The Wages of Fear (1953)

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

Starring: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck

In a decrepit South American village, four men are hired to transport an urgent nitroglycerine shipment without the equipment that would make it safe.

A While ago I watched ‘Sorcerer’, the 1977 remake of ‘The Wages of Fear’. The first 40 minutes of that movie were confusing and boring and could easily have been skipped. ‘The Wages of Fear’, I fear, was no different. By skipping the first 40 minutes you won’t miss a thing, because all the confusing mumbo jumbo during these 40 minutes contributes NOTHING to the events that follow. It’s best to start watching around the 40-minute mark with the crisis on the oil fields. Believe me, you honestly won’t miss anything.

The only way to extinguish the flames at the oil field, is with a ton of nitroglycerine, which has to be transported in jerrycans on two trucks. Four experienced truck drivers are selected for the job. The trucks have no safety gadgets or shock absorbers and the roads they must travel on are treacherous. Desperate for money, the drivers accept the job regardless of the high risks involved.

Over the next 90 minutes (that’s if you were to start at the 40-minute mark) we watch the drivers carefully transporting their dangerous cargo. It is a long and slow journey with many obstacles along the way. Unfortunately, I found the film just as slow paced as the speed at which the trucks were moving.

No doubt, some scenes must have been highly suspenseful and even frightening back in 1953, but not by today’s standards. Don’t get me wrong, there’s no denying this is an incredibly well made picture – for its time. Adding to the danger is the fact CGI did not exist back then and everything had to be done practically. This fact alone deserves the high praise the film received.

Whether a film is well made or not, I always rate it on the entertainment value (for me). Often well made films are not all that entertaining while cheap B-movies are. So, my final verdict on ‘The Wages of Fear’ is that is a well made film, and there were a few highly entertaining moments. As a whole, though, I found the film too slow. It would have been far more suspenseful with a shorter runtime, and significant editing, especially those boring first 40 minutes. The final 20 minutes were the best.

In French.

Would I watch it again? No.