An extraordinarily gripping thriller from Henri-Georges Clouzot that establishes and maintains a level of tension rarely equalled elsewhere in cinema.
Comment
04/24/09
The Wages of Fear (1952)
100
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:35
Fresh:35
Rotten:0
Average Rating:8.8/10
Consensus: An existential suspense classic, The Wages of Fear blends nonstop suspense with biting satire; its influence is still being felt on today's thrillers.
Runtime: 2 hrs 28 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: Henri Georges Clouzot directed this tense and suspenseful drama about four men so desperate for freedom that they willingly risk their lives to deliver a dangerous cargo. In a small, isolated, hot... [More]
Starring: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Vera Clouzot, Peter Van Eyck
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Reviews for The Wages of Fear
Top CriticA nail-biting drama that's a must-see.
03/01/07
Top CriticA reeking bandana movie, with all the expected thrills, but a vision of men as scurrying insects with no redeeming features.
01/26/06
Top CriticWhen contrabandists become businessmen and human life is blown away as simply as the tobacco in a half-rolled cigarillo, heroism and grace are notions that wither in the heat
09/25/09
Now seems much less like Salt of the Earth-as-a-potboiler and a lot more like the spiritual godfather to every testosterone-fuelled thrill ride since.
04/20/09
A classic suspense film...also the screen equivalent of a classic existentialist drama...The chemical reaction Clouzot gets from these genres is pure dynamite. [Blu-ray]
04/19/09
"Wages of Fear" is an uncompromising parable about money, greed, and man's jealous desire for that which he can never have. Yves Montand is outstanding in this gritty and unrelentingly suspenseful picture.
04/13/09
One of the best existential thrillers ever made, Clouzot's 1952 film, which won the Cannes Fest Palme d'Or, is just as fresh, suspenseful, gritty and haunting today as it was decades ago; good companion piece to Clouzot's Diabolique.
04/06/07
A significant influence on Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, this grueling pile driver of a movie will keep you on the edge of your seat.
03/01/07
A harrowing odyssey of four derelicts inching two trucks loaded with nitro-glycerine over a tortuous terrain puts this in the strong meat department with a downbeat theme of fear and its manifestations.
03/01/07
Top CriticA perfect blend of suspense and social satire.
12/12/06
[An] existential suspense classic.
10/29/05
The Wages of Fear is a frantic, vicious, existentialist howl that still manages to laugh; it goes grinning into the void.
10/17/05
No review available.
10/06/05
Clouzot's camera captures the suspense as visually as Hitchcock
09/09/05
One of the all-time great exercises in tension
09/10/04
No review available.
06/26/04
No review available.
06/03/04
No review available.
05/14/04
No review available.
08/22/03
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