Actors: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck, Dario Moreno
Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Wages of Fear
Various dregs of humanity are stuck in the small Central American town of Las Piedras. When an American oil company offers them $2,000 apiece to drive two truckloads of nitroglycerine to a well that needs capping, Corsican Mario (Montand), Parisian big guy Jo (Vanel), Dutch smoothie Bimba (Van Eyck), and Italian Luigi (Lulli) jump at the chance. Based on the novel by Georges Arnaud, the 1953 film, written and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, seems slow at times but is a masterpiece of suspenseful tension. The men must drive over precarious mountain ridges, deal with a monstrous fallen boulder in the road, and through a growing lake of oil and mud. It made an international movie star of music hall singer Montand.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
WAGES OF FEAR was released in 1953, it's a french movie directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.
We are in a small town lost in the central america jungle. Four men accept, for the money, to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerine to an oil field on fire. This is suspense at its best, without special effects.
A masterpiece.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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Analysis of Wages of Fear
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie Actual chase scenes or violence - 30% Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 30% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 40%
Time/Era of Movie:
- 1930's-1950's
Technology/treasure/info search
Yes
involving:
- power source
Wilderness adventure
Yes
Disaster, Natural/Nuclear
Yes
Kind of disaster:
- fires
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- unemployed
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- irritated
- tougher
- cynical
Ethnicity/Nationality
- French
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
- hard edged
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- white/grey
Hair style
- (man) short/standard curly
Body type
- average build (man)
- fat (man)
How much in movie?
- 90%-100%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- French
Main Adversary
Identity:
- fight for survival
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 60%
- 80%
Setting
The Americas (not US):
Yes
The Americas:
- Central
- South
Jungles?
Yes
Desert?
Yes
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- gory visuals of deaths
- very gory visuals of deaths and torture
Movie makes you feel...
- excited
- all mixed up
How many deaths in film?
- 4-8
Kind of violence:
- mission to rescue
- hand to hand
- guns
Unusual forms of death
- dropped from large heights
- run over
- perforation--swords/knives
Check here if B&W
Yes
Non-American film?
Yes
What language?
- French
Subtitles?
- Yes
Any profanity?
- Occasional swearing
