While some critics have made it a point to comment on just how slow the film begins, I contend that this first hour is necessary not only insofar as it allows the audience to fully immerse themselves in the protagonists situatedness but it also serves as the foundation for one of the primary existential themes that permeates throughout the rest of the film, specifically, one’s capacity to experience freedom in such a cruel and indifferent world. In his critical essay on the film, Brian Eggert explains that within the cutscenes, “Clouzot establishes SOC as the local villains of Las Piedras and shows an international community to be victims of Western capitalism,… anti-American dialogue such as, “If there’s oil around, they’re not far behind,” was altogether removed” (Eggert 2008). “Wherever there’s oil, there’s Americans.”Ĭlouzot's treatment of the Southern Oil Company (SOC who, by no coincidence, shares initials with Rockefeller’s multinational corporation the Standard Oil Company) as well as his overall anti-American tone penetrated so deep that upon its release in the States, The Wages of Fear was censored for “length” having nearly fifty minutes edited out. O’Brien swiftly reminds him that, “Those bums don’t have any union or any families,” which is Clouzot's not-so-subtle way of communicating his hostility and contempt toward these types of companies who knowingly and in many cases intentionally treat developing countries and their citizens as mere means.
An unnamed company-man complains to O’Brien, protesting the use of “bums” to transport the highly volatile nitroglycerin which is needed to extinguish an oil fire on the other side of the mountain. While Clouzot’s political commentary is incessant throughout the film it isn’t until an exchange between the multinational oil corporations rather plump liaison Bill O’Brien (William Tubbs) and one of his colleagues that we begin to appreciate his complete and utter disdain for American imperialism and the destruction that it begets. Despite their vague introductions and distinct personas, the quartet all start from similar positions in the town and happen to be expendable enough for the American oil company to exploit with promises of a $2,000 paycheck upon completion of what is clearly a suicide mission. Absurdity as it relates to the characters’ endeavor to find happiness, success, or whatever they imagine awaits them on the other side of their mission.Īccompanying the aforementioned Frenchmen is the son of an Italian gangster and easily the most sympathetic character of the film Luigi (Folco Lulli) as well as the seemingly out of place, reticent German named Bimba (Peter Van Eyck). Subsequently Mario, still in conversation with Jo, accentuates ones existential suppositions exclaiming, “If you don’t get out, you croak.” With this line, among others, Clouzot not only depicts the feeling of desperation that consumes many of the townspeople but he also manages to impart upon the viewer a sense of the absurd. Though Clouzot never overtly communicates just how or why the characters are stranded in the town he makes it abundantly clear that no one in their right mind would settle there by choice. The three main characters in the play find themselves in the afterlife locked in a room with no exit which forces them to see themselves as objects from the view of other consciousness (Sartre 1992), a theme that manifests itself throughout the film. Yves Montand who plays Mario, the leading role, not so subtly explains the situation to Jo (Charles Vanel) stating, “Its like a prison here, easy to get in, make your self at home, but no exit!” This turn of phrase by Mario is striking insofar as it brings to mind Sartre’s one-act play “No Exit” ( Huis Clos). The first hour of the film takes place in the poverty-stricken Latin American town of Las Piedras where our main characters are presumably stranded lacking the means needed to escape.
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