adrian-43767 Here is a masterpiece that only recently received much deserved restoral treatment. Criterion have done a great job of cleaning it, bringing out the stark but splendid photography. Clouzot's direction is immaculate, the acting - especially by Vanel and Montand - is superlative, the action sequences are taut, credible and masterpieces of tension, and dialogue is crisp, logical and even darkly humorous at times.There is some controversy about the ending, which some feel is unnecessarily bleak. Perhaps so, but everything in this film about lost souls who will do anything, even put their lives in extreme danger, to make a buck in a God-forsaken part of Venezuela, points to that end. The film's great merit is that it is never predictable, only logical.There has never been a better film in this specific type of adventure laced with social comment. The behavior of the US oil company in relation to workers, local population, and incidentally hired personnel remains true. This masterpiece is well ahead of 1953.

Anon Ymous I absolutely loved this film. First off, the tension must be acknowledged. This is a true edge-of-your-seat film once it gets to the meat. Bsic plot summary; a group of men are stuck in a dead-end town in South America. They have no jobs, no money, no escape and no hope. The town is chained to the American oil company nearby. An sudden explosion at a derrick requires a powerful explosion to extinguish it, and a huge amount of nitroglycerin is the only solution. The only catch; someone needs to deliver a large amount to the remote rig. The job is near-suicidal, so they offer a large sum of money to those in the town who are brave enough to do it. Ultimately, four men are chosen from the town to deliver the incredibly dangerous cargo to the raging oil fire at prices that will deliver the desperate men from their misery in the dying town. Two teams of two men are tasked with driving gallons of unstable chemicals across impossibly rough and dangerous terrain. The slightest wrong move will end their lives in an instant. At face value, this could carry a film on it's own. The washboard scene alone, only a few films have managed to put me on such edge. The rock demolishing scene is another incredibly intense scene; pouring the nitroglycerin into the hole; the fear and risk is absolutely palpable, a credit to the excellent acting, direction and editing. The switchback scene, also, is a memorable event.But, and maybe more importantly, after the initial impact of the plot, you really get into the characters of the film. To me, the most fascinating character was Jo; we are introduced to him as a incredibly self-assured, in-control alpha male who knows how to handle any situation he encounters. The show-down at the cantina solidifies this image. We see Jo as the superior to Mario; a father figure who we expect to lead his younger compatriot. But as the film progresses, the roles switch as we see him for what he truly his; a fearful, risk-averse, cowardly old man. This character progression is so central to the action of the film. We experience what the average person might go through in a similar scenario, we see our weaker side in him when he flees the collapsing wooden bridge. We feel his defeat at the stronger personality of Mario at the crucial moment We understand his utter, fatalist acceptance of his true nature as a flawed human being. Which, at the end, makes his lat scenes so devastatingly powerful. We identify so strongly with him in the face of such impossible odds that it makes his ultimate fate so devastating; he sacrifices himself for his partner despite his numerous failings and the touching finality between the two masterfully brings the two characters together in the most realistically human of ways.I find the ending a bit melodramatic, a little rushed and frankly a little cliched. I won't spoil the ending but I felt like I knew what was going to happen before he even took the wheel of the truck to head home. This is probably my only gripe with an otherwise spectacular film.I'll admit, I find a lot of films from this era hackneyed and melodramatic.This one absolutely blew me away. An absolute classic. Great storytelling, excellent directing, masterful acting for the most part (Linda, imo, overacted a bit and seemed to be unnecessary to the story beyond a stereotypical love interest), gripping tension and a great study on how humans are in the most dire of situations

morrison-dylan-fan Since becoming a fan of his work after seeing the astonishing 1949 movie Manon,I was thrilled to spot a 3 disc boxset of auteur film maker Henri-Georges Clouzot on Amazon UK. Struggling to decide which one to watch first,I found an excellent review on IMDb's Film Noir board,which led to me putting all my wages on fear.The plot:Stuck in a dead end town, Mario,Jo, Bimba and Luigi try to make ends meet,as a big US corporation (boo!) controls the nearby oil fields. Taking part in "shady" dealings,the company gets a tight grip on the town,which forces the people to stay silent over the abuses,due to it offering the only jobs in town.Discovering that one of the oil fields has erupted,the company decide that the only way to stop it is to use nitroglycerine.Going round town offering a handful of cash,the company grab the attention of ex-gangster Jo,the quiet Bimba,the quick-witted Mario and the warm, hard working Luigi. Getting told that they have to drop the nitroglycerine off to the oil field in trucks,the gang soon discover one major,risky problem:the oil field is 300 miles away on a road of death.View on the film:Flying in at 2 and a half hours,co-writer/(along with Jérôme Géronimi) director Henri-Georges Clouzot (who broke a leg whilst filming) and cinematographer Armand Thirard sink the trucks into an engulfing Film Noir atmosphere,where low-lighting allows the smallest glimmer of hope to be seen in the town. Keeping a close eye on every turning of the wheels,Clouzot brilliantly uses tightly held,lingering shots to build a mood brimming with anxiety over the title.Stomping down the Film Noir road, Clouzot makes every sharp turn land with an unrelenting thump,by blazing down scorching hot whites with mud and grit gathering every drop of sweat,which is burnt away by the oily Film Noir doom being lit on the horizon.Piped down from Georges Arnaud's novel,the screenplay by Clouzot and Géronimi beautifully spends the first hour giving the viewer an opportunity to (almost) interact with each character,from Mario's abrasive,Film Noir loner nature, to Jo's sincere desire to drive by the Film Noir darkness. Expanding on one of his major themes drawn from the very beginning of his credits,Clouzot gives the characters an inability to escape from the Film Noir oil fields that they are driving into,by making each pedal pressed pull them all away from a paternally safe "stop point",into a decaying road of ruthless doom,paved with grubby cash. Grabbing the role after Jean Gabin turned it down for the character being a "coward", Charles Vanel gives an incredible performance as Mario,thanks to Vanel keeping Mario's humble roots shining as the oil of Film Noir streams over Jo and Mario. Crushed into a million pieces, Yves Montand gives an incredible performance as Mario,whose rough edged smile Montand chips away at to hit a Film Noir loner who will roll over anyone who gets in the way of a handful of cash,as Jo and Mario rage with fear.

philpho SPOILEROverall this is a classic, no doubt! There are some moments where a bit more attention to logic and detail would have hoisted it so much higher around attention risk and explosives.Why they are transporting Nitro long after Nobel had stabilised it to Dynamite is not clear. Seems it was made 'on site' after the Wells Fargo Office incident of 1866. A bit of Cirque Du Soleil wobbling on OHS nightmare planks whilst loading the goods by the 'workers' presages impending events. Generally though it holds up reasonably well until the boulder in the road.It takes much 'golly gosh darn why us?' before note they note they have explosives... (wow!) which would be the first choice of any road builder. Luigi hops up and 'drills a neat hole with a steel bar the size of a mans forearm in the time it takes Bimba who seems to know his stuff, to wobble precariously off the truck with a jerry can of Nitro, and set himself up for a Nitro Head Spliter by syphoning it orally. The 'rope' suspending the hammer is clearly safety fuse but logical they had some with the Nitro but no detonators. Not 'rope'. Now this is lit and suddenly they remember, having backed up the trucks, the 'rock rain'. Too late. This is where Gerard Depardieu in Jean De Florette wears it. Salaud! But given the size of the flask and the position in the sometime porous rock it would be unlikely to project upwards. And miraculously the road is clear bar a black patch of burnt ah... imagination. Now we get to the Luigi and Bimba crater. No sing of the truck or the guys: given blast is going down and forwards in respect of the truck. No metal nothing. They have I think 42 cans each assume 5 gallon each. So about 800 litres. One lunch thermos full produces blast 1 (rock) whilst 42 cans produces blast B. Um. Blast B looks about right sadly given in 2016 we have many Explosives in Truck Bombs in recent history to compare to.Pedantic? Perhaps but otherwise its brilliant. I recall 'Mario running down Jo' years ago as a kid. It stayed with me. OBriens voice in the office sounds like Daniel Plainview (There Will Be Blood 2007), and the sense of trapped listlessness in the town at the start echoes the despair in Heart of Darkness (Conrad) and recalls parts of The Passenger (Antonioni) and goes some way to explaining the behaviour of the characters. All filmed in France too.The ending? A 'moral ending' with the wages of xyz in his pocket was 'correct' if rather illogical & smacked of 'how can we finish this?' Mario oblivious to basic risk having survived the trauma of the scenario and killing Jo, then literally waltzes off the road with his money.Salaud! Oh yeah, the English subs on my version didn't quite reflect some of the abuse hurled in French. I have worked around but not with explosives in mining and have been in a 'rock rain'. A little attention to detail would have made this great movie 'complete'