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Le Salaire de la peur (1953)
Rate:
3
Viewed:
5/21
5/21:
Having seen Sorcerer plenty of times, I was hoping it wasn't a rip-off of Le Salaire de la peur which is
otherwise known as The Wages of Fear.
Now, I can rest easy because it's an insanely long, bad film. The first forty minutes is terrible because it's nothing
but fluff. I've been kept waiting for the conflict to begin. Once it does, I'm on the 300-mile trip. Then, the unbelievable
occurs: not much happens...just a lot of tension over nothing significant.
I don't understand what the four guys, who are barely fleshed out, are doing on a certain road that's bound to produce
vibrations or why they have to drive alongside the edge of an incomplete bridge. The ending, which feels multiple, is stupid,
and I blame Mario's death on his low-IQ behavior. Jo keeps complaining all the time when Mario should've kicked him off for good.
William Friedkin took several concepts from Le Salaire de la peur and then redid the whole thing by establishing how and
why these four characters ended up in a desolate Central America town. Then, he outlined the problems that they faced during the
road trip. The fate of each person was sad because I got to know them better and "impossible" wasn't part of their vocabulary.
Born with Humphrey Bogart looks and having made his mark as a popular cabaret singer, Yves Montand saves the film from being a total
clunker. It's the one that made him a huge international movie star. Henri-Georges Clouzot may have won a bunch of awards at
Cannes, but his next film Les diaboliques is much better.
Having performed all of the stunts, Véra Clouzot made her screen debut but did only three films in total
which were directed by her husband.
All in all, Sorcerer is everything that Le Salaire de la peur is not.