Dhedmo
11-15-2009, 10:00 PM
So last night Grace and I watched the new (2005) Criterion edition of Henri-Georges Clouzot's Wages of Fear. It's the most suspenseful film I've ever seen, and this new print is markedly better than the old Criterion version that I'd bought back when it first came out.
The international cast is superb, and the themes: existential struggle, corporatist oppression, 3rd World blues, camaraderie, are timeless. Over 90 minutes of the film are pure cinema, with few if any words. It's a marvelous film, a man's movie (that Grace loved as much as I do), an edge-of the seat, gruelling ride. In a small South American village dominated by the American Southern Oil Company (SOC, as in Standard Oil Corp.), several men from various countries find themselves trapped, by lack of money and by their pasts. There is no work for them, no way out. A disaster brings a deadly opportunity: four men will be chosen to carry two enormous loads of nitroglycerine across 300 miles of poor roads. For $2000 each, they could be blown up at any moment. And you know that ride won't be easy.
If you haven't seen it, you're missing out. And I was really grateful to my buddy for loaning me this new edition. It's the one to look for, for sure.
The international cast is superb, and the themes: existential struggle, corporatist oppression, 3rd World blues, camaraderie, are timeless. Over 90 minutes of the film are pure cinema, with few if any words. It's a marvelous film, a man's movie (that Grace loved as much as I do), an edge-of the seat, gruelling ride. In a small South American village dominated by the American Southern Oil Company (SOC, as in Standard Oil Corp.), several men from various countries find themselves trapped, by lack of money and by their pasts. There is no work for them, no way out. A disaster brings a deadly opportunity: four men will be chosen to carry two enormous loads of nitroglycerine across 300 miles of poor roads. For $2000 each, they could be blown up at any moment. And you know that ride won't be easy.
If you haven't seen it, you're missing out. And I was really grateful to my buddy for loaning me this new edition. It's the one to look for, for sure.