The Wages of Fear

The tension is unbearable in this nail-biting adventure, as two trucks full of nitroglycerin are driven over 300 miles of inhospitable Latin American terrain in order to help extinguish an oilfield fire. But, for all it says about courage and endurance, this is also a grindingly cynical study of human nature, with each participant willing to sacrifice the others for a bigger payoff. Dramatising Georges Arnaud's novel, director Henri-Georges Clouzot wisely spends time shading in the background detail, which intensifies the excitement of the action by drenching it in a sweaty, anti-Hawksian spirit of rivalry. Unusually winning top prizes at both Cannes and Berlin, this is cinema's most suspenseful condemnation of capitalism.