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The Wages Of Fear (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray]

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There are two things often said about this film that I would like to strongly agree with: first, it begins rather slowly, and second, it really is one of, if not THE, most suspenseful films ever made.
The first third of the movie moves inexplicably slowly. I can understand many of the reasons why: the attempt to define the characters, to show their interactions with one another, to depict the quiet desperation of their lives to make it plausible that four men would undertake such an astonishingly dangerous job as hauling nitroglycerin over treacherous jungle and mountain dirt roads. Even granting all that, however, the start is by any standard really, really slow. And I suspect that of the people you encounter who proclaim the film a bore either gave up before getting to the good parts or never recovered from the slow start.

The most suspenseful film ever made? Some people assert that the film has been so overhyped along these lines that it would be impossible for any film to come up to one's expectations. There are two edges to this sword. I am far more impressed that despite being hyped as the most suspenseful film ever made, I was nonetheless utterly on the edge of my seat for most of the final 100 minutes. And if some of the scenes seem somewhat familiar, it is undoubtedly because of the score of films that have plundered this film for their own tension-filled scenes.

I have often thought that Yves Montand was, at his best, one of the more compelling performers of the last half of the twentieth century. He wasn't consistently successful internationally. Sometimes one or two decades would come between some of his greatest triumphs. To illustrate, I think Montand's two greatest film appearances were THE WAGES OF FEAR (1953) and JEAN DE FLORETTE/MANON OF THE SPRING (1986), only thirty-three years apart.

Many viewers are not comfortable with the very ending of the movie and I I have to agree somewhat. Nihilism was very fashionable in the early 1950s in European cinema. The ending, which seems completely unnecessary and not organically connected with the rest of the film, reflects less any inner necessity for a downer ending than the general mood in "serious" films at the time. So, in a sense, one could argue that this movie manages to be one of the great classics of cinema despite a slow beginning and an arbitrarily negativistic ending. Where the film shines is in the utterly riveting journey through the jungle and mountains.

Iconic, vintage masterpiece in brilliant new transfer.

Criterion's restored hi-def transfer of Henri-Georges Clouzot's controversial, visceral and prescient thriller still grabs the viewer by the throat for a breathless, nihilistic ride.

This legendary film of suspense and despair was deemed "evil" by Time magazine during its 1955 US release. Based on the harrowing 1950 book by George Arnaud, it's a cautionary tale of the true blood-toll of oil and greed.

Filmed in 1951 and first shown in France in 1952, "The Wages of fear" (Le Salaire de la peur) is about four European men at the end of their ropes. In a hell-hole of a South American village, these desperate men accept a job from an American oil company to drive two trucks of unstable nitroglycerine along a treacherous mountain route to an oil fire.

Clouzot, who made less than a dozen films including the acclaimed "Les Diaboliques" and "Quai des orfevres" never flinches from his vision. Although the first half may seem a bit unfocused and meandering it is not because we get to know our characters, the squalid S.A. setting and the uncaring, greed-driven, business-as-usual of the American oil company. The movie literally jump starts when the four hapless men hit the road in their two trucks overloaded with nitro. We understand these men and we ride with them and their emotions. Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck and Antonio Centa are terrific as the frantic, fraught drivers.

There's a lot of post WW II existential angst in this tale and that's not surprising. After all, it is French and the ideas of Camus and Sartre permeate this film as they did the decade in which it was produced.

My only memory of this film was a washed out video tape copy with impossible to read subtitles and later a faded 16mm print in film school.

I've watched this Blu-ray version several times now and it is stunning. It looks like a print that just came from the lab. The black and white is crisp, with a wonderful range of grays -- velvety shadows to burnished silver. And the subtitles are always easy to read and perfectly synched to the spoken French. But more important, the rhythm and meaning of the spare dialogue remains.

This gritty film, devoid of sentimentality, follows men who live in fear. They know death is coming and yet continue with the task at hand until the end. Although my personal philosophy is not that of the drivers, it reminded me to relish the precious moments of life and to live it fully, bravely and in the moment.

This is one in the rather small handful of the greatest films in world cinema. It has never looked better. And it asks questions that are relevant today: How desperate are we in our need for oil? And what is the final price? Highest recommendation.

Superior extras include:
Interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff, Clouzot biographer Marc Godlin and Yves Montand from 1988). A great documentary on Clouzot's career "The Enlightened Tyrant." "CENSORED," a revealing look at the cuts made for the initial 1955 U.S. release. And "No Exit," an insightful booklet/essay by novelist Dennis Lehane.

I've owned both of the previous Criterion releases of this film and even though I've seen it at least a dozen times before when I recently watched the Criterion Blu-Ray I was on the edge of my seat! It was just like the first time I watched it years ago.

Set in a small South American desert town, director Clouzot does a wonderful job of conveying the smoldering heat and the desperation of the noncitizens who want nothing more than to just get the [...] out. The only way out is by getting a plane ride at the very small local airport, but none of the guy's who hang out outside of the local tavern can afford a ticket. There are no jobs to earn money, so they are just stuck in a purgatory of boiling heat.

Things look grim for the guys, but then a stranger (Jo, an ex-gangster) comes to town and soon the group is divided. Most of them hate the newcomer, but fellow Frenchman Mario mistakenly thinks that Jo is his ticket out and starts sucking up to Jo and even turns his back on his friend's in the process.

A oil fire erupts at an remote oil field and the oil company needs a truckload of nitroglycerin delivered in order to put it out. The job is way too dangerous to risk using their own unionized men so they offer the men who hang out at the cantina the job. Two men to a truck. Two trucks and $2,000 per person upon delivery.

I'm not going to give away anymore, but I think this film is excellent. Very suspenseful and like I said before the picture on the Blu-Ray is [...] amazing. If you are at all interested in art house or international cinema or even in just starting a rad Blu-Ray library then you should pick this one up.

The Wages of Fear is a magnificent thriller, the last hour-and-a-half of which will have you chewing your nails up to your wrists. The first hour is interesting but, to my mind, slow. We spend a lot of time getting to know the squalor of Las Piedras and the anti-American point of view now just seems quaint.

Las Piedras is a tiny South American (or possibly Central American) town that reeks of poverty and bakes in the hot sun. Children with sores, tired donkeys and mangy dogs fill the dirt streets. It's the final stop for down-and-outers whose only hope is to find work with the Southern Oil Company (you can infer SOC easily is a stand-in for Standard Oil), which dominates the place. "Americans here? You kidding?" says one man. "If there's oil around they're not far behind," says his companion. SOC has a headquarters office in Las Piedras; the oil field is 300 miles away. Into this fly-infested hole arrives Jo (Charles Vanel), a tough, middle-aged French gangster out of luck and out of cash. He encounters Mario (Yves Montand), a ne'er-do-well in his twenties from Corsica who's stuck in Las Piedras. Mario does odd jobs to make enough money for meals and whiskey. He beds and takes for granted the young woman who works at the town's cantina, and longs to get out of the place and back to Paris. The two of them bond in a way, the confident tough guy and the young, not-quite-amoral thug-in-training. The shifting relationship between these two is what drives the story. That they can get blown sky high at any moment after the first hour is what keeps us watching.

When an oil fire erupts at a well head, Bill O'Brien (William Tubbs), the local American SOC boss, decides to send containers of nitroglycerine in two trucks from Las Piedras over three hundred miles of rocky, pot-holed road to put out the fire. He'll hire two men per truck and pay $2,000 per man for those who get through. The one drawback is that nitro is notoriously unstable. It will explode in heat and if jostled, and the trucks have no safety equipment. The visa-less bums, last chancers and sweating drunks stuck in Las Piedras line up. These are men who are so close to being the dregs of humanity you won't want to spend time standing next to them down wind. You're not going to hire those tramps, one of O'Brien's subordinates says to him. O'Brien makes clear the film's point of view regarding American oil companies. "Those bums," he says, "don't have a union or any families, and if they blow up no one will come around for contributions." And so fifty-six minutes into the movie, Jo and Mario in one truck and Bimba (Peter van Eyck), a blond German, and Luigi (Folco Lulli), a happy Italian dying of lung disease from working in the SOC's cement operation, set off in their trucks. Even they begin to have second thoughts when they watch how slowly and carefully the jerrycans of nitro are loaded.

From now on we're in the cabs of those two trucks, sweating with the heat and our nerves. The road cuts through baking semi-desert, filled with potholes and rocks, and over mountains covered with scrub, shale and boulders. We've got to get through the washboard, a long stretch of dusty road carved into ruts by the wind. If the trucks keep going at 40 miles an hour, all is fine. Go under 40, "boom." Go over and "boom." There's a hairpin turn high on a mountain so sharp the trucks have to back onto a wooden platform to turn around. We find out the wood is rotten and the platform is shaky. There's a boulder as big as a truck that will have to be blasted apart...but only by using some of the nitro in a hazardous improvisation that requires siphoning, a falling hammer and a lit fuse. And worst of all is a large, expanding and deep pool of oil which will have to be driven through. By now we've come to know, if not especially like, these four men. Luigi is strong, coarse and relatively happy. Bimba is resourceful but fatalistic enough to make you nervous. Jo? He turns out not to be so tough after all, while Mario becomes the senior partner of the two, and determined enough to run a truck over a man's leg. How many survive? You'll need to see the movie. The ending is just right.

Considering the passion French intellectuals have always had for smoking their Gauloises and condemning what they term American cultural and economic imperialism, Henri-Georges Clouzot makes his points but never at the expense of his film. The first hour may have messages to give, but they're understated and never smack anyone over the head. (However, the movie was cut by nearly an hour for it's initial American release. In addition to losing a fair amount of time in Las Piedras, all those anti-American swipes somehow disappeared.) The journey on the two trucks is so continuously gripping that any messages early on fall to the side of the road. Yves Montand, in one of his earliest movies, and Charles Vanel, an old hand, dominate The Wages of Fear. For those who recall Vanel only as the wily, good-humored police inspector in Clouzot's Diabolique or the avuncular manager of the restaurant in To Catch a Thief, you're in for a master-class in the versatility of a first-class actor.

The Wages of Fear is a classic, powerful adventure of men placed at risk by their needs and their natures.

I just watched THE WAGES OF FEAR on BLU-RAY and must admit though it was very good, I still don't see how people can say it was better than William Friedkin's 1977 SORCERER. Friedkin added all of the elements of WAGES into his film and more, such as: The dubius backgrounds of the four men who are trapped in the God-forsaken South American country, how they ended up there, and how they must now find a way out by any means possible, even if it's driving two broken-down trucks filled with unstable nitroglycerine across 218 miles of rugged terrain, not knowing who they can trust.

Their desperation leads us to understand why they would volunteer and accept this suicide mission; If they want their lives and loved ones back, THEY HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO GO, a plot point that is lacking from THE WAGES OF FEAR.

Both films boast a great international cast, great location shooting, and tough, no-nonsense, tight, gritty direction from two great film directors who are themselves the stars of their films.

With THE WAGES OF FEAR you get:
A great intense original story, filmed in glorious black and white and presented in it's original aspect ratio of 1.37:1, the standard at the time(1953), and presented by Criterion in pristine condition with plenty of extra's. You get real explosions (no special effects here), a white knuckle ride, Spectacular cleavage shots of the lovely Vera Clouzot, a shock ending, and you get to see Yves Montand go from French singing star, to leading man status all in one film due to Henri-Georges Clouzet's guidence and masterfull direction.

With SORCERER you get:
A great re-telling of a great story, told coldly, harshly, with real explosions (no special effects here), more intensity, more scope, more violence, color, Roy Scheider, Tangerine Dream, Mafia, Bandido's, a haunting ending, all by the man who brought you THE EXORCIST, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, and TO LIVE AND DIE IN L.A.. What's not to like?

Roger Ebert named SORCERER one of the ten best movies of 1977.

A BUDGET OF 22 MILLION, IT EARNED AN ESTIMATED 12 MILLION
This film had the unfortunate luck of being released less than one month after the first STAR WARS movie was released, while the country was still buzzing over ROCKY, which may have led to SORCERER's box office disappointment. Another reason was that many critics unfairly panned SORCERER probably because of Friedkin's audacity to recreate a classic (apparently a no-no at the time), which is funny in this day and age of remakes and re-imaginings. At any rate, this film is now much more accepted and appreciated among critics, garnering an 80 percent approval rating at ROTTENTOMATOES.COM.

WIDESCREEN/ FULLSCREEN
My problem is that SORCERER was filmed (according to the Internet Movie Database) in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1 and NOT the 1.33:1 pan & scan DVD version available today. As of this date (June of 2010) HIGH-DEF DIGEST has listed SORCERER on their docket of films to be released on Blu-Ray, however, they give no date, or even year, so, I will continue to wait patiently for the Blu-ray.

FYI; 2012 marks the 35 anniversary of SORCERER.

But if you want my opinion on which to buy; collect both. They're both great films from two different era's. The Criterion edition of THE WAGES OF FEAR on Blu-Ray is excellent, but definatly wait for SORCERER to be released on Blu-Ray.

Finaly I just want to suggest, as of rule of thumb to ALL filmakers who are seeing their films re-released in Blu-Ray, Do what you will to update your film, whether it be cropping, changing the aspect ratio, adding or deleting scenes, etc..., but alway's alway's ALWAY'S give us the original theatrical release as well. Yes it's that important, and I don't mind paying extra for it.
Thanks
COASO

If I ever see a poor disc put out by Criterion I'll be surprised, upset, and disappointed. The worst thing I could say about their discs is that they used cheap paper containers, which I can say has now been fixed. I got this movie in a clear Blu-ray case.

The movie is perfect with nothing to detract from it's appearance while screening. It's also the uncut version, so don't worry about that.

There are lots of extras on the disc, though I haven't watched them, and as such I won't comment on them.

All Criterions are for play in N.American players. Sorry everyone else.

One of the masters of serving up suspense and making it nearly unbearable is the French director Henri-George Clouzot, who curdled the blood of audiences with his somber "Diabolique" (1955), the film that inspired Alfred Hitchcock to make "Psycho." Two years earlier, Clouzot made an extraordinary film that combined desperate men, a grimy Central American village, and a dangerous cargo. This film, "Wages of Fear," is available in Blu-ray on The Criterion Collection label.
The Southern Oil Company, which unofficially is in charge of everything in the impoverished village of Las Piedras, sends out a call for long-distance truck drivers. To earn $2,000 each, the drivers must transport highly volatile nitroglycerine, needed to put out an oil fire, across treacherous terrain. Through flashbacks and dialogue, we learn why each of the four men who volunteer is willing to risk his life for these wages.
The early part of the film establishes the characters of the four drivers. With the exception of Yves Montand, the actors aren't familiar faces, and this contributes to the film's believability. Clouzot tells us so much about the perils of the journey that we can't wait for the 300-mile drive to begin. It is here that Clouzot fashions some amazing, memorable scenes as one obstacle after another impedes the trucks' progress. Largely through visuals, with just bits of dialogue, Clouzot shows how the men's determination transforms to uncertainty and then to fear. By then, it is impossible to turn back. The men must either perish in the jungle or forge ahead.
"Wages of Fear" runs 147 minutes but it is so engrossing, it moves along briskly. The lead characters are not especially likable, yet the viewer cannot help but lose himself in the suspenseful, hazardous slog through inhospitable terrain.
The Blu-ray edition contains a restored High Definition digital transfer, video interviews with the film's assistant director and Clouzot's biographer, a 1988 video interview with Yves Montand, a documentary about Clouzot, and a featurette about cuts made to the film for its American release.

"The Wages of Fear," (Le salaire de la peur"), (1953) is surely one of the greater glories of French cinema, a tight, 131 minute, black and white thriller, co-written and directed by the cunning Georges Clouzot. This cerebral, tense and gritty suspenser by Clouzot, who was acclaimed for his intelligent, intense thrillers-- he also created Diabolique: The Criterion Collection --took home the Grand Prize at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival, and won a British Best Film Oscar.

The viewer finds himself in a poverty-stricken, decrepit, hopeless village, in a country that appears to me to be Venezuela, in the remotest of South American jungles. The American "Southern Oil Company," for which, I think you can read "Standard Oil," is fighting a fire at an even more remote oil field. It must urgently get supplies of volatile, hair-trigger nitroglycerine there to help put out the fire. It hasn't prepared for such an eventuality; it doesn't have the proper trucks. (And, of course, power steering had not yet been invented: it took strength to drive a truck in those days.) Furthermore, the roads are treacherous, and the slightest jolt can lead to the explosion of the truck and the death of its drivers. So the company offers to pay $2000 a man, a small fortune there and then, to any four desperadoes who will try to deliver the supplies in the two best trucks it has. It selects men from among the penniless local European drifters: a tense rivalry develops between them on the road.

The drivers are: Mario, a Parisian, perhaps the most accessible of the quartet, played by Yves Montand (Jean De Florette / Manon of the Spring (MGM World Films)), who I think made his look of wifebeater undershirt and scarf tied around his neck almost as famous as the picture. His companion, Jo, a recently-arrived older Parisian gangster, is played by Charles Vanel(To Catch a Thief (Special Collector's Edition)). And in the other truck, we have Bimba, who spent several years in the Nazi salt mines, at gun point, as played by Peter Van Eyck(The Bridge at Remagen). Finally, the fourth man, Luigi, (Folco Lulli), cheerful, singing Italian baker. Linda, a local girl, is played by Vera Clouzot, the director's wife, who also played an important part in the director's famous DIABOLIQUE. Her part here was probably written for her, and the movie could just as well have done without it, but she does wear a memorable horizontal-striped shirt as she scrubs floors, and does give us some welcome feminine breaks in the midst of the testosterone-fueled competition.

Clouzot has given us a powerful, character-driven action film here. Acting and photography are stripped down to the basics, still, a viewer can feel the heat and humidity of the jungle and the dangers of the road. Moreover, although some modern viewers might find it a little slow, once those trucks get going they hardly stop. The film's minimal score, which contributes to the mood, was written by Georges Auric. The American William Friedkin remade this picture as Sorcerer, starring Roy Scheider. Scheider's not bad, and neither is the picture, but it doesn't function in the same universe as the original. Few of us, I think, would want to live in WAGES' universe, but it sure makes for an unforgettable visit.

Wages of Fear is simply one of the most suspenseful films that I've had the great fortune of watching. Shot decades before I was born, I was initially a little skeptical of the rave reviews that the film received. After experiencing it, I agree that the praise is totally deserved.

I honestly don't watch most of the classic movies shot during the 40's and 50's, mostly because some of them don't hold up well over time. But like movies such as "On the Waterfront", Wages of Fear is totally raw and powerful, and had me on the edge of my seat for most of the movie. The fear and tension in the film is so real you can almost touch it, and it's a shame that more directors of the present day don't take a page from the playbooks of Henri-Georges Clouzot and Georges Arnaud.

I watched the movie in Blu-Ray format, which made it a terrific experience. Vivid blacks, and crisp details down to the drops of sweat on the nervous drivers. A simple premise is turned into an amazing movie with great visuals, this is a must-watch even if you're aren't a fan of vintage cinema.

Think of the coolness from Casablanca and the tensional camaraderie from The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Now add to that the sustained suspense from A Man Escaped and you might come close to understanding what this film has to offer. This heavyweight of cinema is a must see. It easily cracked into my all time top twenty after just one viewing.