Tangerine Dream’s score for William Friedkin’s Sorcerer stuck in my head during. The original, The Wages Of Fear (1953; Le salaire de la peur), from my memory, generally keeps the music to the beginning and end, letting silence add a lot to the infamously gripping sequences of two trucks and four drivers transporting dangerous nitroglycerine across the country roads of Las Piedras in South America. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (and based on the novel by Georges Arnaud), what I appreciated about Wages Of Fear in contrast to Sorcerer is the characterisation. More time is spent in the town of Las Piedras where wastrels and desperados sit in the small bar, hungry for work and needing money for a passport and a plane trip out of a limbo existence. There’s more of a relationship between the four men who eventually sign up for the suicidal job offered by an American oil company, needing the nitro to halt an out of control oil fire. Newcomer Jo (Charles Vanel), an older French gangster, becomes buddies with Mario (Yves Montand), a caddish hustler, and creates tension with Mario’s big-hearted lug of a Italian roommate, Luigi (Folco Lulli). Alongside the German driver, Bimba (Peter van Eyck), the various poses of tough guy gangster, reliable friend and cocky rouge are all deconstructed and torn away by the ever present threat of driving a truck that could explode at any moment. It’s a very tense movie, with several sequences that are still incredibly thrilling with the stuntwork and editing involved. The Wages Of Fear stands as a classic because it works as an effective thriller while co-existing as a critique of American capitalism and a plunge into existential terror. All the performances were great, particularly Montand’s iconic tough guy and Vanel’s eventual broken down vulnerability. Available to stream on Kanopy. Recommended.
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