Breathless with fear

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Movie
German title Breathless with fear
Original title Sorcerer (The Wages of Fear)
Country of production United States
original language English , French , Spanish , German
Publishing year 1977
length 121 (international version 92) minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director William Friedkin
script Walon Green
production William Friedkin
Bud Smith
music Tangerine Dream , Keith Jarrett , Charlie Parker
camera Dick Bush
John M. Stephens
cut Bud Smith
Robert K. Lambert
occupation

Breathless with Fear is an American thriller from director William Friedkin from 1977. The film is a co-production by Universal Pictures , Paramount Pictures and Film Properties International NV distributed by Universal Pictures in the USA / Canada and Paramount Pictures outside of the United States and was released in US theaters on June 24, 1977 and in German theaters on April 13, 1978. It is a remake of the film Wages of Fear from 1953 and, like this one, is based on the detective novel Wages of Fear (original title: Le Salaire de la peur ) by Henri Georges Girard (alias Georges Arnaud ).

action

Jackie Scanlon lives in a South American village far from civilization, where he fled from a gang boss's hired man.

One day a drilling station explodes in a distant oil field, killing many workers. Since there is no way to extinguish the fire with water, the responsible manager of the oil field is looking for another solution. He hires a demolition expert to blow out the fire with an explosion. Together they fly in a helicopter to an old dynamite warehouse to collect the explosives, but it turns out that it was stored incorrectly and that the nitroglycerin leaked from the explosives into the packaging. This makes transport by helicopter too dangerous because the slightest vibrations could cause an explosion.

The manager then assigns Jackie and three other workers from the village to fix two old trucks and to transport the nitroglycerine safely to the oil well. He offers them money and an ID to escape the dreary life in the village. On the daring ride, Jackie and the others have to master several life-threatening obstacles, including the inch-by-inch drive over a musty hemp rope bridge. Flashbacks show the fate of the four men in the rainforest.

Shortly before the goal, a tire bursts on one of the two cars, it falls down an embankment and explodes with the drivers Victor and Kassem, just as they begin to believe in the company's success. At the scene of the accident, Jackie and his co-driver Nilo are attacked by guerrillas, with Nilo being fatally injured. When the junk-ready truck finally breaks down a few miles from the drilling station, Jackie carries one of the boxes of explosives with her own hands to the burning oil well. There the fire can be extinguished by detonating it. With this, Jackie has successfully done the job and receives the agreed wages for his successful work.

Back in the village, Jackie is preparing to leave when two hit men enter the bar where he is.

backgrounds

  • The filming, with a budget of around 22 million US dollars, took place in the Dominican Republic , New Mexico , New Jersey (USA), Jerusalem and Paris .
  • The music for the film comes from Tangerine Dream with the cast Edgar Froese / Christopher Franke / Peter Baumann .
  • At six million US dollars, the film grossed only a fraction of its then very high cost. One of the reasons was probably that the film was released at the same time as the film Star Wars . This developed into an enormous box-office success, as a result of which the films running parallel to the cinema suffered greatly.
  • The version published outside of America was shortened by half an hour to about 92 minutes. At the same time, the sequence of events was changed: the reasons for which the individual people come to the jungle are told at the beginning of the film in the US version, while this is shown as a flashback in the shorter version.
  • In April 2014, a restored version of the film was released on Blu-ray in the USA, using the original negatives, which were still in relatively good condition. On January 19, 2015, the film was broadcast for the first time in its original length, unabridged, on German television on arte . This version, however, was completely re-dubbed with other speakers and also contains scenes that are only subtitled.
  • In Germany the film was only released in the shorter international version on VHS . Due to the confusing legal situation, it has not yet been published on DVD or Blu-ray.
  • Steve McQueen was the first choice for the lead role. McQueen thought the script was great and was dying to play the role, but couldn't leave the US at the time of filming due to a marital dispute with his wife Ali MacGraw . Charles Bluhdorn, whose company Gulf + Western owned the Paramount film company, was keen to turn the Dominican Republic into a film production center. Friedkin also insisted that the film should be shot in the Dominican Republic. McQueen then suggested his wife be the producer of the film so that she could have a reason to be there when it was set. Friedkin declined this proposal, after which McQueen did not accept the role. The role was later cast to Roy Scheider .

German synchronization

The first German dubbed version for the cinema was created by Berliner Synchron GmbH (dialogue book: Lutz Arenz, dialogue director: Dietmar Behnke). The new dubbing was created in 2014 by FFS Film- & Fernseh-Synchron GmbH in Munich (dialogue script and director: Hartmut Neugebauer).

role actor Voice actor cinema Voice actor new synchro
Jackie Scanlon Roy Scheider Horst Schön Christian Tramitz
Victor Manzon Bruno Cremer Michael Chevalier Mike Carl
Nilo Francisco Rabal Heinz Petruo Hartmut Neugebauer
Kassem Amidou Manfred Lehmann Martin Halm
Carlos Friedrich von Ledebur Friedrich von Ledebur Thomas Rau
Corlette Ramon Bieri Hans Künster Ekkehardt Belle

Reviews

The lexicon of international films accuses the film of exaggerating the tension effects and thereby rendering them ineffective. The character drawing seems superficial and the acting performance is disappointing.

Awards

  • In 1978 Sorcerer was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Sound .

literature

  • Georges Arnaud : The reward of fear. Detective novel. (Original title: Le salaire de la peur. ) German by Hubertus Foerster. Goldmann, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-442-11589-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Breathless with fear. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used