Discover Stephen King's Surprising Favorite William Friedkin Film (It's Not The Exorcist!)

Summary

Stephen King, known for horror, surprisingly picks the 1977 thriller Sorcerer as his favorite movie by the late William Friedkin.

Friedkin's horror masterpiece The Exorcist receives widespread acclaim, but King regards Sorcerer as the true classic.

King respectfully honors the late filmmaker, acknowledging Friedkin's talent and expressing his sorrow for his demise.

Stephen King mourns the loss of acclaimed director William Friedkin, who recently passed away at the age of 87. While Friedkin is famous for directing hit movies like The French Connection and The Exorcist, his lesser-known film Sorcerer is gaining attention and admiration. In fact, Stephen King, a renowned horror author, took to Twitter to express that Sorcerer is his personal favorite among Friedkin's works. King praised Friedkin's talent and described Sorcerer as a true classic. See King's tweet below.

Sorcerer Sank Without A Trace – Thanks Partly To Star Wars

King has previously expressed his admiration for Friedkin's Sorcerer, even going as far as to declare it his favorite movie of all time in a BFI article from 2017. He stated, "Sorcerer, William Friedkin's remake of Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear, is my all-time favorite film. While some may argue that the Clouzot film is superior, I respectfully disagree."

Sorcerer, a gritty thriller, portrays a group of desperate men who face various difficulties while transporting dynamite on treacherous jungle roads. Made with a high budget of $22 million in 1977, the on-location production of the film proved to be challenging. Director Friedkin's unwavering commitment to realism resulted in months of filming for a particularly demanding scene involving a truck, a bridge, and a raging river. Roy Scheider, the film's star, described the shooting process as even more arduous than his previous work in Jaws, which was notorious for its troubled production.

Despite the substantial investment and effort put into Sorcerer, it had minimal success at the box office, grossing a reported $9 million worldwide. The film's fate was further hindered by its release one month after the global phenomenon of Star Wars, which dominated the summer of 1977. However, Sorcerer has since been recognized as one of the greatest films of all time by esteemed individuals such as King, Quentin Tarantino, and Benny Safdie, thus redeeming its historical significance.

Source: Stephen King/Twitter