It's been 40 years since Sorcerer first came to a South American jungle near you, but it's hard to imagine a time when it didn't exist. Three sequels (with many more to come), three misguided yet often misunderstood prequels, one "Sorcerer Story" (last year's Rogue One, about the embezzlement scheme that leads Sorcerer's Bruno Cremer into exile at the beginning of the movie), countless books, video games, animated cartoons, and one infamous Christmas special later, the pop culture crater left by Sorcerer's impact is so large it makes the tree blown up by the film's heroes look more like a twig.

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

A cinema of madness. Pure physical detail. Damnation as a form of cinematic spectacle. Man with blood in their hands fulfilling their death wish. What for Clozout is social need, for Friedkin is self-punishment. First world crimes reimagined in a third world purgatory, an amusement park of unforgiven nature. The beauty is that everything is translated in pure action, everything a matter of another form of behavior. Among other things, this is Friedkin’s most compassionate movie, Francisco Rabal taciturn killer is the film’s heart and Bruno Kramer’s masochist banker it is clear-eyed soul.

An action adventure for depressed people.

Sorcerer is a film about brotherhood, loneliness, and the extreme lengths men will go to in order to survive.

The film showcases an interesting story, strong practical effects, good cinematography, some intelligent editing, and ends on a fantastic final twenty minutes. There are so many wonderful shots, cuts, and ideas contained within this film.

Unfortunately, the film is marred by its two hour running time feeling more like four. The script is weak and filled with a multitude of plotholes, we know next to nothing about the characters (certainly not enough to care about them), and it's simply a drag right up until the end. I can understand why so many view it as a hidden classic, but I simply don't see it that way.

57/100

Each time I’ve watched Sorcerer, I’ve found myself wondering how it could have been almost forgotten for so long. The story of its release going badly wrong thanks to some sci-fi nonsense George Lucas came up with (Star something I think) being released a few weeks later somewhat explains its relative lack of appreciation, but thankfully it’s becoming more widely regarded thanks to a Friedkin approved re-release in cinemas and dvd.

It has terrific performances (Roy Schneider had a hell of a run in the 70s, he was in Klute, The French Connection,  The Seven-Ups and Marathon Man before Sorcerer, a spectacular line up), a brilliant Tangerine Dream score and some particularly tense set pieces. There’s not a lot of dialogue, and most of the drama is created by the roar of truck engines and screeching of tyres, but it’s an epic ride and runs The French Connection very close as my favourite William Friedkin film.

I'm glad it's been a while since I saw Wages of Fear, if it were fresher in my mind I'd have been constantly making comparisons.

I didn't know much going in, other than four guys have to transport dynamite in the jungle and Mark Kermode was raving about it.

William Friedkin directs and it does have a lot going for it; cinematography, editing, cast, Scheider is especially great, locations and a score by Tangerine Dream. You know that all the stunts and explosions are real and that simply made them jaw dropping.

The first hour is set-up, I was actually surprised by how much of this there was and it didn't initially grab my interest. However, once they started transporting the dynamite in the jungle it became dynamite. It's proper edge of the seat stuff and without giving too much away the ending is fantastic too. I wanted to rate it higher, but I did find the first half unnecessarily drawn out.

Takes a little while to get to make it clear exactly what the agenda is here, but once it arrives, what an agenda. A group of runaway criminals from across the world must drive a old truck full of unstable explosives that could blow up at one wrong turn through a hot jungle of madness in a desperate dash for salvation from the hole their past life's have left them in. William Friedkin's "Sorcerer" is a mad rush of some of the most pure suspense and sweat and blood on camera intensity I've seen in some time.

*unrelated note: why does it seem like every William Friedkin film starts like an Indiana Jones installment?

on a serious note, this is definitely one of the great American films of its time, and I have no idea why people don't talk about it in the same breath as Jaws or the Godfather

If Walter Hill's take on blue collar Joes in a hellish situation is a nice cup of coffee, Sorcerer is a tongue-shriveling shot of steaming espresso.

Two trucks carrying unstable explosives, a raging oil fire, 218 miles of rocky jungle, and four grimy, sweat-soaked men doing whatever it takes to escape their world of violence.

You know when you're parallel parking for the first time and you're super paranoid and freaking out about hitting the cars around you? From about 45-minutes in until the end, that's what Sorcerer is.

"It's five minutes before nine...in Paris."

[DVD]