"Sorceror" - Aug 10th

Join the Boston Sunday Night Film Club this Sunday, Aug 10th at 7pm for Sorceror at the Brattle Theatre . Look for Dan wearing a multicolored shirt in the theatre lobby about 15 minutes before the film. As always, after the film we will descend on a local establishment for dinner/drinks/discussion.

William Friedkins white-knuckle, high-octane remake of one of the tensest films ever made, Clouzots The Wages of Fear, features Roy Scheider as a down-on-his-luck American ex-pat in South America who joins a desperate group of men transporting dangerous explosives across treacherous territory in order to stop an oil refinery fire. SORCERER ups the ante on its predecessor by throwing even more obstacles at its protagonists. For instance, where Clouzot had cliffside, switchback mountain passes, Friedkin adds a crumbling rope bridge across a gorge. And the natural obstructions are just the obvious problems soon, the emotional toll of the work and the outright cravenness of the team conspire to create some of the most sensational scenes of sustained tension in cinema history. Initially positioned as a summer tentpole, SORCERER was effectively obliterated by the release of Star Wars a month earlier.

Now viewable in a gorgeous digital restoration heartily endorsed by Friedkin, the film is being seen in a new light and causing film fans to consider an alternate history where SORCERER and not Star Wars became the blueprint for the blockbusters to come.