Sorcerer
Directed by William Friedkin • 1977 • United States
Starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal
A hallucinatory journey into the heart of darkness, William Friedkin’s pulse-pounding reimagining of the suspense classic THE WAGES OF FEAR was dismissed upon its release, only to be recognized decades later as one of the boldest auteur statements of the New Hollywood. In a remote Latin American village, four desperate fugitives—a New Jersey gangster (Roy Scheider), a Mexican assassin (Francisco Rabal), an unscrupulous Parisian businessman (Bruno Cremer), and an Arab terrorist (Amidou)—take on a seemingly doomed mission: transporting two trucks full of highly explosive nitroglycerin through the treacherous jungle. Aided by Tangerine Dream’s otherworldly synth score, Friedkin turns each bump in the road into a tour de force of cold-sweat tension—conjuring a hauntingly nihilistic vision of a world ruled by chance and fate.
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Sorcerer
Directed by William Friedkin • 1977 • United States
Starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco RabalA hallucinatory journey into the heart of darkness, William Friedkin’s pulse-pounding reimagining of the suspense classic THE WAGES OF FEAR was dismissed upon its release, only to be recogniz...
Extras
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Friedkin Uncut
This 2018 documentary by Francesco Zippel traces the life and work of director William Friedkin. It features in-depth interviews with Friedkin; Sorcerer screenwriter Walon Green; and filmmakers Francis Ford Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, and Wes Anderson; among many others.
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James Gray and Sean Fennessey on SORCERER
In this conversation, conducted in 2025, filmmaker James Gray and film critic Sean Fennessey discuss SORCERER’s politics and its shifting reputation, from infamous flop to reappraised masterpiece.
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William Friedkin and Nicolas Winding Refn on SORCERER
In this 2015 conversation, director William Friedkin talks to filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn about the difficulties of making SORCERER and his feelings regarding its reception.
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Walon Green and Bus Smith on SORCERER
This piece, created in 2025, presents selections from audio interviews with screenwriter Walon Green and editor Bud Smith, conducted by film scholar Giulia D’Agnolo Vallan as research for her book William Friedkin (2003).
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Behind the Scenes of SORCERER
This brief behind-the-scenes montage shows the SORCERER cast and crew shooting a sequence set in Elizabeth, New Jersey.
