Since the earliest days of my cinephilia, I’ve been a William Friedkin guy.
One of my greatest eras of cinematic exploration was during the great days of the Netflix disc plan, where I could juggle 3 discs at a time, cycling through them as fast as humanly possible with only the limits of the postal system to slow me down. The Netflix catalogue was extensive, one was incentivized to turn over titles as fast as possible to get your money’s worth, and my exploration grew endlessly. My recollection is that this is when Friedkin’s remarkable masterwork of tension, Sorcerer, first entered my life. And I adored it from the moment I saw it.
I bring all that up because I experienced none of the stink, the drama, or the mystique of the film’s initial theatrical release. Infamously a bomb, Sorcerer struck at a time when Friedkin was arguably at the height of his powers, post French Connection and Exorcist. Like his contemporary Francis Ford Coppola, Friedkin had disappeared into a foreign jungle with a Hollywood studios’ money, and emerged with a masterwork. Unfortunately for Friedkin, his film premiered to almost instant obscurity in the wake of a little film called Star Wars. And with it, the cultural zeitgeist had also seemingly changed in favor of victorious sci-fi fantasy and away from the bleak and meditative vibe that had previously reigned in 1970s American cinema. 1977 came at Sorcerer like a freight train, and the film just didn’t meet the moment.
But none of that means much of anything here in 2025, because fortunately for Friedkin, he did indeed emerge from the jungle with a masterpiece in tow. And fortunately for me, I was able to discover that miracle of cinema in the Netflix DVD era. And fortunately for modern audiences, Criterion is ensuring that a whole new generation of cinephiles can discover this bleak masterwork in brand new 4K UHD, reassessed and recontextualized as the piece of genius it always was, even if the world took a long time to catch on.
The world did catch on before we lost William Friedkin, and he was ultimately aware of his vindication. Packed onto this physical release are bountiful amounts of supplemental material featuring an older Friedkin fully aware of the long road to acceptance for this title, and the toll its initial release took on him. But he always knew Sorcerer was something special, one of the best films from one of the greatest to ever do it.
Oddly structured, though boldly confident, Sorcerer doesn’t feel as risky or out of place today as it would have felt to contemporary audiences. Much like in Exorcist, we begin this tale in far flung, exotic locales, with characters speaking a variety of other languages. Like a sprawling James Bond film, Friedkin trots us all around the globe to meet our various protagonists, none of whom are respectable men. We meet Nilo (Francesco Rabal) in Mexico, where he is a killer for hire. We meet Kassem (Amidou) in Jerusalem, where he plants bombs as a terrorist. We meet Manzon (Bruno Cremer) in Paris, where he is being exposed as a fraud. And we meet Scanlon (Roy Scheider) in New Jersey, where his attempts to steal from a mob-run Catholic church have just gone awry. What do these stories have in common? What ties these men together? Nothing but the place they will eventually run to to escape their pasts. Washed up in the fictional central American village of Porvenir, our outcasts subsist; having fled to the farthest corners of the earth. They’ve ended up here, desperate, in a town on the edge of the world and under the thumb of big oil.
And when big oil eventually does what it does, and a deep jungle oil rig erupts into endless flame that can only be put out by a massive explosion to smother it, only a local cache of unstable dynamite can be used to put it out. Totally inaccessible by air, this big oil problem can only be solved by the most expendable resource there is: desperate men. And when our 4 leads “win” their lottery, they’re thrust into an explosive journey into the dark heart of the jungle. 2 trucks, 4 men, 6 cases of highly volatile dynamite, 1 corporation desperate to get back to their regular practice of sucking resources out of the land and all the humans who occupy it.
Spoiler alert: In this godforsaken place, stripped of all dignity and sovereignty by big oil, there is no redemption to be found. Many a tale, told by many a filmmaker, would have thrust these desperate men into this impossible situation to test their mettle and offer one last shot at redemption. This isn’t that. Sure, our protagonists bond, overcome obstacles, and ultimately our multinational corporation gets what it wants in the stifling of the fire. But our leads will meet only insanity, death, and the inevitable consequences of their actions. Sorcerer is much more of a meditation on our inescapable hearts of darkness than a redemptive tale.
But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a thrilling nail biter on par with many of Friedkin’s other all-timers. Because it is. The famous “bridge sequence”, in which these monstrous trucks must cross the most rickety bridge in cinematic history, amidst a raging storm, with dynamite sticks ready to blow at any moment, is every bit as harrowing today as it was back then. Toss in one of the best scores Tangerine Dream ever put out, gorgeous cinematography and production design, and you’ve got yourself a masterpiece, no matter how it was initially received upon release.
And that bleakness? That total inability to escape the consequences of our actions? Call me crazy, but even this underdog loving redemption addict of a film critic doesn’t mind being reminded sometimes, maybe even especially here in 2025, that the monstrous and selfish decisions we make as human beings do come back to bite us. Sorcerer reminds us that, under capitalism, the bodies are disposable, the native people an afterthought, the corporation a hungry overlord who will never be satiated. A thief, a hitman, a fraud, and a terrorist drive into the jungle. None will emerge. Production, however, will continue.
The Package
Sorcerer has received the royal Criterion treatment, and we’re all the better for it. A brand new 4K digital restoration of the film is available here on this 4K UHD release. Also packed with hours of bonus features, I watched several hours of bonus content and still didn’t get through all of it before I had to get this piece published. Friedkin Uncut is itself a feature length documentary. The interview between Nicolas Winding Refn and Friedkin (clearly friendly and also barbed) almost obsessively focuses on the infamous release of the film. And in his interview feature, filmmaker James Gray reveals his dead on William Friedkin impersonation. This is a stacked release for a deserving film, easily the definitive edition of an elite film from one of the great American master filmmakers.
And I’m Out.
Sorcerer 4K UHD is available June 24th, 2025 from The Criterion Collection
