Second Chance

It’s taken nearly 14 years for William Friedkin’s “Sorcerer” (1977) to make it to video stores--it’s due Oct. 4--and it gave the director time to “rethink” the film in terms of color and sound, thanks to changes in technology.

What happened when he took it back to the editing room?

“I was surprised by the movie,” he tells us. “I thought I had made an adventure film, and instead I had made a grueling and intense two hours.”

In the transfer to video, Friedkin says he was able to adjust and enhance the film, shot by shot. “The color scheme,” he notes, “is psychologically important to the story.” It’s based, you’ll recall, on “The Wages of Fear,” Henri-Georges Clouzot’s mid-’50s suspense drama about four fugitives who try to buy their way to freedom by transporting a load of fragile explosives over hazardous terrain. (Friedkin also remixed the movie’s electronic score, by Tangerine Dream, from monaural to stereo.)

“Sorcerer” opened to some favorable reviews but died at the box office when “Star Wars” opened a week later. Video rights to “Sorcerer” then got tangled up in litigation between co-producers MCA/Universal and Paramount Pictures. MCA eventually won.

Friedkin admits that the delay--and the chance to work again on the picture--has been a boon.

“I’m happy about it,” says the Oscar-winning director of “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist.” “It’s my favorite film of the ones I’ve done.”

SI David J. Fox