good graces with the local multinational conglomerate and immediately leaving town with a mad money payout seems to fit better. Did that guy in killed at the opening of the movie “look” German?
Other observations:
I get insanely pissed at work at unclear emails and vague conference calls. Imagine being a corporate oil lt. with some old guy handning you a telex telling with this month’s quota.
My favorite character was the explosive specialist, what with his gold chain.
While the rope bridge sequences were amazing, what I really want is the widescreen shot of the wooden bridge and early shots of the road’s outer edge crumbing beneath the wheel. I felt cheated.
That’s enough for one night. Thanks all for the recommendation and I look forwarding to rereading this thread after finding a copy the original film.
Which is ashamed because even by 1977 standards that rig was an ancient piece of junk. Even with the current fuel prices, we (the oilfield) can drop a rig in the middle of nowhere for minimal costs (compared to the budget of the movie it costs between 2 and 3 million to drill a 10,000 foot well). I guess it’s different if your not actually planning on drilling and are actually planning on blowing it up.
Me too. I haven’t seen the whole thing yet but what I’ve seen so far is 1) really shitty, with absolutely awful dubbing and zoom frenzy, and 2) awesome cinematography.
So, I watched this last night, and was completely shocked. Not so much because of the film, but because of what I expected. For some reason, probably because of some references in other movie reviews and a frame from the film I saw Tom use in some other context of a truck crossing a rope bridge where it looked it was chasing a guy, I was 100% convinced that it was a movie about sentient cars attacking people. I watched the first 20 minutes wondering more and more how the heck they were going to take a movie that was so clearly a 70s French New Wave suspense thriller (it even has the guy from Maigret!) and turn it into a movie where cars attack people on their own, because based on the opening, it was now going to have to be believable. I thought maybe the car that the robbers crashed into the fire hydrant had actually crashed them, or something. Once I realized that Tom had lied about this part of the movie, or — much less likely — I had misunderstood, I was in for a second surprise. It’s a total Wages of Fear remake! I actually didn’t realize that until the end. I was thinking through the whole movie, “I’ve seen this, I know it!” and then when I saw the dedication to H-G Clouzot I thought OMG that’s it! I am definitely getting old - 20 years ago I would have recognized it immediately.
I haven’t read this thread so this is probably all addressed completely, so maybe I should go read it. What was the deal with the assassin guy? I thought he was there to take out Roy Scheider, but then it became clear he wasn’t.
I was really impressed by the truck scenes and the exploding oil well. That must have cost a fortune.
In summary, don’t trust Tom to tell you when a movie is about evil automobiles. Did you all want to play Spintires after this? Holy cow.
He was. Roy Scheider’s character totally dies at the end of Sorcerer. Well, shortly after the end.
As for the confusion about sentient cars attacking people, you’re confusing two seminal works of 70’s filmmaking. The Car is the movie you’re thinking of.
Yes, of course, when the two gang members show up outside the restaurant. But that doesn’t mean the assassin guy was meant to kill Roy Scheider. He had plenty of chances to do it and he didn’t.
Also, how did the bomber get out of Israeli custody?
Oh, that assassin guy! I thought you meant the groovy dudes at the end. I don’t think the assassin had anything to do with Roy Scheider. The four men had nothing in common aside from being in the wrong/right place at the wrong/right time. I don’t recall any evidence that Roy Scheider was his target, but maybe I missed something.
As for the Palestinian, he was never taken into Israeli custody, was he? Don’t we see him escaping when the Isrealis raid the building?
