Thief, Sorcerer, and being fated to psychological work (not a D&D post)
Thief, Sorcerer, and being fated to psychological work (not a D&D post)
by Jen Davies, nerd
July 29, 2026
Like a lot of young people, my early taste in films was influenced (and managed) by my parents, and I'm grateful that I was subjected to a minimum amount of infantalizing TV and film due to the place and time that I grew up. As a result I saw a great many high quality films that young people might not otherwise get to see, just because they were what was available. There were many FEWER choices in the 1980s and 90s.
Two films that were highly impactful on me were two films you might not be familiar with, because they did not become any of the masterpieces by the filmmakers. One is Sorcerer, starting Roy Scheider and directed by William Friedkin (most famous for The French Connection), based on the French novel The Wages of Fear. The other is Thief, starting James Caan and written and directed by Michael Mann (probably most famous for the TV series Miami Vice or the film Heat). It was inspired by a professional thief's autobiography.
These films share a few things in common. First, they share composers: the German electronic music group Tangerine Dream. Exceptional music, strongly encourage you to notice how well it fits each film. Second, each film has an actor who was doing his best work in that time period, and Scheider and Caan were spot on.
Sorcerer
Briefly, the film takes place in South America. An oil well had an explosion, and the lazy oil company had not maintained their stash of explosives for blowing it out - the dynamite sticks were not rotated at intervals and it had leaked all the nitroglycerine into the wax paper at the bottom of each box. Very dangerous to transport, especially in the impossibly rough road between the oil well and the storehouse (2 or 3 days' drive because of how slowly they will have to go). So the company offers a stupid amount of money and find 6 desperate men willing to risk their lives in 3 trucks (departing separately for safety) to try to transport the dangerous boxes to the fire.
There can only be a few explosions, so this isn't like a Michael Bay movie. It becomes a film about the desperate men and how they try to tolerate each other (or not) as they drive the rough road littered with dangerous obstacles, carrying instant death behind them. Can they work together well enough to get through it? Will superstition, as in the name of one of the trucks (Sorcerer) help at all? It's a nail-biter and I always find myself holding my breath at a few points.
Thief
As a bit of a spiritual prequel to Heat's character Chris (played by Val Kilmer), I think, Thief is about a professional thief. (Jewel thief specifically?) He is exceptionally good at what he does, and he knows both how to choose a score and how to run it to ensure he will not be caught. If I remember correctly, it goes wrong when he is convinced to make a pair of bad decisions: a score he would never usually take on, and he does not have full control over how it will run (has to work with someone he doesn't know maybe? The details don't matter to my point.). Things go wrong, and he and his girlfriend/wife are now in danger, and he has to deal with it.
The thing that really matters to the main character is his girlfriend/wife. And of course, doing his work well, so our thief is really angry and at the same time he becomes hunted he begins hunting his pursuers back! The scene at the car lot is spectacular.
Fated to work in something psychological
Sorcerer is about managing genuine mortal terror, that which we all face because one day we will die. It's about managing oneself, and trying to influence others to your plans, in extreme circumstances. It's also about persistence in spite of actual mortal risk, in pursuit of the goal of long term security.
Thief is about strategic decision making, and the miserable things that happen to us when we are pushed to act against our better strategic judgment. And then it shifts and becomes about the terrible things we are capable of doing out of fear for the people we love.
And so, with these deeply psychological stories in my environment, told with powerful imagery and music, it is no wonder that I was always interested in psychology, even if I didn't have the vocabulary to describe that until I started post-secondary school.
There you have it, two really excellent films that are not known as their makers' masterworks so they go overlooked, but they are really excellent. You can watch Thief on Tubi. Sorcerer might be harder to find, but I assure you it's worth tracking down. Just look at the movie poster above...
Comments