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Character backstories in Sorcerer vs. Wages of Fear

posted 10 years ago by Edward_de_Vere
3 replies | jump to latest

There are a lot of obvious differences between Wages of Fear and Friedkin's reimagining of the same story/premise in Sorcerer. To me, the biggest difference isn't in the particular details of the characters, but in the fact that Sorcerer gives us backstories of every key player, whereas Wages of Fear leaves the question of who they were before getting stuck in a remote South American village (and how they wound up there to begin with) much more murky.

Do you prefer knowing how the main characters wound up castaways in the middle of nowhere, or do you like the idea of leaving it up to the viewer's imagination?

[–] monamask 10 years ago

I think both approaches work well for their respective movies. That being said, I find myself gravitating more towards Sorcerer's prologues. I cared more.

[–] Edward_de_Vere 9 years ago

I think both approaches work well for their respective movies. That being said, I find myself gravitating more towards Sorcerer's prologues. I cared more.

I guess that cuts both ways. In Wages of Fear, we may assume that the protagonists were shady characters (or just never do wells), but we never see them do anything that makes us think that they may deserve what was coming to them. Even Jo turns out to be more of a harmless blowhard than the dangerous gangster he pretends to be.

In contrast, in Sorcerer, we know that all 4 characters are extremely unsympathetic: a terrorist, a hitman, a gangster, and an embezzler. Nilo in particular (the hitman) was unsympathetic because he murdered the old German in order take his place on the truck.

So I felt somewhat more sympathy for the dead protagonists in Wages of Fear than in Sorcerer.

[–] lorenzb-2 10 years ago

They were all very flawed men. Kassem was a terrorist that killed scores of innocent people. Nilo was a killer for money. Jackie a small time hoodlum and Manzon a white collar criminal. Yet in the end you wanted them to succeed.