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Post #1125578

Author
djsmokingjam
Parent topic
Idea & Info: 'Sorcerer' - William Friedkin 1977 vs Wages of Fear - European theatrical release (see djsmokingjam's & El Barto's posts for info on 2 separate project releases)
Link to post in topic
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/1125578/action/topic#1125578
Date created
3-Nov-2017, 5:20 PM

Well, good news - I have in my sweaty mitts an ex-rental Finnish VHS of the shorter Wages Of Fear, and have just finished watching it through while recording it to DVD on HQ setting. A few impressions:

  • Seeing it with the original English audio really does drive home that this version is basically Sorcerer For Dummies. There is a lot of awkwardly overdubbed and re-dubbed dialogue, with much of the foreign-language dialogue dubbed into English (such as Serrano’s Paris-set flashback).

  • There are still two or three scenes (from memory, the old man in the forest and the terrorists near the end) that haven’t been dubbed over. In these scenes, the original English subtitles are still visible underneath the new Finnish subs.

  • Unlike the German TV rip, the opening and closing credits are in the same John Carpenter-style font as Sorcerer.

  • Again, unlike the letterboxed German TV rip, the VHS is pan-and-scanned.

I’ll post a framegrab or two when I’m back at my computer on Monday. Meanwhile, go see the re-release of Sorcerer, in cinemas today!

EDIT: and hey, nearly a year to the day that I initially replied in this thread about the Finnish tape’s existence!