It’s 2012 and Disney announces a SORCERER remake and sequels for APOCALYPSE NOW and FITZCARRALDO. SORCERER beat STAR WARS and New Hollywood dominates.
I’ve driven the Stelvio Pass over the Alps and been escorted along Highland roads at risk of avalanche from snowmelt and none of those real-life driving experiences approach the exquisite tension that Friedkin crafts in SORCERER. Four desperate men are driven to the last place in the world anyone would want to look: the source of capitalism’s fuel; the thin end of the globalisation wedge. Friedkin and screenwriter Walon Green keep this political context firmly in view while crafting a relentlessly tense character study of men driven close to madness by the remorseless logic of profits before people.