RottenTomatoes.com
Log In | Register | What is RT?
RT's Blu-ray HQ
  • Home
  • Movies
  • DVD
  • Celebrities
  • News
  • Critics
  • Trailers & Pictures
  • CommunityBeta
  • Box Office
  • | In Theaters
  • | Opening
  • | Upcoming
  • | Best Of
  • | Certified Fresh
  • | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
help icon Enhanced RT
searches on Google
Click here to turn on enhanced search results from RT on your Google searches.
 
Movies / On DVD / The Wages of Fear
The Wages of Fear

Rate this Movie Help Icon

  • Write a Review
  • Read Reviews
  • Add to List
  • Get this Movie
  • Buy Poster External Icon
Bookmark and Share

The Wages of Fear (1952)

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
100 %
Tomatometer
Template ImageTemplate ImageTemplate Image

How does the Tomatometer work Help Icon

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... 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 and dusty Central American village, there's only one thing to do: dream of getting out. An opportunity for escape presents itself -- but only to those with nerves of steel. An American oil company has offered to pay big bucks to get two trucks filled with nitroglycerin over to a well fire. The catch: the unpaved terrain contains enough bumps and crags to make the unstable material explode... and instantly kill the driver. Nonetheless, the company has many applicants hungry for work, and a quartet of the coolest are chosen. But even these stalwart men will discover that fear of their deadly payload can ignite even the most frozen emotions. [More]

Starring: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Vera Clouzot, Peter Van Eyck

Starring: Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Vera Clouzot, Peter Van Eyck, Folco Lulli, William Tubbs

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Screenwriter: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Producer: Raymond Borderie, Henri-Georges Clouzot
Composer: Georges Auric

[See More Credits]

Get This Movie

Rent DVD
 
 

Click on the "ADD" button to put this movie into your Netflix queue.

 
 
Buy DVD
 
 
Release:

Apr 21, 2009

[DVD Details]
 
 

Blu-ray Disc Features:

  • Region [unknown]
  • Full Frame - 1.33

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono - English
  • Subtitles - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Comparisons: Censored - Analysis Of Cuts Made For 1955 U.S. Film Release
  • Documentary: Henri-Georges Clouzot: The Enlightened Tyrant - 2004

Interviews:

  • 1. Yves Montand, Actor - 1988
  • 2. Michel Romanoff, Assistant Director
  • 3. Marc Godin, Henri-Georges Clouzot Biographer

Additional Products:

  • Booklet - Dennis Lahane, Novelist - Essay
 
 
 
 

Reviews for The Wages of Fear

  • T-Meter Critics
  • Top Critics
  • RT Community
  • My Critics
  • My Friends
  • DVD
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

No review available.

comment Comment
07/30/02
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

One of the all-time great truck movies.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
01/01/00
Kathleen Maher
Kathleen Maher
Austin Chronicle

An extraordinarily gripping thriller from Henri-Georges Clouzot that establishes and maintains a level of tension rarely equalled elsewhere in cinema.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
04/24/09
Channel 4 Film

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.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
03/01/07
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film's extended suspense sequences deserve a place among the great stretches of cinema.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
01/01/00
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

When 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

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
09/25/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion

A perfect blend of suspense and social satire.

comment Comment
12/12/06
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
ColeSmithey.com

No review available.

comment Comment
06/03/04
Arthur Lazere
Arthur Lazere
culturevulture.net
N/R

A certified classic with one of the most famous plots in film history.

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
02/13/01
culturevulture.net

"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.

Full Review Source: Daily Radar | comment Comment
04/13/09
Cole Smithey
Cole Smithey
Daily Radar

No review available.

comment Comment
07/25/02
Scott Weinberg
Scott Weinberg
eFilmCritic.com

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.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
04/06/07
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

A nail-biting drama that's a must-see.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
03/01/07
Patrick Peters
Patrick Peters
Empire Magazine

No review available.

comment Comment
06/26/04
Jake Euker
Jake Euker
F5 (Wichita, KS)

No review available.

comment Comment
10/06/05
Chuck O'Leary
Chuck O'Leary
Fantastica Daily

The Wages of Fear is a frantic, vicious, existentialist howl that still manages to laugh; it goes grinning into the void.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
10/17/05
Chris Barsanti
Chris Barsanti
Filmcritic.com

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]

Full Review Source: Groucho Reviews | comment Comment
04/19/09
Peter Canavese
Peter Canavese
Groucho Reviews

No review available.

comment Comment
08/22/03
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

One of the all-time great exercises in tension

comment Comment
09/10/04
Jon Niccum
Jon Niccum
Lawrence Journal-World

One of the most suspenseful films ever made.

comment Comment
07/25/02
Chuck Rudolph
Chuck Rudolph
Matinee Magazine
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by source)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
See All

More DVDs

Close
Top Rentals
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
14% 14% The Ugly Truth
98% 98% Up
36% 36% G.I. Joe: The Rise of …
52% 52% The Taking of Pelham 1…
45% 45% Ice Age: Dawn of the D…

More Rentals…

New On DVD This Week
Tomatometer Percentage Movie
32% 32% Terminator Salvation
44% 44% Night at the Museum: B…
86% 86% A Christmas Tale
60% 60% Paper Heart

More New Releases…

See All

RT On Current TV

The Rotten Tomatoes Show on Current TV

DIRECTV 358 | Comcast 107 | DISH Network 196 | More...

Learn how you can be part of the show

More...

What’s Hot On RT

Nine Pictures

Nine Pictures

Hottest poster ever? 14 pictures from Nine

Disney Countdown

Disney Countdown

Look back on Disney's best animated movies!

RT's Gift Guide

RT's Gift Guide

Give the best movies, gear, and more!

Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman

See what her 10 best reviewed films are!

Other News

Close
  • Top Stories
  • Popular
  • Interviews
 
 

Comments

 
 
Top Stories
Headlines Comments
  
  • Don't Hold Your Breath for Hancock 2 Source: HitFix
12
  • Peter Berg Talks Battleship Source: CHUD
0
  • Summit Ponders Twilight Finale Source: Variety
102
  • First Look at Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Source: USA Today
36
  • Jeremy Renner Talks Hawkeye Possibilities Source: Superhero Hype
14
  • Todd Phillips Talks The Hangover 2 Source: Entertainment Weekly
18
  • Tron Legacy Duo Heading into The Black Hole Source: Hollywood Reporter
9
  • First Iron Man 2 Poster Released Source: Yahoo! Movies
80
  • Ryan Reynolds Talks Green Lantern Source: MTV
16
  • Paul Greengrass Quits Fourth Bourne Source: The Playlist
36
Popular
Headlines Comments
  
  • Ban Them All! 10 Infamously Controversial Movies
98
  • Friday Harvest: The Road, Avatar, and more!
96
  • 5 Facts About The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
91
  • Box Office Guru Wrapup: Vampires and Football Break Thanksgiving Records
35
  • Weekly Ketchup: Zombieland 2 in 3D?
28
  • Total Recall: Natalie Portman's Best Movies
25
  • Five Favorite Films with Jesse Ventura
19
  • RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: Terminator Salvation and a Smithsonian Battle
18
  • Duncan Jones Reteams With Kevin Spacey
5
  • Mulholland Dr. Tops Time Out's 50 Best of the Decade
0
Interviews
Headlines Comments
  
  • "I Don't Hate Women": Lars von Trier on Antichrist
17
  • Eric Bana talks Love the Beast - RT Interview
11
  • Fight Club Sound Designer Reflects on Film's 10th Anniversary
21
  • James Schamus talks Taking Woodstock - RT Interview
8
  • John Hurt Talks Harry Potter, Quentin Crisp and Alien - The RT Interview
15
  • Terry Gilliam Talks Doctor Parnassus
22
  • Wes Anderson Talks Fantastic Mr. Fox - RT Interview
9
  • Wolverine Creator Len Wein Talks About the Film
28
  • Gavin Hood Talks Wolverine; Possible Sequel
28
  • Duncan Jones talks Moon, Sam Rockwell, and Mute
14
 
 

Sponsored Links

Around The Network

  • The Wages of Fear at Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh Links

Featured
Wes Anderson on Fox
Wes Anderson on Fox External Link

The director talks about puppetry perfection and his film, Fantastic Mr. Fox

Animated Oscar?
Animated Oscar? External Link

Hollywood.com ponders whether or not an animated film could win Best Picture.

TIME's Holiday Movie Preview
TIME's Holiday Movie Preview External Link

Richard Corliss previews the season's best offerings and hottest tickets.

Scenic Routes
Scenic Routes External Link

The AV Club's Mike D'Angelo airs his beefs with Alfonso Cuaron's Children of Men.

Promos
Follow RT on Twitter
Follow RT on Twitter External Link

Get the latest Tomatometer updates on upcoming movies!

 
 
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Games| Celebs List| Newsletter
IGN Logo

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive | Green Pixels


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2009, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.