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Summary: Warning! unneccesary cursing added to DVD subtitles, buy VHS
Review: I wish that I could return this DVD edition and just purchase the VHS version that I originally saw. For some reason the editors added cursing to the subtitles and it really left a foul taste in my mouth. Why did they bother?!? it added nothing to the film and only detracts for those few of us left that still object to "bad words".The film itself is excellent...
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful transfer of great film
Review: I only have 2 complaints about this Criterion DVD of Clouzot's best film (and one of the best films ever). Well, maybe only 1 and 1/2 complaints.
Firstly, even though it is a blessing to finally have a gorgeous video transfer of the entire, uncut film, it still seems a shame to have it presented with now "extras". I mean, was there not a Clouzot scholar anywhere who could provide a commentary on the film (even a French film historian's commentary could have been translated)?
Secondly, the English subtitles seem to be an old (and old fashioned) translation. It seems odd to read the characters saying "swell" and "beat it". And I'm originally from Texas, and I know from experience that the English translation of the Spanish pejorative "pendejo" is not "louse." I think I also caught the character Jo saying "eat excrement" in French and reading the subtitle "Good Luck" underneath it.
Since they did completely re-do the look of subtitles, couldn't Criterion have made them a bit more accurate as well?
Rating: 
Summary: Among The Best Movies Ever Made
Review: This movie has two flaws. The first is that some of the logic is screwy; the second is the oilman O'Brien is a grotesque anti-American caricature, in sharp contrast to the beautifully limned characterizations of the protagonists. Neither of these flaws make a whit of difference in my reaction to this film. THE WAGES OF FEAR is all the things others have claimed: an action-packed suspense classic with a strong existential flavor. But, first and foremost, it is a masterful MOVIE. When you watch WAGES, you can't help but notice there isn't a wasted foot of film: Clouzot seemingly never plants a wrong foot in 2 1/2 hours of storytelling. The 'slow' first half in the hot little village is never less than completely absorbing...you can smell the stale breezeless air, hear the buzzing flies, and taste the salt of your own sweat after an hour of Clouzot's detailed, swooning-from-the-humidity immersion of the audience into this hellish purgatory: by the time O'Brien is looking for drivers, you know exactly why these men are so desperate to risk death to get out. (One man, denied the job, commits suicide; another, who did get the job, may have been murdered by one of our 'heroes'. It is a plot point left tantalizingly unresolved.) The pitiless journey they must make to get their $2000 is unforgettable: every emotion, every frayed nerve-end is exposed during the ordeal. We see these men at their most elemental and vicious and cowardly...but we also see their incredible nobility and love for each other later - when they have gone so far beyond turning back that hope, dignity and courage are the only things they have left to combat their fear and despair. Even though none of these things matter when a hard bump on the road will immolate the saint and the sinner alike, they nevertheless become the only things that matter. It's a beautiful, inspiring message for a film to contain. Those moments in WAGES where we see the men at their best (the scene where Lulli is discovered alive after the blast; Montand's comforting the dying Vanel at journey's end) are even more indelible and affecting than the noirish scenes of the men falling apart from stress - and THOSE are considerably powerful. Some of the setpieces -the rickety wooden precipice and the oil puddle foremost - aren't just suspenseful: the remote locations, stark black and white photography and tense editing create moments of timeless beauty and wonder, even (especially?) with the threat of death looming close by. Remade for no earthly reason I can discern, and another example of how superior French films before the Nouvelle Vague were to those that followed. Godard, Truffaut, Resnais: none of them ever made a film approaching the power or beauty of CHILDREN OF PARADISE, FORBIDDEN GAMES, BEAUTY AND THE BEAST or this movie. Essential viewing.
Rating:
Summary: Get a napkin to wipe the sweat off your brow!
Review: Clouzot's "Wages Of Fear" starts very slowly we are introduced to a fake little latin town full of drifters who can't seem to escape its seedy grasp. The only thing that any of the characters want is a new life but are they deserving of one? The characters in this film are disgusting the guys are dis-honest, unloyal and all out greedy. Then the film begins, four of these men are chosen to deliver some dangerous materials along a most dangerous road and in doing so the fillm begins a game of tourture. The terrain is daunting, cracked bridges, moments of weakness, having to maintain a certain speeed to bypass graveled filled dips in the road. As soon the film paints a character in a nice light with a gernerous gesture they turn around and do something completely grotesque. SO why care about the film ar its characters at all? Simple, because they are human, faulted just like real people you want them to reach their goals but you also want them to fail. It's the human condition in us that wants others to be successful just not at your expense. Having the characters work around most of their fears instead of having them confront them is what makes this film an all around treat to watch unfold.
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Summary: Great Movie by one the the Great Masters of Film
Review: I agree that this is one of the great films of all time, right up there with Citizen Kane & Les Enfants du Paradis & Grapes of Wrath. It has the majestic sweep & the scope & the deep sense of human tragedy that those films have. I don't feel it's a "suspense" film, it's much much more. It's a metaphor of the struggle to survive that is shared by every human being ever born. I have no problems with the symbolic images & acts that open & close the film: the cockroach "dance" & Mario's last drive. They too are metaphors which would be digestable if such metaphors weren't so out of favor these days. Particularly, the ending: who doesn't believe deep down that when one struggles to keep death at arm's length, one has a chance to postpone it, but if you forget & celebrate your luck, chances are your time has arrived. If I have any problems at all, it's with the casting of Vera Clouzot. She's too immaculately refined & happy-go-lucky for someone in her situation. She certainly doesn't seem to mind the trip up the stairs with the bozo boss. This was the one thing about Wages of Fear that made me think of Hollywood (particularly John Ford). But everything else about this film is so brilliant that its small flaws are easily forgiven. I have seen versions with both the first 40 minutes & the last 15 excised! Abominable!! God bless those responsible for making this version available.
Rating:
Summary: Still great, still thrilling, still haunting
Review: This movie just doesn't age with me. The restored print is far superior to anything I've yet seen. Lines pop up rarely but are only noticable due to the beautiful print quality used. No extras or commentary, so you just get an incredibly enjoyable movie for a song. The added scenes are welcome...character development in the beginning is more fully understood (and crucial to enjoying the journey), and the portrayal of the American oil company "taking advantage" of the needy locals and ex-patriots was remarkably tame and well-balanced (this coming from an ex-big oil employee). I heard Milius once claim that there are only 32 plots in the movies, but this one to my knowledge has never been equalled, occasional SORCERER images aside. Get this while it's still available.
Rating:
Summary: Well, the most suspenseful film I have ever seen
Review: There are two things often said about this film that I would like to strongly agree with: first, it begins rather slowly, and second, it really is one of, if not THE, most suspenseful films ever made. The first third of the movie moves inexplicably slowly. I can understand many of the reasons why: the attempt to define the characters, to show their interactions with one another, to depict the quiet desperation of their live to make it plausible that four men would undertake such an astonishingly dangerous job as hauling nitroglycerin over treacherous jungle and mountains dirt roads. Even granting all that, however, the start is by any standard, really, really slow. And I suspect that a couple of the one star reviews proclaiming the film a bore either gave up before getting to the good parts or never recovered from the slow start. The most suspenseful film ever made? A couple of reviewers indicated that the film has been so over hyped along these lines that it would be impossible for any film to come up to one's expectations. There are two edges to this sword. I am far more impressed that despite being hyped as the most suspenseful film ever made, I was nonetheless utterly on the edge of my seat for most of the final 100 minutes. And if some of the scenes seem somewhat familiar, it is undoubtedly because of the score of films that have plundered this film for their own tension-filled scenes. I have often thought that Yves Montand was, at his best, one of the more compelling performers of the last half of the twentieth century. He wasn't consistently successful internationally. Sometimes one or two decades would come between some of his greatest triumphs. To illustrate, I think Montand's two greatest film appearances were THE WAGES OF FEAR (1953) and JEAN DE FLORETTE/MANON OF THE SPRING (1986), only thirty-three years apart. Finally, I have to agree somewhat with a couple of reviewers who disliked the ending. Nihilism was very fashionable in the early 1950s in European cinema. The ending, which seems completely unnecessary and not organically connected with the rest of the film, reflects less any inner necessity for a downer ending than the general mood in "serious" films at the time. So, in a sense, one could argue that this movie manages to be one of the great classics of cinema despite a slow beginning and an arbitrarily negativistic ending. Where the film shines is in the utterly riveting journey through the jungle and mountains.
Rating:
Summary: Watch out -- A technical caution
Review: This brilliantly imagined exestential drama is stunning in its characterization amid the bleakness of entrapment. However, for English viewers, beware that the subtitles of some versions are white, which means that unless you have a very high contrast on your TV set, you will not be able to discern the subtitles. On a TV with poor contrast, the actors, especially those wearing white suits in the sun, appear not to have faces. The first few minutes are especially washed out, and Clouzot's vision, staging (especially the roach wrangling in the opening), and direction demand to be clearly understood and portrayed.
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Summary: Fear death
Review: Dear readers Have you ever put your own life at risk? Are you ready to risk, and die if.... Are you ready to fight to deaths if....... I saw that movie as beeing 5 years old back in 1962, I was shocked and and i was just so horrible to see the men fight and hope to get out of "Hell" and...... In real life throughly I have served my time in Yemen and thoughy lost my friends in accidents, while we worked at the eage of civilisation. It's rough reality, black and white, some time a slow action, as life is, with its suddenly horror, and reality worse than the movie, where is reality and where is the Movie. To my inner feelings, I feel for the movie, for the story, and I recommed to see the movie.
Rating:
Summary: My chiquita liked the movie
Review: Wages of Fear is a true classic and anyone who does not think so is not educated in the world of film.
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