The Wages of Fear with Yves Montand: DVD Cover
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The Wages of Fear
a.k.a. Le Salaire De La Peur Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot Cast: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter Van Eyck, William Tubbs

DVD - 2 Disc Set - Black & White Learn more

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  • DVD Release Date: 10/25/2005
  • Original Release: 1953
  • Rating: Not Rated
  • Sales Rank: 2,190

Viewer Rating: (4 ratings)

Detailed Rating: "Visuals" See All

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Blu-ray - Special Edition / Subtitled / B&W$31.99

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Features

New, restored high-definition digital transfer; New and improved English subtitle translation; New video interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff and Henri-Georges Clouzot biographer Marc Godin; Interview with Yves Montand from 1988; "Henri-Georges Clouzot: The Enlightened Tyrant," a 2004 documentary on the director's career; "Censored," an analysis of cuts made to the film for the 1955 U.S. release; 24-page booklet featuring novelist Dennis Lehane and a compilation of interviews with the cast and crew of the film

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Scene Index

Disc #1 -- The Wages of Fear
1. Las Piedras [8:22]
2. Jo Arrives [7:19]
3. The Date [8:00]
4. Old Friends and Lovers [7:14]
5. Bar Brawl [5:46]
6. Victims [3:55]
7. Soc Recruits [5:50]
8. The Lucky Four [6:51]
9. Scared Stiff [7:20]
10. Linda Pleads [5:28]
11. Jo's Jitters [6:41]
12. Forty Miles Per Hour [:24]
13. Close Call [6:19]
14. Rotten Wood [4:55]
15. Jo Flees [5:35]
16. The Wages of Fear [8:04]
17. A Rock in the Road [4:59]
18. "Clear Out" [5:58]
19. A Presentable Corpse [7:07]
20. "I'm the Stonrgest" [5:53]
21. The Oil Pit [5:24]
22. Almost There [8:11]
23. The Reward [8:32]
24. Color Bars [3:38]
Disc #2 -- The Wages of Fear - Bonus Materials
1. Becoming a Filmmaker [7:14]
2. Wartime Films [7:35]
3. Shaping Actors [8:32]
4. The Wages of Fear [8:18]
5. Suspense Films [8:19]
6. La Vérité [5:41]
7. Clouzot's Vision [6:47]

Scene Index

Editorial Reviews

The ultimate road movie from hell, 1953's The Wages of Fear is a masterpiece of suspense with a brutal worldview. Trapped in a small, underdeveloped town in Central America, a group of European and American expatriates struggle to earn enough money to return home. When a raging fire erupts in an oilfield 300 miles away, the area's sole employer, the Southern Oil Company, devises a plan to contain the inferno that involves transporting two tons of nitroglycerine by truck over jagged terrain to the scene of the accident. The four men they hire for this extremely perilous mission -- a superb ensemble of Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Falco Lulli, and Peter Van Eyck -- are clearly in it for the money, and the company views them as expendable. Unlike most films using similar setups, though, director Henri-Georges Clouzot's isn't eager to turn his grimy quartet into heroes. Nor, though, is he interested in depicting the American oil company as anything but morally repugnant. This does nothing to detract from his brilliant control of the bleak odyssey that comprises the film's second half -- a study in suspense building that brings inevitable comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock's work. Shot to emphasize a sense of claustrophobic ennui and perfectly edited, this nail-biting drama delivers a poignant and pessimistic climax that leaves one feeling wrung, and thoroughly awed. Monica McIntyre, Barnes & Noble

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VINTAGE THRILLER STILL WORKS IN BLU-RAYby Cinemaniac

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April 21, 2009: VINTAGE "THE WAGES OF FEAR" STILL THRILLS IN BLU-RAY

Criterion's restored hi-def transfer of Henri-Georges Clouzot's controversial, visceral and prescient thriller still grabs the viewer by the throat for a breathless, nihilistic ride.

This iconic film of suspense and despair was deemed "evil" by Time magazine during its 1955 US release. Based on the harrowing 1950 book by George Arnaud, it's a cautionary tale of the true blood toll of oil and greed.

Filmed in 1951 and first shown in France in 1952, "The Wages of fear" (Le Salaire de la peur) is about four European men at the end of their ropes in a hell-hole of a South American village who accept a job from an American oil company to drive two trucks of unstable nitroglycerine along a treacherous mountain route to an oil fire.

Clouzot, who made less than a dozen films including the acclaimed "Les Diaboliques" and "Quai des orfevres" never flinches from his vision. Although the first half seems a bit unfocused and meandering as we get to know our characters, the squalid S.A. setting and the uncaring, greed-driven, business-as-usual of the American oil company, the movie literally jump starts when the four hapless men hit the road in their two trucks overloaded with nitro. We know these men. And we ride with them and their emotions. Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck and Antonio Centa are terrific as the frantic, fraught drivers.

There's a lot of post WW II existential angst in this tale and that's not surprising. After all, it is French and the ideas of Camus and Sartre permeate this film as they did the decade in which it was produced.

My only memory of this film was a washed out video tape copy with impossible to read subtitles and later a faded 16mm print in film school.

I've watched this Blu-ray version several times now and it is stunning. It looks like a print that just came from the lab. The black and white is crisp, with a wonderful range of grays, velvety shadows to silvery shimmers. And the subtitles are always easy to read and perfectly synched to the spoken French. The rhythm and meaning of the dialogue is not lost in the subtitles.

This gritty film, devoid of sentimentality, follows men who live in fear. They know death is coming and yet continue with the task at hand until the end. Although my personal philosophy is not that of the drivers, it reminded me to relish the precious moments of life and to live it fully, bravely and in the moment.

This is one in the rather small handful of great films in world cinema. It has never looked better. And it asks questions that are relevant today: How desperate are we in our need for oil? And what is the final price? Highest recommendation.

Superior extras include:

Interviews with assistant director Michel Romanoff, Clouzot biographer Marc Godlin and Yves Montand from 1988). A great documentary on Clouzot's career "The Enlightened Tyrant." "CENSORED," a revealing look at the cuts made for the initial 1955 U.S. release. And "No Exit," an insightful booklet/essay by novelist Dennis Lehane.

This review was written about the Blu-ray Special Edition / Subtitled / B&W edition.