Watch The Wages of Fear For Free

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

The setting is a dead end South American village in the middle of nowhere. Its only distinguishing feature being an American oilfield some distance away from the village. But then an accident causes a fire to spread into the oil and the only way to stop it is to literally blow it out. With nitroglycerin. The only problem being that they don't have the safety equipment needed to transport the nitro from the village. But "luckily" such villages have no shortage of men at the end of their ropes, willing to do anything for a final paycheck.And that's essentially The Wages of Fear in a nutshell. It's about human desperation and about ever-mounting stakes as the tension keeps rising and rising. Every little tremor or stone on the road could send all four men into the sky in a fiery explosion of primordial forces. And even though you're safely hunkered on your coach, behind the reality line of a TV screen, you can't help but sweat in anguish alongside these men. The film is that well shot.That being said, it takes its sweet time getting there. The first portion of the film is spent getting to know the village and these four wretched souls. And while they are interesting personalities, played by talented actors, it still drags quite a bit. And that's partly because at that point you don't have much of an idea where the film is going. Most of the loose threads get tied up towards the end, but a good half of the film is a jumbled mess.But that other part where they're actually transporting the explosives is so good that it more than makes up for the weaker first half. Recommended for all fans of intense.

Frenchmen Mario and Jo, German Bimba and Italian Luigi are stuck in the isolated town of Las Piedras. Surrounded by desert, the town is linked to the outside world only by a small airport, but the airfare is beyond the means of the men. There is little opportunity for employment aside from the American corporation that dominates the town, Southern Oil Company (SOC), which operates the nearby oil fields and owns a walled compound within the town. SOC is suspected of unethical practices such as exploiting local workers and taking the law into its own hands, but the townspeople's dependence upon it is such that they suffer in silence.Mario is a sarcastic Corsican playboy, who treats his devoted lover, Linda, with disdain. Jo is an aging ex-gangster who just recently found himself stranded in the town. Bimba is an intense, quiet individual whose father was murdered by the Nazis, and who himself worked for three years in a salt mine. Luigi, Mario's roommate, is a jovial, hardworking individual, who has just learned that he is dying from cement dust in his lungs. Mario befriends Jo due to their common background of having lived in Paris, but a rift develops between Jo and the other cantina regulars because of his combative, arrogant personality.

In The Wages of Fear, four men in a remote South American town have the enviable task of transporting a metric buttload (technical term) of nitroglycerin across mountainous roads in poor condition. It's a taut, superbly suspenseful thriller, guided with a steady hand by director Henri-Georges Clouzot, who would go on to direct the classic Diabolique in 1955.Yves Montand, in a rare dramatic role, plays Mario, the ostensible protagonist of our tale. He's been stuck in this backwater for some time, but it costs a lot of money to get out – plane fares are through the roof, and there's no train, and there's no neighboring village. In short, you're stuck there until you can buy a ticket – and pay for a passport, of course.Mario spends his days looking for work, wooing tavern worker Linda, and despairing about the lack of work. There's an American oil company in town, but they're no longer hiring. His monotonous lifestyle is interrupted by the arrival of fellow expat Jo (Charles Vanel), a tough-looking older man who quickly wins Mario's favor at the expense of the rest of the men in town.The oil company, in fact, has its own problem – one of their large derricks has exploded, causing a huge oil fire. Company man Bill O'Brien decides to send two trucks loaded with nitro from the town up the mountain to the derrick. (The eventual idea is to set off charges, which will somehow contain or extinguish the fire.) O'Brien has no trouble scaring up volunteers for the task, since the men of the town are largely unemployed. Four men will be selected to take the two trucks. Only one truck is needed; the second is truly just in case there's an accident with the first one. The men will receive $2000 when the work is finished, more than enough to secure passage out of the backwater.Mario and Jo are chosen, as are Mario's roommate Luigi (Folco Lulli) and German expat Bimba (Peter van Eyck). The two trucks depart early in the morning, full of gas and of nitro. Danger awaits.Theirs is not an easy task. The road is full of ruts. In one place, the wooden deck that trucks use to make a sharp turn up the mountain has been damaged from disuse. It's hot and muggy. And one has to be very, very careful, as even the smallest bump might set the whole shebang off. There's also tension among the four drivers – Luigi is unhappy that Mario is spending more time with Jo than with him, Mario is unhappy with what he perceives as Jo's cowardice. Bimba seems to get along with everyone, though.The whole time I was watching this movie, I was certain not all four were going to make it. I will not spoil what is now a sixty-three-year-old movie, but I was still genuinely surprised by the ending. This ain't no fairy tale or sitcom. This is a movie about desperation, redemption, sacrifice, and comeuppance. It's not necessarily about justice.The Wages of Fear is a singularly terrific movie from start to finish, exquisitely shot and expertly written. Its money maker is its tension, something present here in spades. The writing is impeccable; even personality changes make perfect sense within the film's context. There are intricacies within a straightforward plot. This is a must see for lovers of thrillers.

Since becoming a fan of his work after seeing the astonishing 1949 movie Manon,I was thrilled to spot a 3 disc boxset of auteur film maker Henri-Georges Clouzot on Amazon UK. Struggling to decide which one to watch first,I found an excellent review on IMDb's Film Noir board,which led to me putting all my wages on fear.The plot:Stuck in a dead end town, Mario,Jo, Bimba and Luigi try to make ends meet,as a big US corporation (boo!) controls the nearby oil fields. Taking part in "shady" dealings,the company gets a tight grip on the town,which forces the people to stay silent over the abuses,due to it offering the only jobs in town.Discovering that one of the oil fields has erupted,the company decide that the only way to stop it is to use nitroglycerine.Going round town offering a handful of cash,the company grab the attention of ex-gangster Jo,the quiet Bimba,the quick-witted Mario and the warm, hard working Luigi. Getting told that they have to drop the nitroglycerine off to the oil field in trucks,the gang soon discover one major,risky problem:the oil field is 300 miles away on a road of death.View on the film:Flying in at 2 and a half hours,co-writer/(along with Jérôme Géronimi) director Henri-Georges Clouzot (who broke a leg whilst filming) and cinematographer Armand Thirard sink the trucks into an engulfing Film Noir atmosphere,where low-lighting allows the smallest glimmer of hope to be seen in the town. Keeping a close eye on every turning of the wheels,Clouzot brilliantly uses tightly held,lingering shots to build a mood brimming with anxiety over the title.Stomping down the Film Noir road, Clouzot makes every sharp turn land with an unrelenting thump,by blazing down scorching hot whites with mud and grit gathering every drop of sweat,which is burnt away by the oily Film Noir doom being lit on the horizon.Piped down from Georges Arnaud's novel,the screenplay by Clouzot and Géronimi beautifully spends the first hour giving the viewer an opportunity to (almost) interact with each character,from Mario's abrasive,Film Noir loner nature, to Jo's sincere desire to drive by the Film Noir darkness. Expanding on one of his major themes drawn from the very beginning of his credits,Clouzot gives the characters an inability to escape from the Film Noir oil fields that they are driving into,by making each pedal pressed pull them all away from a paternally safe "stop point",into a decaying road of ruthless doom,paved with grubby cash. Grabbing the role after Jean Gabin turned it down for the character being a "coward", Charles Vanel gives an incredible performance as Mario,thanks to Vanel keeping Mario's humble roots shining as the oil of Film Noir streams over Jo and Mario. Crushed into a million pieces, Yves Montand gives an incredible performance as Mario,whose rough edged smile Montand chips away at to hit a Film Noir loner who will roll over anyone who gets in the way of a handful of cash,as Jo and Mario rage with fear.