Film Review - The Wages of Fear

One of the very greatest films ever made, a fantastic, nihilistic suspense thriller. Centering on four expat drifters stuck in a small oil town in the middle of the Mexican desert, all desperate to get home but unable to afford the air fare.


A chance at escape comes when the local oil company offers the dangerous job of driving a pair of rickety trucks full of unsafe dynamite to help extinguish an oil fire - the unethical organisation not willing to risk its' own men when there are enough losers around the town willing to carry out such suicide missions.

The four principles are superbly defined; Jo (Vanel) is a former gangster on the run; Mario (Montand) a laconic playboy who treats his beautiful, devoted girlfriend Linda (Clouzot, wife of the director who despite being very talented only appeared in her husband's films) with contempt and quickly latches onto Jo; Italian Luigi (Lulli), terminally ill with lungs full of cement dust but taking the job anyway and Dutchman Bimba, a quiet man previously persecuted by the Nazis. Jo quickly upsets everyone else with his big man attitude and arrogance and is initially overlooked for a place on the trucks until the chap chosen ahead of him not-so-mysteriously dies the night before the mission.

Having already been fascinating, the film becomes even more riveting when the trucks hit the road. There are numerous superb suspense sequences - a rough road known as the washboard, a rotting timber platform, a fallen boulder. All four have their character examined on the road - Jo's bravado is soon found to be hollow, Luigi is cheerful to the point of borderline insanity, Mario turns on Jo and Bimba becomes even more withdrawn. And this is all before things start to go wrong.

Clouzot's terrific direction manages to convince you of the danger this quartet of greedy, stupid men are in, pulling out one fantastic trick just when you think you've got it all figured out. The film is critical of their lack of respect for the lives of their supposed friends and even themselves, but still manages to make the drivers relatably human, giving the film a soul - albeit a cynical one - to go with the thrills.