4 Stars (out of four)
I am creating this sub-series to Folken Movies, the Hidden Gems Series, and it is designed to highlight really good movies you may have missed for whatever reason. The idea is to introduce you to movies that I think you may like but have not seen. Some will be old, some new. Some obscure, others blockbusters. Some will be very different, others comfortable. Some may be for all ages, others strictly for adults. Some may challenge your sensibilities, others may be pure, escapist entertainment. Some may be silent classics, others color talkies. Some may be arthouse films, others Grindhouse films. But in all cases, I tried to find interesting movies that I liked and think you may find enjoyable, especially if you're looking for something to watch that's new or off the beaten path. They are all hidden gems to me, hopefully I helped you find a new, favorite movie or open you up to some of the amazing art that is all around us. So, without further ado, GEM NUMBER 1:
The Wages of Fear was the Die Hard of its day. It had great acclaim in Europe, being the first film ever to win the Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) in the Cannes Film Festival AND the Goldener Bär (Golden Bear) in the Berlin International Film Festival, the top prizes in Europe's two most prestigious film festivals. Even after heavy censorship due to perceived anti-American themes in the movie, it was one of the biggest successes of 1953. But for non-über geeky cinefiles, most people today have never heard of it. So, as the first in my new series of hidden gems, I would like to highlight this outstanding movie.
The film opens in a very small, impoverished town in the middle of Mexico, which seems to be the end of the line for people with no money and nowhere to go. Mostly, they are refugees from the ruins of Europe of post-WWII. There are Germans, English, Italians and French citizens, all with no money and trapped in a small dusty town in the middle of nowhere. In the photo below, it looks like they're all in jail.
An American oil company is the biggest and most desired employer in the area because the high-paying, but extremely dangerous jobs. Because of everyone's desperation, the company ruthlessly exploits them for dangerous duties for cheap wages without much consideration for their safety (sound familiar?). When an oil rig explodes and burns out of control, killing 14 of the men in town, the oil company hatches a plan to cheaply extinguish the fire. It hires two teams of drivers to drive two trucks filled with EXTREMELY volatile nitro glycerine with no safety equipment, including shocks for the trucks. The route is long, filled with treacherous, bumpy, narrow and mountainous undeveloped roads. One wrong bump or too much heat will kill them instantly, indeed, the trip is seen as suicidal. The rest of the film is a race against time and obstacles to get to the site quickly to extinguish the fire. What follows is a nail-biting suspense film over who will live, crack under pressure, or die.
One can see this movie casts a long shadow over thrillers that came after it, redefining the edge-of-your-seat thriller ever since. While it is a little slow by today's standards, once it gets going, it is quite a ride. There are a lot of unforgettable, sometimes horrifying images that sear into your brain and must have been a quite a shock for 1950s audiences. It was just as hard on the cast as well. The two leads both contracted conjunctivitis because of a scene they had to film covered in oil. Vera Clouzot, the female lead also got very sick during the production.
The film went way over budget and had to have a multi-month break in the middle for winter (it was shot in the south of France). Also, as a bonus, if you see the entire, uncut version of the film, it is an interesting European criticism on American expansionism. It is this criticism that resulted in most of the cuts. As the movie is European, specifically French, at a time when communism and the Soviet Union were ascendant, it would not surprise me in the least if there was at least some anti-American communist sensibilities sprinkled in by the filmmakers.
The first 30-45 minutes are very expository, existential and quite sexual for early 1950s America. A lot of this was also cut in the original American release.
There is also a lot of discussions of motivations which add context to the desperation the men who volunteer must have felt, knowing it is essentially a suicide mission. Because of this exploration, it makes the film so much more satisfying and complete compared to the vacuous fare of recent blockbuster films. These new films are essentially one, long chase scene, all flash and no substance. Movies like The Wages of Fear show that a thriller does not have to be dumb. Intelligent and thoughtful themes can be portrayed against an entertaining backdrop without losing their substance. I wish more films were like this, thoughtful but exciting affairs that aren't dumbed down to a PG-13 audience filled with kids and prudish adults, not just sound and thunder. And while there is occasionally superior fare like Gladiator, what we mostly get it FOUR Transformer movies and counting.
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