"Wages of Fear" is a tense thriller from the French director, Clouzot, about desperate men willing to risk everything for a chance to escape their lousy existence.
The story involves a group of men stranded in a South American oil company town. None of them have steady work and none can afford to take a plane out of town, so they sit around and drink and argue with one another.
Then one day, an oil well explodes up in the mountains, and the company needs volunteers to drive two trucks full of nitroglycerine up to the drill site so they can blow the fire out. The company's union drivers are too valuable to risk, so the foreman offers the job to the men stranded in town, knowing full well they're desperate enough to do anything.
The four men selected to drive are Mario (Yves Montand), Jo (Charles Vanel), Luigi, and Bimba. Each has different fears and motivations for making the journey, and the director develops each one's personality from the start of the film through the drive itself.
"Wages of Fear" is a very tense film in the second half as the two trucks make their way over treacherous roads, encountering obstacles along the way that require the men's creativity in overcoming. Some rise to the occasion, others crumble under the pressure. A quick death awaits anyone who makes the slightest mistake. By the end of the film, the viewer is emotionally wrung dry.
From the European period of stark cinematic drama, this thriller is one of the best.
The story involves a group of men stranded in a South American oil company town. None of them have steady work and none can afford to take a plane out of town, so they sit around and drink and argue with one another.
Then one day, an oil well explodes up in the mountains, and the company needs volunteers to drive two trucks full of nitroglycerine up to the drill site so they can blow the fire out. The company's union drivers are too valuable to risk, so the foreman offers the job to the men stranded in town, knowing full well they're desperate enough to do anything.
The four men selected to drive are Mario (Yves Montand), Jo (Charles Vanel), Luigi, and Bimba. Each has different fears and motivations for making the journey, and the director develops each one's personality from the start of the film through the drive itself.
"Wages of Fear" is a very tense film in the second half as the two trucks make their way over treacherous roads, encountering obstacles along the way that require the men's creativity in overcoming. Some rise to the occasion, others crumble under the pressure. A quick death awaits anyone who makes the slightest mistake. By the end of the film, the viewer is emotionally wrung dry.
From the European period of stark cinematic drama, this thriller is one of the best.