Sorcerer (Blu-ray Review)
- Review Date: Jun 23, 2025
- Format: Blu-ray Disc
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Director
William FriedkinRelease Date(s)
1977 (June 24, 2025)Studio(s)
Film Partners International/Universal Pictures/Paramount Pictures (The Criterion Collection – Spine #1267)- Film/Program Grade: B
- Video Grade: A
- Audio Grade: A
- Extras Grade: A
Review
After the success of The French Connection and The Exorcist, director William Friedkin was Hollywood’s latest golden boy and had the clout to make any film he wanted. His choice was Sorcerer, a remake of the 1953 French film The Wages of Fear, and he insisted that it be shot on location in a jungle.
In a lengthy prologue, we meet the leading characters: New Jersey wheelman for thieves Jackie Scanlon (Roy Scheider), who botched a heist of mafia money and is on the run from a mob boss; Mexican assassin Milo (Francisco Rabal); Palestinian terrorist Kassem (Amidou), who planted a bomb at an Israeli bank; and French stockbroker Victor (Bruno Cremer), facing jail time for tax fraud. All four are hiding out in the small Colombian village of Porvenir. Their days pass slowly and life is tedious until an opportunity arises. An oil company is offering enough money to get them out of the village if they transport boxes of expired, volatile dynamite leaking nitroglycerine in two trucks over 200 miles of jungle to a site where the dynamite can be used to blow up a burning oil well. Desperate, they accept the deal.
The bulk of the film deals with their perilous journey over treacherous terrain with a cargo apt to blow them up without warning. They must cope with roads nearly washed away by monsoons, crumbling mountain roads, and a huge fallen tree obstructing their way. A particularly terrifying scene takes place on a rickety suspension bridge that doesn’t look strong enough to support a person, let alone two heavy trucks. Tension escalates with each bump, each rattle of the trucks, each breaking bridge support and rotten splitting plank. As one of the trucks on the decrepit bridge teeters from side to side, it nearly falls into the raging river below.
There isn’t a lot of dialogue in Sorcerer. Friedkin lets the visuals tell the story, and he’s created some memorable moments. The set-up is right out of the Hitchcock playbook: create a situation in which, at any second, an explosion can kill everyone, and periodically show the boxes of dynamite to keep suspense palpable. The jungle locations in the Dominican Republic give the picture authenticity and underscore that nature is the men’s greatest enemy. The prologue provides just enough backstory for each of the men so that we understand what they’re running from. None of them are decent or admirable, which makes Friedkin’s job tough. He has to make us care about what happens to them.
Most of the focus is on Scheider’s Scanlon, who adopted the name Juan Dominguez to mask his true identity. Grimy, ever vigilant, he’s a lost soul in limbo, feeling his life has come to a dead end. Scheider’s performance relies on how he looks at people, how his body language suggests monotonous work, and how his silence conveys caution. As he’s the most famous of the four principal actors, the viewer’s attention tends to gravitate to him.
The cinematography by Dick Bush and John M. Stephens beautifully captures the rugged jungle vegetation, the punishing rain, and the harsh conditions that make the journey a life-and-death gamble. From the point that the men start out, the tension never lets up and there are several heart-stopping moments. The suspension bridge sequence alone is worth seeing.
With only a sketchy notion of the characters provided in the prologue, we understand their need to hide out, but that’s about it. We never fully grasp why they’re so desperate to leave the village, where they’re safe, or that they’re willing to risk their lives. Yes, they’re bored and impatient, but is that sufficient motivation? Is the life-or-death journey their only way to get out, and if they did get out, where would they go? Each is marked and hunted. Freedom may be illusory.
Friedkin apparently felt that the true substance of the story was the trek, and he was right. However, there were opportunities during that long trip to have the men talk a bit, adding to their characterization. The film is often depressing, as a sense of doom pervades the men’s fate, yet it’s hard to look away. We’re already invested in what will happen.
Sorcerer had the misfortune of originally being released around the same time as a little film called Star Wars, which dominated theater box offices for months. In addition, reviews of Sorcerer were uniformly negative. Audiences stayed away and the picture made back only about half of its cost. Previous releases on VHS and DVD often presented it in pan-and-scan format. In recent years, however, the film has received considerable critical reappraisal.
Sorcerer was shot by cinematographers Dick Bush and John M. Stephens on 35mm film (Eastman 100T 5247) with Panavision Panaflex cameras and Panavision spherical lenses, finished photochemically, and presented in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The Criterion Collection 2-Disc Blu-ray release features a 4K restoration created from the 35mm original camera negative “with select shots taken from a 35mm color reversal intermediate,” according to information in the enclosed booklet. A 1998 35mm print provided by Paramount Pictures and a 2013 digital master, both approved by director William Friedkin, were used for color reference. Clarity and contrast are excellent, with details such as sweat and stubble on the men’s faces, jungle vegetation, a rickety suspension bridge, the rusty old trucks, and the village well delineated. In the scene when the two trucks inch their way across that crumbling bridge swaying in the wind-driven rain, the storm is so intense that it seems to be fighting the vehicles.
Audio is included in English 5.1 and 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio. The 5.1 mix, according to information in the enclosed booklet, was created in 2013 and approved by Friedkin. The original theatrical 2.0 surround soundtrack was remastered from the 35mm magnetic track. Dialogue is minimal, but what there is of it is clear and distinct. English intertitles are shown when Victor speaks in French. Sounds of the trek through the jungle dominate the soundtrack—the truck’s gears shifting, wheels crunching and bumping along badly damaged roads, monsoon-like rains, cracking wood of the rotting bridge. There’s also an oil well explosion, gunfire, a vehicle crash, speeding cars, a bomb explosion, ambient restaurant noise, and a shattering windshield. English SDH subtitles are an available option.
Bonus materials on the 2-Disc Blu-ray release from The Criterion Collection include the following:
- Friedkin Uncut (HD – 107:26)
- James Gray and Sean Fennessey (HD – 28:18)
- William Friedkin and Nicolas Winding Refn (HD – 77:23)
- Walon Green and Bud Smith (HD – 36:27)
- Behind the Scenes (HD – 6:09)
- Theatrical Trailer (SD – 2:53)
Friedkin Uncut – In this feature-length documentary by Francesco Zippel, the life, career and work of director William Friedkin is explored. Interviewees include Friedkin; Sorcerer screenwriter Walon Green; filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, and Wes Anderson; and actors Willem Dafoe, Ellen Burstyn, and Matthew McConaughey. Clips from Friedkin’s films are shown. Before Friedkin took on The Exorcist project, he did a lot of research, and he speaks about the only two exorcisms in the United States documented at the time. Actor Stacy Keach had already been signed to play Father Karras but, after meeting and speaking with Jason Miller, Friedkin felt Miller was the ideal choice for Karras, and Keach was paid off. For The French Connection, the director wanted the chase to reflect street life in Brooklyn. He was more interested in the cops that broke the case than in the case itself. Friedkin claims that many of the shots in the chase sequence were “stolen”—filmed without official permission. Friedkin offers his perspective on his various films and tells interesting behind-the-scenes stories.
James Gray and Sean Fennessey – Filmmaker Gray and film critic Fennessey discuss the politics of Sorcerer and its shifting reputation through the years, from infamous flop to reappraised masterpiece.
William Friedkin and Nicolas Winding Refn – presented in black & white (with film clips in color), this in-depth dive into the pictures of Friedkin includes the complexities of making Sorcerer and Friedkin’s take on its reception by critics and audiences—“a mass negative reaction.” Steve McQueen considered playing the role of Scanlon but dropped out because Friedkin wouldn’t move filming to the United States. McQueen was replaced by Roy Scheider, who was known for his role of the sheriff in Jaws. Sorcerer opened at the same time as Star Wars, which dominated the American box office and reflected changing tastes. Younger audiences favored a kind of comic-book action. Sorcerer had a brief theatrical run in America and subsequently opened in Europe and other parts of the world with similarly disappointing results. Friedkin doesn’t regard Sorcerer as a remake of The Wages of Fear even though the storyline is exactly the same. He intended the film to be about “the mystery of fate.” He describes the process of casting in detail and explains how and why what started as a modest production ballooned to an over-budget behemoth. The Dominican Republic provided the exotic jungle locations.
Walon Green and Bud Smith – Selections are played from audio interviews with screenwriter Walon Green and editor Bud Smith, conducted by film scholar Giula D’Angelo Vallan as research for her 2003 book, William Friedkin. The two men speak extensively about their contributions to Sorcerer and difficulties that arose in the pre- and post-production stages.
Behind the Scenes – This silent footage looks as if was filmed with a home movie camera. Cast and crew are shown going about their jobs as they shoot a scene in Elizabeth, New Jersey. We see cameras being set up, grips carrying equipment, and Roy Scheider having make-up applied and talking to crew members. An elaborate rig is set up in the rear of a car that Scanlon (Scheider) will be driving. A scene shot on the steps of a church as a new bride and groom exit to cheering family and friends is shown.
Booklet – The enclosed accordion-style booklet contains the essay Bleak Magic by Justin Chang, photos from the film, production credits, and information about the restoration.
Also available from The Criterion Collection is a 3-Disc 4K Ultra HD Sorcerer release containing the same two Blu-ray discs with the same content, as well as as a 4K Ultra HD disc and graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10 and Dolby Vision HDR.
Sorcerer is a B picture with a sense of grandeur. The scenes of the trucks making their way through the jungle are the highlight and grab the viewer, but it’s tension that drives the picture rather than concern for the lives of the men. Each actor conveys the constant, nerve-wrenching fear his character feels as he pins his hopes on the success of a daunting jungle odyssey. Friedkin knows how to create enormous suspense with his cinematic know-how, but he’s working with a script in which the characters are barely defined.
- Dennis Seuling