Sorcerer (1977) l Bonus: New Criterion 4k Restoration and 50% Off Sale

The Movie

This movie was awesome. This was like the apex/kino version of the random jungle/adventure movies that use to play on weekend afternoons outside of football season. Being Friedkin, at his peak it had a lot more depth than your standard action-adventure movie.

The movie starts off with 4 vignettes that explain how each of the 4 main characters end up in a shithole South American oil town. Roy Scheider robs a church and shoots a priest who turns out to be a brother of a local mob boss. A 70s French finance bro made bad investments and his aristocratic father-in-law won't loan him the money to save him. A Palestinian commits an act of terrorism and flees after his compadres are killed/taken. The other is a Mexican hitman who kills someone and leaves. They all end up, as stated earlier, in a shithole South American oil town. An explosion at an oil well happens and the only way to stop the fire is to blow it up with TNT. The TNT turns out to be unstable, which then has to be driven over rough jungle without any vibrations, as they could make it explode. Shenanigans ensue.

The most famous scene is memorialized in the poster above. Typically your poster will exaggerate a main scene in the movie, however, this one actually underrates the visuals/setting in the actual movie. That should give you an idea of what to expect once the adventure starts going.

The characters are great. Scheider is awesome as usual, and it's just an overall fun movie to watch. You can get it off Bluray for $7.99 from Amazon and worth it.

Criterion

After waiting years for this to be released on streaming, I gave in and bought this on Bluray a few months ago. Then I was reminded that I never made this thread when I saw that it got a Criterion 4K release this past week. While doing my weekly Sunday browse for movie deals, I saw it dropped and was only $24.99. This led me to investigate further, and it's about time for the Summer 50% off sale. Barnes and Noble officially has the sale going, but Amazon seems to be tracking lots of the same deals, just not universally. For example, Barry Lyndon's new 4K release is $24.99 at B&N as well as Amazon. It's the Same for Sorcerer at B&N. On a side note, it appears Brazil also just got a Criterion 4K release this past June.