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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780021938
Format: Black & White, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0780021932
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Academy Ratio
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: January 26, 1999
Running Time: 131 minutes
Sales Rank: 28510
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: February 16, 1955
Editorial Review:
Description:
One of the most nerve-wracking and exciting films ever made, Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece won the Grand Prize at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival. An American oil company enlists four tough drifters for a high-paying suicide mission-transporting explosives across the rough terrain of Central America. Criterion is proud to present Wages of Fear in its original 148-minute version.
Amazon.com essential video:
Henri-Georges Clouzot's gripping 1953 thriller throws four men into a primal struggle against the jungle armed with modern machinery and their own nerves and endurance. The squalid, isolated South American town of Las Piedras is a veritable refuge turned prison for criminals from all over the world. When an oil fire ignites 300 miles away, dozens of desperate volunteers apply for the dangerous job of driving highly volatile nitroglycerin across rugged jungle roads--for a $2,000 payday. The bulk of the film charts the slow, grueling trek over bumpy, pothole-dotted dirt roads and worse. A dangerous cutback forces the trucks to back over a rotting wooden platform built over a cliff, a boulder in the road must be blasted away, and a river of oil (gushing from a broken pipeline) must be forded--all with one ton of explosive nitro resting in the back of each truck. The ordeal forges a tough-guy trust between German Bimba (Peter Van Eyck) and Italian Luigi (Folco Lulli) but tears apart Frenchmen Mario (Yves Montand) and Jo (Charles Vanel). Former gangland hotshot Jo finds his once-fearless exterior cracked, while Mario discovers in himself a new grit and tenacity. Clouzot's stark, simple imagery and painstaking attention to detail create a riveting tension that never lets up, intensified by the ruthless drive of Mario, who proves he will do anything--anything--to get his truck through. William Freidkin remade the film in 1977 as the stylish Sorcerer. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Well-crafted classic
It's the rare thriller that will allow itself time to build effectively to leave a longer lasting impression. Henri-Georges Clouzot's "The Wages of Fear" is that kind of a thriller--one much more deeply invested in bringing out the nuances of the character than the sensationalistic impulses to blow stuff up, but nonetheless creating gripping, stylistically gorgeous drama.
The story is about four men who are hired to drive two truck-fulls of nitroglycerin over a rocky mountain pass for ... Read More
Rating: - Masterpiece
Think that space invaders, aliens, dinosaurs, cyborgs, or monsters of one sort or another are needed to make a film a thriller? If so, I recommend you watch Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1953 black and white masterpiece The Wages Of Fear (La Salaire De La Peur), about the evils of runaway greed and capitalism, all in the name of oil. It'll change your mind. Over half a century later, and in light of the current American war folly for oil in the Middle East, the film is remarkably resonant and cogent- even ... Read More
Rating: - Shockingly tense, one of the greatest suspense movies ever made...
This is one of the greatest French films ever made, and arguably the most nail biting suspense filled film ever made. Even today the tension this film creates is masterful, and its story about exploited oil workers and the cruelty of man hasn't dated one bit. I would hate to see this film remade today, as they would litter it with CGI effects and destroy the integrity of Clouzot's film.
The film is masterful in its setup. The first 30 minutes or so are just about the four main characters. ... Read More
Rating: - Correction of two points.
The country is Honduras. The plane arrives from the capital, Tegucigalpa.
The ticket is a Paris Metro (subway) ticket for Place Pigalle station.
A classic suspense masterpiece. Yves Montand's second film.
Rating: - Another masterpiece by Clouzot
Now this one will get your blood flowing! Director Henri-Georges Clouzot plugs this piercing thriller against your skin and screams CLEAR!!!!!! He literally sends jolt after jolt into your brain, this movie is quite a shock to the system.
Four men desperate for money get the high-paying job they've been hoping for. There's only one problem--this job is pretty much suicide. They're asked to transport some explosives across some extremely rugged terrain in Central America.
Their journey is completely ... Read More
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