The Wages of Fear (1952)
Tomatometer
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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
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Reviews for The Wages of Fear
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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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 |
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An extraordinarily gripping thriller from Henri-Georges Clouzot that establishes and maintains a level of tension rarely equalled elsewhere in cinema. Full Review |
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3/4 |
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. Full Review |
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4/4 |
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 |
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A+ |
"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 |
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A |
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 |
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5/5 |
A nail-biting drama that's a must-see. Full Review |
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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 |
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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. Full Review |
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5/5 |
A perfect blend of suspense and social satire.
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A reeking bandana movie, with all the expected thrills, but a vision of men as scurrying insects with no redeeming features. Full Review |
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3.5/5 |
[An] existential suspense classic. Full Review |
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5/5 |
The Wages of Fear is a frantic, vicious, existentialist howl that still manages to laugh; it goes grinning into the void. Full Review |
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4/5 |
No review available.
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A |
Clouzot's camera captures the suspense as visually as Hitchcock Full Review |
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5/5 |
One of the all-time great exercises in tension
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4/5 |
No review available.
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5/5 |
No review available.
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5/5 |
No review available.
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4/5 |
No review available.
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