by Gus Sanchez

Created on: February 01, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

This is one of the few thrillers where the drama is more psychological than physical, and it works best that way. And one of my favorite films. In a dirty, corrupt, backwater town somewhere in the jungles of South America (we are never told where, but my guess is Venezuela), a motley assortment of losers congregate around a local tavern, passing the time and their lives away within the depressing humdrum and grim poverty of this remote outpost. Many miles away, an American oil company struggles to stay afloat financially; their struggle is mirrored with the struggle of the town of San Miguel. It is never made clear why this international assortment of losers dwell in San Miguel, but clearly they're escaping from someone or something. The great Yves Montand stars as one of these deadbeats, a gregarious charmer with a razor-like wit and a flair for the local barmaid. The humdrum lifts when a stranger arrives, also on the run (from what, we don't know), and with trouble on his mind. It's no coincidence that his arrival coincides with a devastating explosion at the oil refinery, killing some locals and injuring scores more. Conventional methods won't put out the fire; it must be extinguished with nitroglycerine, but since nitro is extremely volatile, and can't be flown in, it must be transported very carefully by truck. The psychological drama unfolds with surgical precision as the oil company hires four drivers, including Montand and the mysterious sabateur, to transport the nitroglycerine through the most treacherous jungle roads; the slightest bump or mishap will blow them to smithereens. If they make it successfully, each will earn $2,000. Though the story isn't told from his eyes, Montand serves as the emotional, psychological core of the film: his rakish charm can't disguise the fact that he is part of a pant-wetting psychological terror. The fear these men face, knowing they are transporting both a big cash payoff and a certain doom is palpatable and moist. Under the direction of Henri-Georges Clouzot, The Wages of Fear is certainly Hitchcockian, but to compare Clouzot to Hitchcock would prove a disservice to Clouzot; he was always far more interested in psychic fear more than Hitchcock (witnessed with greater effect in his masterpiece Diabolique - the original, not the moronic Sharon Stone remake). It also helps to compare Wages to William Friedkin's well-intentioned but unnecessary remake, Sorceror. Friedkin expands on the drifter's past lives (Roy Scheider plays the Montand role), but since it's more of an action film, it lacks the psychic suspense of the original.

Learn more about this author, Gus Sanchez.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.