Rating: 
Summary: Sorcerer? No, this is the real deal.
Review: Bless Criterion for giving us this oft-fogotten masterpiece. All the griping about anti-Americanism and slow-moving set-up is just minutae. The pace is almost unnerving. The most telling scene happens a little over halfway through the film: Two trucks loaded with decaying sticks of dynamite, spaced apart for safety, each take a different approach to a portion of the road where it is necessary to drive over a long stretch wooden ties. The men in the first truck choose to move slowly, minimizing the jostling of the dynamite. Unable to communicate with the first truck, the men driving the second decide to maintain a speed which will enable the tires to glide over the bumps with ease. The ensuing panic caused when the second truck closes on the first, neither able to change speed without causing the dynamite to explode, is unrelenting. You expect that a last-minute save will happen, but as more and more of these sorts of situations occur, the less convinced you are that anyone will survive their torturous journey. That is just a small portion of the many moments of anguish and fear the four principle characters face.It is funny that some reviewers have commented on how different the film would be if done-up Hollywood style. Well, William Friedken did just that in his 1977 follow-up to The Exorcist. Entitled "Sorcerer," his re-make of this film is actually quite good, and while certainly different at times (it's about a half-hour shorter for one thing), comes out much the same. I used to point folks to Friedken's film (when WOF was still hard to find), because I think it is just about as good. One thing you get in Friedken's version is a glimpse at the events which lead the four priciples into hiding in the first place.
Rating: 
Summary: A slow, crawling suspense thriller
Review: In a small South American town, where most of the town can barely make enough to get by, a US oil company is in desparate need of men to transport a dangerous cargo of nitroglycerin to a sister oil refinery. The only problem is that the drive is hundreds of miles over treacherous roads that have already killed many. Four drifters decide to accept the job and the $2000 that each will receive once the job is done. Henri-Georges Clouzot's excellent direction and fine screenplay make for one of the most suspenseful films created. The four main actors also deserve much of the credit: Yves Montand and Charles Vanel portray the two Frenchman, Mario and Jo, whose relationship begins as friends, but slowly disintegrates as their trek continues. Peter van
Eyck and Folco Lulli are the other team of Bimba and Luigi whose friendship strengthens. All four give fine performances and strenghten the suspenseful moments of the film. My only criticism of the film is that the ending seemed predictable. But, the slow buildup and nail-biting tesnion throughout more than make up for this. All in all, a great film!
Rating: 
Summary: The Wages of Fear
Review: awful. very cruel film.
i would never watch it again.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie minus the anti-american rhetoric
Review: There are many reviews that narrate the plot, so I am not going to repeat that; rather I just want to give my general feeling about it.
I first saw this movie in the 1970s, and found it pretty impressive, although I cannot remember if it was the original version or the edited one.
When I saw it available in the Criterion Collection, I promptly bought it. The movie is still good, still viewable. The very young Yves Montand is great. His "been there, done that" attitude is very well done. Being a French movie, done in the 1955, (Diem Bem Phu in recent memory) it has to have an anti-american message, and it is clearly delivered and spelled out. In the scene where the accident at the oilfield is reported in the town plaza, a woman delivers a speech blaming the "gringos" for coming to town and killing people in their oilfield, and just giving them money as compensation. They then proceed to assault and mob the truck that brings the wounded to town. The fact that the oilfield is the only source of real income for the local people, is glossed over.
Of course, when the announcement for the "dangerous and well paid" job of driving the trucks comes out, people line up for it. The first half of the movie is slow and depressing, but sets the theme quite perfectly. The second half is a slow, edge of your seat thriller. The end is typical French, dark and depressing. If you haven't seen it, it's worth seeing. Probably not with your girlfriend though.
Rating:
Summary: Hollywood Ending
Review: Same material, if it was given to a Hollywood A-list director, one would undoubtedly get an action-packed summer blockbuster, complete with super-duper pyrotechnics, simultaneously impressive and uninspiring stunts and special effects, melodramatic heroism, and perhaps even licensed merchandises at your local burger joint. The slow-burning first half of the movie, which perfectly accentuates the sense of existentialist ennui? Not likely. Hollywood knows what the average attention span of a popcorn muchin', soda guzzling audience is. A subtle sub-context, which extends the surface material to a powerful three-dimensional structure? Sorry, Jose. The big guys want you to watch a movie, forget it, and move on to the next action-packed extravaganza. A decidedly pessimistic, totally ironic ending that pushed the envelope of absurdity? Not a chance. Hollywood folks are such a fun bunch, they want everyone goes home happy. It's quite sickening to see that most movies come out Hollywood are not even bold enough to a story as is, and to portray life as is. Contrary to what Hollywood wanted people to believe, life is not all that happy and cheery. Life is filled with absurdities, cowardice, ennui, and ironic turns of events. What makes this 50 year old movie stands out of a sea of mediocrity, is that it has the audacity to show life's ugly underbelly without a sugar-coated Hollywood ending.
Rating:
Summary: Slow-building suspense thriller with silly ending
Review: Don't get me wrong - this is a great suspense film. However, the suspense of the first hour of the movie is: "is anything going to happen, or are they just going to sit around complaining?" gets off to an incredibly slow start, and I kept wondering if the rest of the film would be worth wading through the beginning. It was.By the time they get in the trucks, the film has clearly expressed the ennui of living in the middle of nowhere, with nowhere to go and nothing to do. The rest of the film is incredibly suspenseful - moreso than almost any other movie I've seen. In a Hitchcock movie, you know people are going to die, but it won't be the hero. In a French film, anything goes, and any of the characters could die at any time. I have to other problems with the picture. First (and this may be the fault of the translator) is that some of the reasoning behind some of the characters' choices is unclear. They have to go really fast so that they don't hit bumps? Huh? The second problem is the ending. It's abrupt, surreal, and frankly it made me laugh out loud (not the intended effect, I'm sure). Sure it's unexpected, but it didn't really seem to gel with the rest of the film. Overall, though, this is an excellent film, with a solid DVD transfer from Criterion (there's a white line on the left side of the screen in several scenes, but it's not a huge problem).
Rating:
Summary: nail-biting suspense
Review: This is one of the most suspenseful movies ever made-- once the journey begins, the tension never lets up. Director Clouzot has sometimes been called the French Hitchcock, but Hitchcock was never this gritty or pessimistic. The stark B&W photography only adds to the brutal realism. Make sure you get the full 2 1/2 hour version, as there may be edited versions still out there.
Rating:
Summary: An oft-overlooked mindblower of a movie.
Review:
If you like tension and drama, and enjoy unique, hard-bitten stories, this is the movie for you.
This is one of the most enjoyable international films I've ever scene. Shortly after The Big One (WW2), desperate men from Germany, France, and Italy are all squashed into a God-forsaken hole of a South American town dead-smack in the middle of nowhere. Their only ticket out is to jump in with the big, fat, tough, rich Yankees who'll give them a local fortune if they have what it takes to deliver nitro over mountain roads to an oil well fire.
Clouzot's direction is outstanding. Even in the comfort of your lazy-boy you'll feel like you're hanging on a cliff with your fingertips. Peter Van Eyck was the driver most interesting to me, because he performed the whole brain-wracking task with a smile on his face and not a care in the world after spending WW2 in a Nazi salt mine.
Criterion Collection version of this movie is much better than the original. The colored subtitles are a good touch, since much of the dialouge was previously lost due to white-colored English subtitles against black-and-white film, which, duh, camoflauges the words when something on the screen is white. The widescreen is good, and the film seems a little cleaned up.
Well worth the collection of a series film fan!
-- JJ Timmins
Rating:
Summary: run me over, why don't 'cha
Review: This is a good guy movie. I don't think it moves slow in the begining at all. Excellent characters. A couple of over dramatic close-ups, but not to the movie's detriment. The SOC boss was the only overacted performance. I think the cursing that a previous reviewer mentioned should be in there. Overall a good movie. Maybe watch it on a lazy Saturday afternoon. I agree that the ending was not needed, but it didn't distract from the overall quality of the movie. The beautiful girl wasn't really out of place because she was pretty stupid. She fit right in. Plus she looked good cleaning the floor.
Rating:
Summary: Macho naturalism extraordinaire
Review: This is an extraordinary movie. From the opening scene showing the squalor of a Latin American town with filth and vultures in the street and naked children begging for food amid the oppressive, fly-stirred heat, to the finale on a winding mountain road, it is just plain fascinating. True, some of the action does not bear close scrutiny. One does not siphon nitroclycerine nor does one avoid potholes or bumps in the road by driving at forty miles per hour. No matter. Let's allow a little license. And the title doesn't entirely make sense because the wages of sin are death, but the wages of those who followed their fear and did not seek to drive a nitroclycerine truck over 300 miles of bad road are life. Again, no matter. This is such an original movie, every scene like little or nothing you've ever seen before (and for sure will never see again), that the little inconsistencies and some stretching of what is possible are not important. This is man against nature, man against himself reduced to a simple task. It is life in the raw. One mistake and you are dead.
Yves Montand has the lead as Mario, a Frenchman stranded in this god-forsaken town with only one way out: get enough money to pay for airfare. Charles Vanel is the older, tin-horn dandy who ends up with a case of the shakes. Peter Van Eyck is the man with the nerves of steel who finds this little adventure a piece of cake after forced labor in the salt mines for the Nazis. And Folco Lulli is Luigi, the happy, singing baker who hopes to return to Italy with the two thousand dollars they are paying him to drive the nitro-loaded truck. This is a film depicting the primitive nature of a macho mentality. There's a lot of posturing. Every event is a potential test of manhood. Status and privilege are flouted. The weak and the poor do not inherit the earth. Henri-Georges Clouzot directs and somehow manages to come up with a work of genius. One wonders how. The story, on the face of it, would seem to belong in the slush pile of a ten-cent pulp fiction mag from the 1930's. The acting is good, very good in places, but not great. The cinematography is straightforward, but nonetheless very effective. It is lean and focused always, showing us what needs to be seen without drawing attention to itself: the invisible style, which is the best. Clouzot's direction is characterized by a vivid depiction of things that we can feel: the mud and filth in the streets, the desperation and the boredom, the cruelty and meanness of men, the oil on their bodies, the singular fact of a ton of nitro in the back seat so that every move is a neuron-exposing adventure. I think that the visceral experience from beginning to end and the fine pacing are the essence of what makes this a great film. Clouzot's wife, Vera Clouzot, plays Linda who first appears scrubbing the floor in an open-air bistro. She is rather extraordinary herself, finely made up and creamy white like a star of the silent film era. She grovels a lot, especially for Mario. She provides the counter-point, the contrast for the testosterone action of the movie. No student of film should miss this. It would be like missing Citizen Kane or Dr. Strangelove or especially The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, which it vaguely and strangely resembles. "La salaire de lapeur" is, regardless of its flaws, one of the best ever made.
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