After seeing this film mentioned a bit in the past, and having revisited William Friedkin’s Sorcerer and again being completely enthralled by it, I said fuckit, man up and watch this version. So I did. It’s...not bad. But it’s a whole lotta sucky situations to pile on one after the other. Could be worse, though. It wasn’t like watching Cats. Jeebus. Somebody should be Sysiphoused for that atrocity. But I digress.
Men caught in a dead town in the middle of nowhere, trapped. The kids have pet cockraoches to play with. Seriously? Yep. Ex-pats (I assume) can’t get much for jobs to pay for a way out. So they wait. And, be kinda trampy. Not much else to do there, really. Except maybe a whistle-off when the opportunity arises. Yeah. That happens. Then the local oil company has an incident. Good drivers needed for a dangerous job. Transport jerrycans full of nitroglycerin to a rig fire. Poor men. Desperate men. Non-union men. Many leap at the chance.
Not gonna lie, Sorcerer is the better movie, at least from my more modernish standpoint. That film’s almost minimalist approach lays out the backstory of the guys involved quickly and efficiently, You know the desperation involved. Here it’s a bit too sanitized, and French. I don’t fault it for that, it was a French movie from the 1950s after all. Those were the standards of the time, I guess. But after watching Sorcerer, this kinda pales in comparison. Sure, there’s some tense moments and decisions made, bad or good (but mostly bad). It deals with some pretty dark themes, and was recognized at the time for that. It might not be the case, but I have a feeling this was a big inspiration for Stephen King’s The Long Walk (under his pseudonym Richard Bachman). Do yourself a favor and read that if you by chance watched either of the movies mentioned here. It’s relatively short, and packs a helluva punch. All mentioned are a good look into what happens when you pile desperation, fear, impossible odds and a glimpse of hope onto minds, and just wait until they eventually break.
