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The Wages of Fear

Le salaire de la peur

1953

H.G. Clouzot

Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Véra Clouzot, Peter van Eyck ...

8.1

10,320

Adventure. Thriller. Drama In a wretched 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.

	Author	Review
United States	Joshua Rothkopf Time Out	"[Hitchcock's] bomb-under-the-table suspense formula burnished to an expert sheen (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Tribune	"One of the most deeply and disturbingly nihilistic films ever made, as well as one of the most heart-pounding thrillers on record"	POS
United States	Variety	"A harrowing odyssey (...) puts this in the strong meat department with a downbeat theme of fear and its manifestations."	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"This grueling pile driver of a movie will keep you on the edge of your seat."	POS
United States	Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"The excitement derives entirely from the awareness of nitroglycerine and the gingerly, breathless handling of it. You sit there waiting for the theatre to explode."	POS
United Kingdom	David Thomson The Guardian	"'The Wages of Fear' has no superior in the field of action-suspense"	POS
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"The film's extended suspense sequences deserve a place among the great stretches of cinema (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Kim Newman Empire	"Clouzot achieves an analysis of the human condition at least as bleak as Huston's 'The Treasure Of The Sierra Madre' but without the grandstanding speeches and with more subtle performances (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Budd Wilkins Slant	"Clouzot lavishes his attention on the always frangible equilibrium of the group dynamic (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS

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