259. Le Salarie de la Peur (The Wages Of Fear) (1953)

Directed By Henri-Georges Clouzot

Synopsis

A group of four misfits is hired to drive two trucks to an explosion in a oil refinery. The roads are treacherous mountain things in South America... and oh the trucks are full of nitroglycerine.

Review

Talk about stressful and suspenseful films... The French are not known primarily for their tension filled action films, but you would say otherwise if you were basing your opinion on this single film. This is one of those that must be seen to be believed, so well directed and edited that you are on the edge of your seat for the whole 2 hours and 30 minutes. But it starts off slowly with an great introduction of the characters for about an hour, which makes the action filled rest of the film all the more effective, because you care.

This is a master-work of action films, using ideas and tropes that have been used repeatedly since, from the idea of not being able to slow down the truck or it will explode (Speed anyone?) to just the sheer tension of the thing.

The acting is generally excellent with secondary characters kind of not being that good, American actors are particularly bad here. So it is a film about Americans killing people for Oil... where have I seen that before? A great film.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

Due to the negative portrayal of the American oil company SOC, the film was accused of anti-Americanism and several scenes were cut for the U.S. release

Trailer: