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Sorcerer
DVD cover
Directed by	William Friedkin
Produced by	William Friedkin David Salven
Written by	Georges Arnaud (novel Le Salaire de la Peur) Walon Green
Starring	Roy Scheider Bruno Cremer Francisco Rabal
Music by	Tangerine Dream Keith Jarrett Charlie Parker
Cinematography	John M. Stephens Dick Bush
Editing by	Bud Smith Robert K. Lambert
Distributed by	Universal Pictures (USA) Paramount Pictures (non-USA)
Release date(s)	June 21 1977 U.S. release
Running time	121 min
Language	English
Budget	$22,000,000 (estimated)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Sorcerer is a 1977 film produced and directed by William Friedkin, starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal and Amidou. It is a remake of the 1953 French film Le Salaire de la Peur (Wages of Fear).

Sorcerer is noteworthy for being a major commercial failure following on the heels of Friedkin's highly successful films The French Connection and The Exorcist. The budget was estimated to be over $22 million, with a gross of just $12 million.^{[citation needed]} Friedkin's bad behavior on the set was quite infamous, including reports of him firing crew members on a regular basis at the drop of a hat. He later made joking references to it after a heart attack in the 80s, when he said nobody in Hollywood would call 911 for him.

Also notable is the electronic score by Tangerine Dream, which was their first, and led to them becoming one of Hollywood's top soundtrack composers in the 80s (Thief, Firestarter, Risky Business, and many others).

The film was a co-production of Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures, with Universal handling U.S. distribution and Paramount handling the international release.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Reaction 3 Spoofs 4 DVD release 5 References 6 External links

Four criminals on the run, living in an isolated, hellishly poor town in South America, are given a risky but lucrative opportunity to escape their self-imposed exiles by driving a pair of trucks through a grueling 200-mile jungle region, carrying dangerously unstable nitroglycerin in order to put out an oil fire. On the way, they meet up with various hazards blocking their journey, including rope-suspended bridges swinging violently in a huge storm, massive trees that must be cleared by explosion, and desperate rebels curious about the loads they are carrying. It ends on an appropriately nihilistic note, as did the original French film.

• Steve McQueen was the director's first choice for the role of Jackie Scanlon, and McQueen loved the script and wanted very much to do it, but he didn't want to leave the country due to marital problems he was having with Ali MacGraw at the time. Friedkin insisted that the film had to be shot in the Dominican Republic, so McQueen asked if MacGraw could be a producer on the film (giving her a reason to be on location with him). Friedkin refused, and McQueen turned down the role, which went instead to Roy Scheider. The director regretted his decision years later, realizing that McQueen's star power might have made it a box office success.

• William Friedkin had serious issues on this film beyond the clashes between himself and the cast and crew. He reportedly did not enjoy his time during the section of the film that was shot on location in Israel. He also antagonized Paramount at every turn, even using a Gulf & Western corporate photo for a scene that featured the evil board of directors of the fictional company that hired the men.

• Many people point to the film's box office failure as a result of the movie being released concurrently with George Lucas' runaway box-office smash of 1977, Star Wars. Freidkin agrees with this assessment during an interview on the Bug DVD. In Peter Biskind's book "Easy Riders, Raging Bulls", a section describes how a theatre in San Francisco was doing historic business with Star Wars, and when Sorcerer replaced it for one week it played to unattended silence until it was yanked and Star Wars returned to showings.

• Roy Scheider was angry that, in the final cut, Friedkin had removed a subplot that had his character showing a more sympathetic side, befriending a small boy from the village. For that reason, Scheider has to this day refused to comment on the film.

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• Despite it's being one of the most infamous financial "flops" of the 70s, it gained a cult following from pay television showings in the 80s, to the extent that it was finally released to VHS and DVD in the 90s. Today, it is considered by some (including the director himself) to be Friedkin's best film, a bold statement considering his other works include The French Connection, The Exorcist.

• The film today is more positively received by film critics; Rotten Tomatoes gives the film 77% fresh on its Tomatometer.^[1]

• Film critic Roger Ebert lists the film at #9 on his ten-best films list for 1977.

• The film's title refers to one of the trucks in the film, which has the name "Sorcerer" painted across it (the other is named "Lazaro"). Additionally, according to Friedkin, "The Sorcerer is an evil wizard and in this case the evil Wizard is fate, it’s more a film about fate and about the mystery of fate. The fact that somebody can walk out of their front door and a hurricane can take them away, an earthquake or something falling through the roof or something. And the idea that we don’t really have control over our own fates, neither our births nor our deaths, it’s something that has haunted me since I was intelligent enough to contemplate something like it."

• After the success of The Exorcist, Friedkin wanted to work with Peter Gabriel, the then lead-singer of Genesis, on a script (based on his strange lyrics and tales that came with the albums). However, due to conflicting schedules with the band and his family (plus the fact that the rest of Genesis was angry that Tangerine Dream was set to do the soundtrack) Gabriel backed out.

In an interview with Robert J. Emery (as part of the "The Directors" series), Friedkin says that he had wanted to cast Spanish actor Francisco Rabal for the role of the Frenchman in French Connection. They cast Fernando Rey for that role by mistake, although Friedkin ultimately praised Rey's performance in that movie. Friedkin loved the performance of Rabal in Luis Buñuel´s "Belle de Jour" and that is why he had wanted to cast this actor in French Connection. He finally had the opportunity to work with Rabal in Sorcerer.

An episode of The Simpsons entitled "Mr. Plow" featured a parody of this movie as Homer crosses a rickety bridge. The short scene is scored with very Tangerine Dream-like music.^{[citation needed]}

The DVD has been released in the U.S. and Canada in a non-widescreen version, but which is the proper aspect ratio for the film, as it was originally released to theatres in 1:33 format. Currently, there are no plans for a newly remastered release, however Friedkin's infamous 1980 film Cruising has just been released to deluxe DVD in 2007, and he has indicated that Sorcerer might get the same treatment at some point.

• Sorcerer at the Internet Movie Database
• Wages of Fear at the Internet Movie Database
• The "Lost" Theme information about a rare NON Tangerine Dream selection from the soundtrack
• Interview: William Friedkin
• On Wages of Fear and Sorcerer

v • d • e Films directed by William Friedkin

Good Times (1967) • The Birthday Party (1968) • The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968) • The Boys in the Band (1970) • The French Connection (1971) • The Exorcist (1973) • Sorcerer (1977) • The Brink's Job (1978) • Cruising (1980) • Deal of the Century (1983) • To Live and Die in L.A. (1985) • Rampage (1988) • The Guardian (1990) • Blue Chips (1994) • Jade (1995) • Rules of Engagement (2000) • The Hunted (2003) • Bug (2007)

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