A few minutes after I saw this french movie an amusing thought struck me.
Remember Nintendo's most popular game console 'super mario brothers'?
The 2 lead game characers-Mario and Luigi,brothers in arms, must travel through various zones,every second step laced with peril, and death looming just around the corner.
Their goal is to cross all the zones and save the Damsel in distress,a princess.
Ever wondered why there's no brave prince that tries to save the princess' life??
Well ...that's the same rhetoric that French director Henri-Georges Clouzot’s controversial 1953 masterpiece "Wages of fear (Le Salaire de la peur)" poses to us.
The damsel in distress,and schizophrenically,the gutless prince depicted is USA,or more specifically an exploitative american oil company-SOC(southern oil corp) which has oil wells in South America.
There is a raging fire in the oil wells and a precarious mission is to be undertaken to curb further damages.
SOC is unwilling to risk the lives of Americans and thus decides to seek out non-US candidates who are willing to put their lives on line to earn some dollars.This seemingly negative portrayal of the US led to a lot of snipping before the film released in the states,I read.
By some weird coincidence 2 of the lead characters in the movie are also named Mario and Luigi.
The initial setting:Las Piedras,an isolated South American town where poverty is slowly taking its toll and the unpardoning sun beats down to dehydrate the hopes and dreams of the unfortunate souls trapped in it.As a line in the movie goes: "It’s like a prison here. Easy to get in. But no exit. If you stay, you croak".
The townsfolk,apart from the natives consist of a motley crew of desperate,out-of-work men,the four main protagonists being two frenchman:Mario-a cigarette smoking,Bogart-type character whos lookin for any kinda break to help him get out;
Jo -an out of luck bootlegger,who finds himself stranded in the town;
an ex-Nazi,Bimba, who's fled Germany and Luigi-the typical amiable and passionate Italian who shares a room with Mario.
These four form a band of brothers who are chosen by the americans from SOC to set out on the seemingly doomed mission:to transport 2 trucks loaded with containers of Nitro Glycerine, to the oil wells to blow up the pipelines in an effort to curb the fire that is raging in the wells.
The wages on offer: 2000 $ each...but more importantly,freedom from the suffocation of atrophic smalltown life with no salvation in sight.Once the word is out a long queue gathers near the police station.
The American cop in charge of the town warns them of the explosive nature of Nitro when he takes a drop and demonstrates the damage it can cause.It hardly unnerves any of the candidates except for one who walks out.All the others dont mind putting their lives on line.Two grand is too big an amount to pass up.
Eventually the 4 best drivers are chosen for the job.
Jo starts getting finicky about the trucks safety and suddenly has second thoughts but proceeds anyway and when the cop tells him that he is being payed a huge amount for the job he smirks and says "put my life on the line for what,Coca Cola...bah some deal"!!!
Mario is undettered even when the attractive barmaid from the local Salon,who loves him,pleads to him not to go.
Luigi who is suffering from a lung ailment and has few months left to live is desperate to get the money and go back to visit his family back home one last time.
Bimba whos been through the salt mines of the Nazis assures the others that this will be child's play.
Hence begins the perilous journey ,across the sloping mountains with barely-there roads,sharp turns and craters aplenty.
After the trucks have covered some distance, the initially cocky Jo tries to abandon his truckmate Mario,more than once but every time he either comes back after a change of mind or is forced to come back by Mario who chides him for his cowardice and convinces him that the 2 men need each other to see it through safely.
The other truck with Bimba and Luigi takes the lead after a point of time and in an ironic moment,the pair finds the road blocked by a fallen rock and Luigi wonders how to move it;the more enterprising Bimba suggests blowing it up to which Luigi asks "blow it up with what??".
The rest of the movie shows the further obstacles:of geography and of the mind, faced by the 2 trucks and the drivers. Eventually one truck does make it to the destination.
The screenplay is so gripping, not a minute goes by when you arent held spellbound in suspense,unlike in 'Speed' where you know Keanu Reeves was gonna save the passengers on the bus,get the girl and kill the baddie.That is Hollywood for you.But this is a French classic.So you're never quite sure of the events that will unfold.This is what makes it a great film.With repeated viewing you'll marvel how it is still edge-of-the seat stuff despite knowing what is bound to happen.