While the refugees in Casablanca were all pining for an exit visa, the outcasts of Las Piedras in Henri-Georges Clouzat’s The Wages of Fear are desperate for any way out of the South American ramshackle boomtown. The compromises they make and the moral choices they’re forced to consider are at the core of this magnificent adventure film, the winner of the 1953 Palme d’Or. Long recognized as a classic, the movie’s impact and the development of the modern action film cannot be overstated, elements of its plot and construction popping up again and again in inferior movies made in its wake.
Mario (Yves Montand) and Jo (Charles Vanel), Frenchmen on the run, Italian ex-pat Luigi (Folco Lulli) and former Nazi Bimba (Peter Van Eyck) have all ended up in Las Piedras through a variety of bad choices and dicey circumstances. While none of them have anywhere to go, they still long for an opportunity to leave the cesspool of poverty and despair.
They get their chance when they’re chosen for a suicide mission. The Southern Oil Company has a well on fire that’s raging out of control. It’s determined the only way to put it out is by blowing it up but have no explosives at hand. However, there’s nitroglycerin in Las Piedras, which is loaded on two trucks, each needing to be hauled two hundred miles to the site, through mountains and other treacherous territory. With the pay being two thousand dollars to each driver, competiton is fierce, though the job is likely a fatal one.
While there are memorable action set pieces, Wages is more a character study of these four men, each desperate for another chance at life. Each reveal their true nature when difficulties ensue, some reacting with courage, others with cowardice, all operating with desperation.
Though Clouzat takes far too long in setting up the premise, once the two trucks are on the road, a sense of tension slowly builds as we see the men contending with one difficult situation after another, each more treacherous than the last. The tension is, at times, agonizing, the director elongating every suspenseful moment to the breaking point, while Montand, Vanel, Lulli and Van Eyck gain our sympathy. Expendable pawns in the world of global commerce, their past sins are as nothing compared to the oil company’s indifference to them, their workers, the land they are raping and the natives who are calllously brushed aside.
Wages’ social commentary is as pointed and appropriate today as it was 70 years ago, its theme so fierce and groundbreaking, the version released in the United States had every scene criticizing capitalism excised.
The new 4K editon from the Criterion Collection provides striking contrasts in the daylight scenes as well as shades of black as deep as an ominous pool of oil the men must navigate. The supplements include an insightful essay by author Dennis Lehane, as well as a collection of comments from Clouzat, his cast and crew on the making of the movie. However, the highlight is the hour-long documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot: The Enlightened Tyrant which provides insightful background on the director’s motivations while a short doc, Censored, gives us a fascinating analysis of the cuts made to the film for its U.S. release. Interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff, biographer Marc Godin and Montand are also present as is an examination of the process of the film’s restoration. Living up to the gold standard they have set, Criterion has put together a comprehensive package that does this landmark film justice.
