{Le salaire de la peur}
 The Criterion Collection [Blu-ray] --- Subtitled --- In a squalid South American oil town, four desperate men sign on for a suicide mission to drive trucks loaded with nitroglycerin over a treacherous mountain route. As they ferry their explosive cargo to a faraway oil fire, each bump and jolt tests their courage, their friendship, and their nerves. The result is one of the greatest thrillers ever committed to celluloid, a white-knuckle ride from France's legendary master of suspense, Henri-Georges Clouzot. Storyline: In the South American jungle supplies of nitroglycerin are needed at a remote oil field. The oil company pays four men to deliver the supplies in two trucks. A tense rivalry develops between the two sets of drivers and on the rough remote roads the slightest jolt can result in death. Written by Col Needham Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov on April 8, 2009 -- French director Henri-Georges Clouzot's legendary "The Wages of Fear" (1953) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The disc contains a restored high-definition digital transfer with uncompressed monaural soundtrack of the original, uncut, French version of the film. The Blu-ray package also offers interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff and Clouzot biographer Marc Godin, a video interview with Yves Montand from 1988, deleted scenes, as well as an informative documentary on the director's career from 2004. Region-A "locked". Three men – Mario (Yves Montand, César et Rosalie Luigi (Folco Lulli, Le comte de Monte-Cristo), and Bimba (Peter van Eyck, Die Todesstrahlen des Dr. Mabuse) – are stuck in a dead-end town in an unknown South American country. A fourth man, Jo (Charles Vanel, Du rififi à Tokyo), joins them shortly before an American oil company announces that it needs truckers to transport a large amount of nitroglycerin to a remote oil rig located some 300 miles away from the town. It is a dangerous job that could cost the men their lives, but if they make it, each would get a check for 2000$. Based on the novel by Georges Arnaud, Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear didn't delight American censors when it was first screened for them in New York City in 1955. Some felt that the film was openly anti-American (in the booklet provided with this Blu-ray disc, Dennis Lehane recalls that even Time magazine managed to offer an opinion: "a picture that is surely one of the most evil ever made"). As a result, the original French version of The Wages of Fear was censored and an entirely new cut of the film was approved for US distribution. The key reason why Wages of Fear prompted such extreme reactions had to with the manner in which the American oil company that hires Mario, Luigi, Bimba and Jo, as well as its employees were portrayed – during the first half of the film, there is an uprising against the Americans after the locals learn that a terrible accident at one of the company's oil rigs, which could have been prevented, has claimed the lives of a few workers; there are also scenes where Bill O'Brien (William Tubbs, Cento piccole mamme), the man who runs the company, utters all sorts of controversial lines that were consequently cut by the censors. The political overtones (which, by the way, are anything but controversial nowadays) however, are not what transform The Wages of Fear into a great film. It is the raw intensity of the narrative and unusually strong characters that separate The Wages of Fear from the majority of the films that were produced during the 50s. Something else that also makes The Wages of Fear an unusual film is the fact that none of the main characters are likable. They are all given plenty of opportunity to impress and become heroes, but there is something about them, something very creepy, that does not encourage the audience to side with them. There is a good reason why Clouzot filmed his characters as described above. It allowed the French director to constantly misplace their strengths and weaknesses in a manner that left the audiences guessing, unsure how to deconstruct their actions (look closely at Mario and Jo's relationship from the first half of the film and compare it to their relationship from the second half). The finale is cold and brutal. It is also very much in sync with the film's intense tone and desire to provoke. Many critics believe that it was meant as another thinly veiled jab at American culture and the type of reality Hollywood was promoting through its films. Maybe it was, but, as I noted earlier, The Wages of Fear did not need to redeem itself as a political film. This is yet another solid Blu-ray release from Criterion. I suppose, at this point, we could safely assume that the US distributors will be very consistent with their output. Frankly, seeing the dramatic improvements each of their Blu-ray transfers has revealed thus far, I think that if one is truly interested in building a serious film library, one cannot but collect each and everyone of these discs. Recommended. Cast Notes: Yves Montand (Mario), Charles Vanel (M. Jo), Folco Lulli (Luigi), Peter van Eyck (Bimba [as Peter Van Eyck]), Véra Clouzot (Linda [as Vera Clouzot]), William Tubbs (Bill O'Brien), Darío Moreno (Hernandez [as Dario Moreno]), Jo Dest (Smerloff), Antonio Centa (Camp Chief [as Centa]), Luis De Lima (Bernardo), Grégoire Gromoff), Joseph Palau-Fabre), Faustini), Seguna), Darling Légitimus), [as Miss Darling]). IMDb Rating (12/06/15): 6.2/10 from 7,647 users
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