The Wages of Fear

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WAGES OF FEAR (Henri-Georges Clouzot - France/Italy 1953). The first hour is devoted to introducing the characters and establishing the setting in the small poverty-ridden town of Las Piedras in an unnamed South-American country. Most of the men hang around aimlessly, waiting for an opportunity to get out of there. When an unscrupulous American oil company offers big money to drive supplies of nitro-glycerine to put out a fire in an oil-field 300 miles away, four out-of-work men (Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Folco Lulli and Peter Van Eyck) jump at the opportunity as a way out. The dangerous load of nitro-glycerine is to be delivered in two hulking trucks, and soon, a tense rivalry develops between the two sets of drivers, magnified by the unforgiving heat, the lure of filthy lucre and the rough and rocky roads where the slightest jolt can result in catastrophe. I am very much a devotee to many of Clouzot's other films, but with this film he never manages to get things on the right track, to get in the kind of rhythm he does so well in LE CORBEAU (1943) and LES DIABOLIQUES (1955). The set-up takes way too long, a full hour, and since Clouzot is not known for playful wit or humor, it's takes patience to get through the first half. Since most of the town's inhabitants come from all corners of the world, all the characters speak Spanish, French, Italian and English, all in various accents, which doesn't help either. Then, in the second half, the action kicks in, and we get what we paid for. The film has achieved an almost infallible reputation by now, and surprisingly, it's even in the IMDb top 100. With Clouzot at the helm, it's always worth watching, but I don't find it all that good and it didn't age very well. The main problem lies within the fact the film is constantly advertised as an action film, which it is, to a certain extent, but as far as action is concerned, the film is bound to disappoint. Perhaps it was something special in its day, but it's hardly a match for many similar films made during the '80s and '90s, that - for once - are in many ways much more effective. A relatively weak Clouzot, that should have been trimmed (the U.S. release was trimmed with 20 minutes). A bit disappointing. Camera Obscura --- 6/10

I intend to deal explicitly with the ending of this film. Be warned. Many comments have dealt with the gradual build-up of tension and character which makes this film so riveting. They are all true. But a lot of people cannot understand the ending, and therefore condemn it. The ending is, however, integral to the meaning of the film as a whole. These four men are warned that taking this job, no matter how much it pays, will cost them their lives. We understand that they are in a situation where one mistake will cost them their lives, and only fearlessness can save them. We see that M. Jo, a bully who gets what he wants by pushing people like Luigi around, turns into a snivelling coward when faced with a couple of tons of nitro he can't bully. His fear causes him to lose others' respect, his self-respect, and eventually his life. But our hero has no fear, and so of course he must survive, right? Wrong. Fear protects us, keeps us from endangering ourselves. Without fear, our hero cannot keep himself out of danger. Therefore he dies. Stupidly. And it's his own fault. Think about what was going on in 1953; millions of people had eight years earlier come out of a situation as nail-biting as driving a truck full of nitro. They talk about the "lost generation" being the survivors of the First World War, but the same happened in the Second. The ending makes sense of the title; not only the wages of sin but the wages of fear (of having to face extreme fear, that is)is death. It is brilliant how a film which is so entertaining on a superficial level is also so deep.

This French film was re-made for English-speaking audiences in 1980 with the title, "Sorcerer," and I've watched that film a half-dozen times. It's excellent and, frankly, a far more interesting movie than this one. That is not to say Wages Of Fear is not without merit. It's just that most of the first hour of this film is wasted. It has little meaning. At least in the 1980 version, it showed how four men from around the world got to where they were and why they took the chance they did. here, even tough the pre-journey intro is much longer, it's vague with too many scenes that mean nothing. Once the action starts - the two-truck, nitroglycerin-filled 300-mile trip through rugged terrain - this is an interesting film as well. Then it paints a better picture of the personalities of the four men while keeping good suspense. That general suspense story is the same in both movies but the obstacles along the way of the treacherous journey are different and the fate of the men a bit different. There is some excellent black-and white cinematography in this film and a big reason for me to see it again, this time on DVD. However, I might skip some of that first hour.

There is nothing here to waste any portion of your life on. The only reason I bothered to get to the end of this muddled mess was, I was putting together a piece of furniture so I had a distraction from this story. The other reason I stuck it out to the end was I was curious how this could get a four star review from Turner Classic Movies. The story line itself makes little sense, and the adventures these men have a ridiculous contrivances. The first forty five minutes of the movie are just there to establish that these are bunch of down and out men who would do anything for money; a lot of the interactions between the characters are silly, and add little or nothing to this story. After that they have a series of adventures that make little or no sense. Things that no one would do, things that are not possible, and things that would be just plain stupid to do. There are just to many things to outline here. I would not recommend watching this film unless you want to see a stunningly poorly written story line. I am at compete loss as to how so many people have given this a good review. The only thing dumber then the story line is the ending of this film; like the rest of the film it makes no sense; no one would do what this guy does. Since this film is bad on so many levels I can't outline them all here. Your going to have to decide if you want to waste nearly two hours of your life, on something this bad.

I've often heard of Clouzot referred to as the 'French Hitchcock' although this film seems to share more of a cousin hood with the work of John Houston. Wages of Fear is about how a bunch of immigrants in Latin America, for money, take on the reckless task of transporting a large consignment of explosive nitroglycerin across 300-miles of obstacle-riddled paths, every moment aware that a single concussion could ignite the entire shipment, blowing them all to bits. The film begins with the setting of the locale and introduction of its principal characters - the regular irregulars Mario and Luigi (just realized the striking similarity to Nintendo's famous plumber duo, hmm), the mafioso type new entrant Jo who strikes up a friendship with the raffish Mario becoming his mentor but antagonizes the rest of the townsfolk with his bossy attitude, Mario's mistress Linda who naively worships him but is in turn kept as a pleasure item. The town is a dead-end rife with poverty and unemployment, its only industry being the Southern Oil Corporation (SOC) a Yankee enterprise. The residents are too demoralized to even consider escape to better climes. Like Mario explains to Jo in the course of a brilliantly spliced sequence of jump-cuts that covers the entire aspect of the town, "It's like prison. Easy to get in, but escape is impossible." A major fire at the oil-wells calls for immediate shipment of explosive to isolate the blaze, but it's too late to bring in the specialized transportation. The company offers a payment of $2000 each for 4 locals who will carry the hazardous shipment in ordinary trucks. Mario, Jo, Luigi and a Jew Bimba take on the job, the promise of money to help them escape from the town sufficient even to temporarily offset the fear of death. Thus begins the arduous, tension-ridden journey that occupies most of this 148-min film. The trucks must move above a certain minimum speed to minimize vibrations (a ruse reused in 1994's Speed). On the way they face various blocks including a rickety wooden bridge the trucks must back up over. Mid-journey one of the trucks blows up. Mario and Jo who are in the other truck must overcome their horror at the catastrophe and cross further hurdles including a lake of oil created by the bursting of a pipeline. In the course of the journey we see a reversal in the roles of Jo and Mario. Initially Mario looks up to Jo, in awe of his cool and worldly-wise manner. But Jo is soon revealed to be in reality a scared old man for whom Mario has only a contemptuous pity. This character drama makes for engrossing viewing and in no small measure due to the excellent performances, especially Charles Vanel as Jo. The story moves smoothly thanks to very precise cutting, and some of the nighttime photography, as also the scene at the oil lake, is worth mentioning. Clouzot obviously has a sure hand over the bulk of the proceedings although he slips up in a couple of places: The oil company is portrayed in a rather ham-fisted (and badly acted) way as this evil uncaring monolith that would gladly blame dead employees for disasters to avoid compensation and resort to thoroughly unethical means to get its job done. Most of the supporting characters are cardboard. Also, some of the miniature work is painfully obvious, although that'd be likely a limitation of technical facilities available to the crew. The ending of the film is finely executed but seems all too contrived to give you your daily dose of irony. In the end, this remains a taut and finger-licking good old-school thriller, which bothers to provide characters interesting enough for us to care about their life and death.

In the opening scene of Wages of Fear (1953), director Georges Henri-Clouzot provides an inkling of the kind of claustrophobic ride we are in for. In a steamy, impoverished Latin American town called Las Piedras, insects grope clumsily in the dust, struggling to escape the strings that children have tied to them. People from all over the world congregate in the streets and bars and the air is thick with choking dust. Clouzot makes clear the desperation of the residents, "It's like prison," explains one of them. "Easy to get in, but escape is impossible." The Southern Oil Company (SOC - same initials as Standard Oil) runs the town and enjoys its profits while the villagers are compelled to work odd jobs just to stay alive. After a fire breaks out at one of the oil fields killing many workers, the anti-union American boss seeks experienced drivers from among the townspeople to put out the fire. It is here that the anti-American flavor runs thick and where much of this part of the film was originally excised for American audiences (but has since been restored). Four men, desperate to escape their trap, agree to drive a truck loaded with nitroglycerine 300 miles over treacherous mountain roads in the hot sun for the sum of $2000 each. Transporting the nitroglycerine for them is a way out of hopelessness -- either through a big paycheck or through sudden death, with the latter appearing the more probable. Though sadly past the point in time when we can still be shocked over gangster capitalism and men selling out for money, the story is nonetheless compelling. The four who are chosen to go on this fool's errand include Mario, a young Corsican played by Yves Montand in a role that brought him widespread attention. He is carrying on an affair with a local servant girl, Linda (Vera Clouzot) who is in love with him. His treatment of her, however, is atrocious and reflects the attitude of the male-dominated society they live in. Also picked to drive one of the trucks is Jo, an aging Parisian small-time crook (Charles Vanel), Luigi (Folco Lulli), an Italian with less than a year to live, and an ex-nazi pilot (Peter van Eyck). This unlikely group will play a cat-and-mouse game with death for the remainder of the film. Clouzot depicts several incidents that bring the tension to the boiling point. In the first one, the trucks must travel at least 40 mph over a pot-holed stretch of road to prevent the vibrations from setting off the nitroglycerine. The second involves a sharp, narrow turn that requires the trucks to back up onto an unstable, rotten wooden platform causing it to buckle. Almost immediately afterwards, the trucks are stopped by a huge boulder in the middle of the road and must siphon off some of the nitroglycerine to blow it up. Finally, Mario must deftly maneuver the truck over a depression of spilled oil with the wheels stuck in reverse. As the long treacherous journey unfolds, roles are reversed between Mario and Jo as Mario becomes the strong dominant one and Jo, in Charles Vanel's brilliant performance, becomes shaken, fearful, and docile. Their relationship becomes the highlight of the film as the two become mutually dependent on each other for survival and comfort. I found Wages of Fear to be an involving experience that kept me riveted throughout, though I did sense that there would not be a two and a half-hour film unless somebody survived. Although the unexpected plot twists were gripping, the best part of the film for me was the revelation of each character when faced with fear. It reminded me of the "Treasure of the Sierra Madre", a film that also showed men discovering the truth about themselves and others while pursuing their dream of wealth. Wages of Fear lived up to its accolades, but for me the discordant ending clashed both with the tone of the film and with my experience of the universe not as arbitrary or capricious but as filled with meaning and purpose.

After watching the movie i am shocked that it is considered a classic. Maybe because it was unusual for the time , i cannot judge that, but i was extremely disappointed. Especially with the character build up . The one that stands out the most at being ridiculous to the extreme is Jo. In the beginning he is presented as a tough guy who fears nothing , but this does not work at all . He seems ridiculous from the first second he enters the scene . After a while he turns out to be whiny and full of fear , but because the whole build up of the character was so not believable , i did not care at all about his fate or supposed transformation. Of course you can say he should be presented as ridiculous but if that is the case why bother making him such a big character? What really disturbed me is the way the relationship between yes montand and the girl in the city is presented. It is very sexist and the whole macho culture of the movie was getting on my nerves a lot after a while.