William Friedkin’s Sorcerer is also known as Wages of Fear elsewhere in the world. Fot a long while this film was impossible to see and it’s known chiefly as being one of the biggest flops of the 1970s. I have to say, that I think it’s a masterpiece and should sit alongside other 70s great movies.
Before I start to write about this film, I need you to see the trailer below. It’s a bit long winded at over two minutes but stick with it and then read on…
Of course it’s a remake of Wages of Fear and many people are loyal to the original. Not me, this has more depth and madness.
Basically four men from all around the world end up in some South American shithole because of crimes or misdemeanours they’ve committed. Without cash or hope, they embark on a mad mission to move some dynamite across country to put out a fire on an oil well. It’s a death mission, and they take it.
What develops is some of the most suspenseful action I’ve ever seen in a movie, of course it all leads to insanity and worse.
I finally managed to track down a copy of this movie about two years ago and I watch it often, it’s a gem. I first saw a bootleg copy of the film on YouTube many years ago and I remember sitting at my PC and marvelling, I went to watch it again the following weekend and it was gone due to copyright.
Fight to see this, you won’t be disappointed. The bridge crossing alone is one of the greatest sequences in 70s film.
So, 40 films to go…
Matthew Cooper has written for Emmerdale, Eastenders, Hollyoaks and Family Affairs. He was winner of the first ever Lloyds Bank Channel Four Film Challenge and the Oscar Moore Screenplay Prize. His first short film starred a then unknown Ewan McGregor and was picked up by Channel Four when Matthew was 19 years old. He’s been a script writer for hire and filmmaker for hire for over 20 years.