Oh, based on the name, I assumed that this was going to be a fantasy movie… So far, it seems like it’s a thriller/terrorist/agent movie?
It’s fun — I still have absolutely no idea what this movie is about. For all I know it’s going to turn into a fantasy movie any minute now.
The reason I’m watching this is that I enjoyed To Live and Die in L A, so I bought a whole bunch of movies by William Friedkin. So far they’ve all been pretty good, I think?
I’m guessing this company is totally evil!
The 70s were so sweaty… but there’s a reason here — they’re in Central America.
Oh, I guess I see where this is going now… only after 45 minutes. This is like the total opposite of a Netflix movie — unclear what it’s about, scenes that require you to pay attention, filmed on location, no talking heads that as-you-know-Bob the audience, and not that many famous actors.
OK, I didn’t know what this was about anyway. And now I understand why they kept it secret for this long, because it’s just ridiculous. This isn’t a late-70s movie — it’s a premature 80s movie.
It’s just so audacious in its sheer preposterous stupidity. OK, here’s the plot: An oil company needs some dynamite to blow out a burning oil well. So far so normal. Instead of ordering some dynamite from Amazon, I mean, Costco, they go to an old stash of degraded dynamite — that’s separated into nitroglycerine and grain (but is still the only dynamite that exists in the Americas). The nitro is very volatile, so they can’t fly it in. So they get our four … I hesitate to call them characters … to drive the boxes of nitro three hundred kilometres through the jungle.
The exciting part is whether they’re gonna blow up!
Does that sound sufficiently stupid for you? It should!
I do admire that they don’t even try to make this make sense in-movie at all. It’s just “OK, we need to get this nitro over there”.
So many scenes of this… which is fun and all, and I guess the sheer stupidity makes it more fun?
You can just enjoy the stunts.
Look at these lonely roads, untravelled by humans before… er… I mean… What I want to say that these roads are quite well-maintained for having no traffic except nitroglycerine transports.
I quite liked this movie until we got to the central section, which I just found to be a snoozefest. I know! I usually like that sort of stuff! I don’t know quite why — perhaps it’s because we don’t really care about any of the characters? Or because the surrounding plot is just too stupid? I mean, even the “drive nitroglycerine around” bit is just too stupid in itself — if it was that sensitive, the first pothole would make it go boom.
Oh, where was I… yes, I just couldn’t get into that part. But I think if I’d seen this when I was, like, twelve? I’d be totally on board.
Sorcerer. William Friedkin. 1977. ⚂
