The Wages of Fear, 1953
In a small town in South America, the entire financial ecosystem revolves around a huge oil company, the SOC. When the company needs to transport a large amount of nitroglycerin, it is determined that the job is actually too dangerous for any of the SOC employees. One of the company's leaders recruits drivers from the local men. Ultimately two trucks leave the town, one driven by Luigi (Folco Lulli) and Bimba (Peter van Eyck), the other driven by Mario (Yves Montand) and Jo (Charles Vanel). Along their journey the men run into one horrifying obstacle after another, while their highly volatile cargo clatters around in the truck beds.
This is one of those weird cases where a movie's reputation has been built up so much that finding it to be "really good" instead of "great" feels like a let down.
The film takes its time with the opening half hour, really establishing the dynamics of the town and setting up some relationships between the men who will ultimately drive the trucks. Mario gets a fair chunk of the attention--he's the young hotshot who doesn't appreciate his devoted girlfriend, Linda (Vera Clouzot) enough. We also see the way that some of the townspeople speak out about the behavior of the company, but no one is really willing to challenge their authority. One of the keenly observed dynamics of the film--and one that can almost get lost in the intensity of the last hour--is the way that the company's financial leverage allows them to buy the lives of these people.
In terms of performances, the four leads all do a good job. The tense, fragile relationship between Mario and Jo is particularly good. They care for each other, but they also want that money. There are many moments in the film where the drivers are forced to choose between the well-being of their partners or the success of the mission, and it is in those moments that the film gets its best tension.
What kept me from finding this to be a five-star film ultimately came down to a sort of emotional fatigue. The film is about 2 1/2 hours long. And about 15 or so minutes before the really heavy stuff begins happening (trying to stay vague here), I had just sort of run out of "edge of my seat" stamina. Bad, intense things just kept happening. At times it began to feel like dark comedy. And being worn out for the last act ultimately meant that some of the most powerful moments in the film landed as I was becoming numb to the horror of it all. I also felt that in the end of the film, the
WARNING: spoilers below
reckless driving off of the cliff felt like a bit too much
reckless driving off of the cliff felt like a bit too much
.
I did love the way that the film was shot. Certain scenes chose really interesting angles. And because of the nature of the danger of the drive, the landscape almost becomes an antagonist. Any stray potholes, rocks, branches become potential killers. With the hostile landscape on the outside and the interpersonal conflicts on the inside, nowhere feels safe.
Really solid, really stylish. And, annoyingly, despite my complaint being that the film was too long, there's nothing that I felt could really be trimmed or abbreviated. This is a case where watching the film in three sittings might have been a better way to go.
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