'Sorcerer': William Friedkin’s Long Lost Existential Thriller

PJ Media ^ | 19 Sep 2023 | Ed Driscoll

[Rummyfan]

Staring at your local multiplex’s lengthy roster of superhero and science fiction movies, it’s easy to forget what an enormous sea change “Star Wars” created in Hollywood in 1977. The new breed of movies were built around family-friendly themes, happy endings, orchestral scores, and dazzling special effects. Out went a string of dark films with murky plots where the grizzled antihero inevitably died at the end. ‎

One of the last of the latter group of films was William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer,” which “Star Wars” utterly demolished at the box office. As a result, it’s a film that was almost completely forgotten until Friedkin’s death at age 87 last month. It was considered a huge bomb initially in the wake of “Star Wars'” genuinely unexpected smash debut and long legs at the box office, but in the years prior to Friedkin’s death, critics began to reappraise Sorcerer, with Breitbart.com’s John Nolte calling it a “masterpiece.”

The film’s quality lies somewhere between those two extremes. It was one of the last films of the Hollywood auteur era of the late ‘60s and ‘70s, before “Star Wars” and “Jaws” created the template for audience-pleasing popcorn movies, and studio executives became increasingly reluctant to give directors not named Spielberg, Lucas, Kubrick, Eastwood, and Allen the final cut on a movie.

[ABN 505]

I was working for a Movie distribution company when that movie came out so I saw it many times , the more I saw it the more I appreciated it, a classic in my opinion.

[Political Junkie Too]

One of the last of the latter group of films was William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer,” which “Star Wars” utterly demolished at the box office. As a result, it’s a film that was almost completely forgotten until Friedkin’s death at age 87 last month. It was considered a huge bomb initially in the wake of “Star Wars'”...

I worked in a three-screen movie theater when both movies came out. We had Star Wars playing in both of the large theaters and Sorcerer played in the small theater. Sorcerer often played to an empty theater.

On a night off I went to see Sorcerer, and I still remember how tense I was during the movie. My shirt was drenched from sweat by the end of the film.

I can't recall any other movie that did that to me.

-PJ

[yuleeyahoo]

I love the soundtrack by Tangerine Dream.

[Rummyfan]

I think it was Heaven’s Gate that really ended an era.

[Moltke]

There isn’t even a wizard or magician in it, let alone a sorcerer.

Oh, but there is. Sorcerer is the name painted on one of the trucks. (Blink and you'll miss it.)

And as others have already pointed out: Remake of The Wages of Fear; the Tangerine Dream soundtrack fits well.

[Retrofitted]

It was a popular story to remake, apparently. I remember seeing it as “Violent Road”, with Brian Keith and Efram Zimbalist Jr.