Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows FanStore News Showtimes

Sorcerer

Play trailer Poster for Sorcerer PG Released Jun 24, 1977 2h 1m Adventure Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
82% Tomatometer 50 Reviews 83% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
In the small South American town of Porvenir, four men on the run from the law are offered $10,000 and legal citizenship if they will transport a shipment of dangerously unstable nitroglycerin to an oil well 200 miles away. Led by Jackie Scanlon (Roy Scheider), the men set off on a hazardous journey, during which they must contend with dangerously rocky roads, unstable bridges, and attacks from local guerillas. The four fight for their lives as they struggle to complete their dangerous quest.
Watch on Fandango at Home Buy Now

Where to Watch

Sorcerer

Sorcerer

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Sorcerer, which obstinately motors along on its unpredictable speed, features ambitious sequences of insane white-knuckle tension.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (50) Critics Reviews
Rex Reed New York Daily News I don't know if there's an audience for this kind of grueling, depressing experience, but Sorcerer might bring back the kind of moviegoer who used to cheer Humphrey Bogart. It's tough and unyielding as a pair of brass knuckles. Oct 26, 2021 Full Review Vincent Canby New York Times For moviegoers who are convinced that more is more, "Sorcerer" is a big, fat, satisfyingly shapeless spectacle. For the rest of us it's a walnut of a movie-a good little melodrama surrounded by thick pulp. Feb 28, 2021 Full Review Peter Keough Boston Globe The director at his most brilliant and original. Feb 28, 2021 Full Review Sean Axmaker Stream on Demand Friedkin gives the jungle a primal quality, an aliveness that makes their journey feel like a trip through an alien world waiting to swallow them up. Jul 21, 2024 Full Review Yasser Medina Cinefilia A very tense thriller, in which Friedkin narrates, with pulse and atmospheres, the truck voyage of four men who pursue desperate wages in the jungle of perdition. [Full review in Spanish] Rated: 7/10 Oct 31, 2023 Full Review Justin Harrison The Spool It’s simultaneously exciting and utterly unglamorous. Sep 22, 2023 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (317) audience reviews
Steve S Seriously, Sorcerer sucked. Meaningless plot that went no where. A hobbled together, waist of time intro of two flat, unbelievable characters to explain why they end up in the jungle. Not that their specific presence has any relevance of transporting nitro. A bad movie that did not age well, making it a shitty movie (except for the creation of the piss poor jungle town, which was well done). Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/13/25 Full Review Sarfaraz A The thriller was directed by William Friedkin. The film stars Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Amidou, and Francisco Rabal. The film is an adaptation of Georges Arnaud's 1950 French novel 'Le Salaire de la peur'. The novel was originally adapted in the film The Wages of Fear, released in the early 1950s. The film begins with four individuals struggling in a South American country after fleeing their original homelands because their lives were in danger. The film's beginning is rather long and may lose the audience's interest, but the growth of the characters and their need to be in a South American country where they are unable to find work to escape their agony was vital. As the film near its finale, it loses weight and intrigue; several main characters have been murdered off, and as the titles roll, we are perplexed by the destiny of the last surviving man. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/10/25 Full Review Tay L This should be renamed "Blueballs: The movie". A very slow, dull, boring film with small spurts of humor, suspense, and action in between. Every time something is happening, or is about to happen, there's an immediate jump cut to something else loosely related or not related at all. You'll be thinking "I cant wait to see how they flesh this out" and then BAM, the interesting thing disappears immediately and its time to move on. The main characters have interesting backgrounds, but none of that matters because their relevance is gone as soon as they are introduced. Only two brief scenes in the whole movie, one non-speaking, make any connection between these characters and their past. A hand full, and I really mean a hand full, of scenes are included that look like they each could've made their own movie, a good movie, or at least one more interesting than this one. It's a shame because I love many films from this era but this is one of those pieces of garbage that chooses to be excessively experimental over being good. Keeping in line with the historical lens of this movie, I decided to follow up by watching a good film: Star Wars. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 01/04/25 Full Review Ben D The 1970s are known for some of the best filmmaking for a reason. In Sorcerer, we get a story low on the dialogue and high on tension. Four men (Roy Schneider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal, and “Amidou”) from four different pockets of the world find themselves in an impoverished Central/South American village called “Porvenir” in an unidentified country. For four different reasons, these men have everything to gain and nothing to lose when they are tasked with transporting two truckloads of dynamite (with leaky nitroglycerin) from one dense jungle-laden location to another to stanch the detrimental externalities of an oil well explosion. Friedkin’s film is full of intense moments of practical effects concerning terrorist attacks, mob violence, and nail-biting, sphincter-clenching moments of hole-mottled, rust-pocked trucks traversing log bridges. The “light from window” shot in The Exorcist may be my single favorite shot in all of cinema. Friedkin provides a similar shot when we are first introduced to the revamped “Sorcerer” truck here, with a backlit, white nimbus halo in the sleeting rain that tells us, “It’s go time”. Instantly, you’ll fall in love with the score and only upon writing this review did I discover it was none other than Tangerine Dream. This is a great movie that was overshadowed with the contemporaneous release of Star Wars. This is a cinephile’s movie. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 12/18/24 Full Review Peabarter _ I saw this movie originally when I was in high school. Just so you know, there are no sorcerers in this movie and I don't know why they chose the name, but this is definitely a must see watch. The movie starts slow showing the lives of each of four men that come together later in the movie. It then turns into an action and adventure movie with some amazingly suspenseful scenes that you will ever see. Watching the bridge scene was super intense and had me on the edge of my seat throughout the entire sequence. I deducted one star for the slow first 30 minutes but trust me it's well worth getting through for the last 90 minutes of the movie. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 12/01/24 Full Review Matt F A great remake of Wages of Fear. Probably in my top 10 favorite movies. Tangerine Dream did an awesome score and you feel like you're right there in the rainforest with the visuals and sound effects. A thrill ride. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 09/28/24 Full Review Read all reviews
Sorcerer

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW

Cast & Crew

Sorcerer

View more videos
The Great Waldo Pepper 67% 57% The Great Waldo Pepper Watchlist The Bounty 74% 73% The Bounty Watchlist Never Cry Wolf 100% 84% Never Cry Wolf Watchlist Winning 63% 48% Winning Watchlist The Horsemen 30% 52% The Horsemen Watchlist Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis In the small South American town of Porvenir, four men on the run from the law are offered $10,000 and legal citizenship if they will transport a shipment of dangerously unstable nitroglycerin to an oil well 200 miles away. Led by Jackie Scanlon (Roy Scheider), the men set off on a hazardous journey, during which they must contend with dangerously rocky roads, unstable bridges, and attacks from local guerillas. The four fight for their lives as they struggle to complete their dangerous quest.
Director
William Friedkin
Producer
William Friedkin
Screenwriter
Walon Green
Distributor
Universal Pictures
Production Co
Film Properties International N.V., Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures
Rating
PG
Genre
Adventure, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Jun 24, 1977, Original
Release Date (Streaming)
Aug 5, 2014
Runtime
2h 1m
Most Popular at Home Now