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RE: "The Load:" a driver pilots his small truck through the war zone of

Posted by rivervalley817 on December 2, 2020 at 11:30:35

In Reply to: "The Load:" a driver pilots his small truck through the war zone of posted by tinear on December 2, 2020 at 10:23:31:

for some reason your review here reminds of the film Sorcerer ... there is an Italian version readily had via Amazon, and an English edition that appears to be unobtanium ... Roy Scheider is a small time mafia bag man that hatches a score with some mooks to knock over a numbers operation run out of a Catholic church in Philly in the 70's ... this goes very bad

the mob tracks down the mooks and dispatches them, which alerts Roy to get out of town post haste ... he slips away to a mining work camp in south America [I forget the country, Bolivia maybe] to lay low until the heat's off, but after a few weeks some others filter into the camp and Roy susses out that one of them has to be a mob executioner; of course the rainy season has started so we get mostly interior shots of the camp, and later the cabs of some trucks [coming up] that serve up some effective claustrophobic atmospheres and no doubt kept the film budget down

to avoid the hit man he volunteers for a risky mission to retrieve some very old dynamite from a remote abandoned mining operation for use at his camp that's a few days travel through the jungle using three old WW2 era deuce and a half 6X6 trucks, one of which is named Sorcerer ... since old dynamite 'sweats' what is essentially nitro glycerine moving it is incredibly dangerous and so is the trip over the old unused logging / mining roads there and back ... of course a couple of the newcomers sign on for the run and Roy has to figure out who the assassin is while calculating how and when to take him out first ... there's plenty of obstacles for the man vs. nature angle and the man vs. man set piece is already established

the English version is edited wholly towards Sheider's acting and his character's point of view where he's front and center in the scene frames eating up the scenery in close ups ... does a fantastic job ... the claustrophobic atmosphere with constant rain, minimal dialogue, with the camera focusing on Sheider's face as he reacts to the unfolding menaces faced to a soundtrack by Tangerine Dream! is just great with superb editing

The Italian version looks as if it was shot for TV and Roy is just an ancillary character in what gets reduced to procedural set pieces while the Tangerine Dream score goes missing in action ... the Philly scenes of the numbers heist are barely touched upon; the entire theme for why any of this story is even told ... super disappointing

would love to get the good stuff version if I can ever track it down but I've not seen it so far even as an import etc. it's powerful stuff that's obviously made a lasting impression

*whew* ... OK, back to the pine cone version of this old house

regards all,

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