Le Salaire de la peur / The Wages of Fear (1953, 1955 USA): directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot; based on the novel Le Salaire de la peur (1950) by Georges-Jean Arnaud, better known as a science fiction writer. The movie version unfolds like an archetypal existentialist tale set in a place brutally dominated by an American oil corporation somewhere in Latin America.
Terrific (and long) film starring a deliberately interational and therefore more universal cast, including the great Yves Montand, Peter van Eyck, Folco Lulli, Charles Vanel, WIlliam Tubbs and Véra Clouzot. Mistakenly criticized for being anti-American; Clouzot (and Arnaud) were not that provincially-minded. Rather, anti-corporate Leviathan and quite existentialist.
The desperados sign up to drive two heavy trucks carrying volatile nitroglycerin because they need the money and risk their lives to get it. Their cargo is supposed to help put out a violent oil fire via explosive countermeasures. Their character is revealed before and during this high-stakes task-for-hire.
Transnational corporate hegemony trumps local interests.
What else can you do? The road to hell is slick with petroleum. Follow the pipeline!
Trouble along the way -- an explosion disrupts the pipeline. Oil spews forth . . .
Today's Rune: Wholeness.
3 comments:
I believe I may have seen this years and years ago. It sounds very familiar.
I've got both this one and William Friedkin's remake, "Sorcerer" coming up on my Netflix queue.
So much for "Drill, baby, drill," huh?
Aw Erik, I just cannot do the sci fi thing, although Charles had taught me a little appreciation!
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