Review of The Wages of Fear (1953) by Andrew C — 26 May 2008

We were originally just going to check out a few scenes of this on the weekend but after witnessing just 5minutes I was so engrossed I had to watch the whole movie.

The movie is a white knuckle thriller from about 30minutes in right to the final frame. The film follows four characters who take on a suicide mission for $2000 each - transporting two trucks loaded with highly volatile nitroglycerin to a burning oil well which needs to be contained. Along the way they have to deal with unsealed roads which require them to drive at either 6miles an hour or over 40 in order to stop any bumps blowing them to hell. Then there is the big boulder in the middle of the road or that great sequence where they have to negotiate their trucks around an incredibly tight turn using a shoddy rotted wooden enlargement of the road over a steep cliff.

Clouzot clearly is a master of suspense with an almost mechanical efficiency in his shots which are selected at just the right moment to ratchet up the tension, whether it be a close up of their faces or the wheels teetering over the edge of a platform etc - always working for that heightened tension.

It's also reflective of the existential philosophy of Camus and Sartre - the mens trip can be seen reflected in the absurdity of existence - at any time they could be blown to nothingness just at the slight jolt of a tire, such is the precarious and fragile nature of our existence. There are some great quotes from this movie especially that line from Bimba saying 'it only takes a few months to be 100 if you're in the right place at the right time'.

These guys have clearly got some troubled pasts, pasts so desperate that they are prepared to risk everything to get a chance at a new start away from the hellhole that is las pierdras.

An amazing film and one of the classics of the 20th century :D.