Chinese Version
Le Salaire De La Peur (France/Italy)
Wages of Fear
Four human lives
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Cast: Yves Montand Peter Van Eyck Charles Vanel
Footage: 138min
Year: 1953
Based on the much-imitated novel by Georges Arnaud, the film is set in Central America. The Southern Oil Company sends out a call for long-distance truck drivers. Southern Oil's wages of $2000 per man are, literally, to die for; the drivers are obliged to transport highly volatile nitroglycerine shipments across some of the most treacherous terrain on earth. The four drivers who sign up for this death-defying mission are a Corsican, an Italian, a German, and a Frenchman. The first half of the film slowly, methodically introduces the characters and their motivations; the second half-the drive itself—is a relentless, goosebump-inducing assault on the audience's senses.
In its original 148-minute version, the story lags in spots as director Clouzot indulges some anti-United States propaganda. Not surprisingly, the film was re-edited for release in the U.S.
References:
Works of the same director:
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