The Wages Of Fear

The Wages Of Fear is one of those movies that had remained unseen by me for some strange reason. I saw it was part of a series of Palm D'Or winners on the Criterion Channel and instantly turned it on. It is rightly regarded as a classic, but there are some problems with it.

Many years ago I saw a film called Sorcerer, directed by William Friedkin, which I liked but didn't realize it was actually a remake of The Wages Of Fear, which was released in 1953 and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. The premise is simple--a group of men are assigned to drive trucks brimming with nitroglycerin across a dangerous road to help stop an oil well fire. Clouzot, though, gives his film a grander vision, especially in the first hour of the film.

And that's where I have a problem: the film, at two and a half hours, is too long. The trucks don't get started until an hour into the film. That first hour introduces the characters, but if I had been watching this film back then and didn't know anything about it, I would have been wondering what is this? It's just a bunch of guys hanging out in some South American backwater. But the remaining hour and half, when the drivers are nervously making their way through obstacles, is brilliantly done.

The main character is Mario (Yves Montand), a good-natured Corsican. He is part of an international group of tramps who have somehow ended up in a dusty little town with no jobs. They can't get out, because they can't afford airfare, which is the only way to leave. One day the plane arrives and a dignified fellow, Jo (Charles Vanel) steps off, looking for a way to make money. He and Montand becomes friends, but Vanel also alienates many of the other men.

The only concern in the town is an American oil company, which employs some of the men of the village but is thought to exploit them. When a fire breaks out, the manager realizes the union men won't drive the trucks, so he offers two-thousand dollars (which would today be twenty-thousand dollars) for four men to drive two trucks of nitro (the second truck is in case the first one blows up). Montand and Vanel are in one truck, and a German (Peter van Eyck) and an Italian (Folco Lulli) are in the other. The trucks have no shock absorbers, and a jolt or bump would blow them to bits.

There are various obstacles along the way. There's a sharp turn that requires the truck to back onto a platform of rotten wood. A boulder lies in the road, which they blow up borrowing a little nitro. A crater in the road is filled with mud and oil. The viewer, along with the characters, understands the risk.

The film is layered with other meaning. It certainly takes a dim view of the American oil company, and there is an overlying commentary on bravery, cowardice, and what it means to be a man. When Vanel, who has acted like a big shot, finally reveals his cowardice, Montand tells them they have to go on. But do they really? How much money does it take to risk one's life?

The Wages Of Fear is full of testosterone. The only female characters, the daughter of the local bar owner, is a simpering beauty (far too beautiful to be living in a town like this--where does she get her makeup?) played by Clouzot's wife, Vera Clouzot. When we first see her she is scrubbing the bar's floor, but dressed like a pin-up. She is sort of dating Montand, and he pets her head as if she were a dog.

The film was released in the U.S. with a shorter running time, mostly to edit out the anti-American stuff, but it should be shorter. And the film doesn't end when you expect it to--the denouement is a doozy. From foreshadowing I could tell who was going to make it and who wasn't, but the last few seconds of the film were completely unpredictable.