Unfortunately,I have never seen the original film but I have watched Sorcerer many times and it is one of my very favorite films. I'd even go as far as to call Friedkin's version among the greatest films ever made. So it was with great interest that I noticed that there was a new version on Netflix.
What I watched was a truly remarkable film. Somehow they managed to depict the transportation of an enormous amount of nitroglycerin in two unstable trucks with danger all around them and made it boring. It's dullness is nearly miraculous given the story they were using.
The problem here was that they missed the point. It was never about the the nitroglycerin, or even the hazards along the way, it was about the characters driving those trucks and how they struggle against the odds. Where, if they lose, they're dead. Simple. In this remake one of the main protagonists blows himself up to save a poor village from being destroyed by a oilwell fire. I felt not even a flicker of emotion, it was the death of a paper thin character in an uninspiring film. I've had more exciting visits to the lavatory than this film and I eat plenty of fibre so those visits are very boring indeed.
Please, go watch Sorcerer and see how it's meant to be done. You'll thank me later, I promise.
What I watched was a truly remarkable film. Somehow they managed to depict the transportation of an enormous amount of nitroglycerin in two unstable trucks with danger all around them and made it boring. It's dullness is nearly miraculous given the story they were using.
The problem here was that they missed the point. It was never about the the nitroglycerin, or even the hazards along the way, it was about the characters driving those trucks and how they struggle against the odds. Where, if they lose, they're dead. Simple. In this remake one of the main protagonists blows himself up to save a poor village from being destroyed by a oilwell fire. I felt not even a flicker of emotion, it was the death of a paper thin character in an uninspiring film. I've had more exciting visits to the lavatory than this film and I eat plenty of fibre so those visits are very boring indeed.
Please, go watch Sorcerer and see how it's meant to be done. You'll thank me later, I promise.