Watched on Blu-Ray

Las Pietras, Venezuela. A dusty backwater in the middle of nowhere. Populated by homeless riffraff. Riffraff, day labourers, outcasts, always looking for a quick buck; packed with the faint hope of escaping this dreary misery in the South American nowhere as quickly as possible. No one seems heroic here, but they are all scarred by life. The prelude to "Le Salaire de la peur" (German title "Lohn der Angst"). The prelude to one of the most exciting films ever captured on celluloid. Henri-Georges Clouzot takes almost 45 minutes to introduce the audience to the important characters without fully revealing their characteristics. The great strength of "Le Salaire de la Peur" in the course of the story is therefore also the development of these characters, the emblematic credibility in terms of the changes they undergo in the face of mortal fears. When old hands suddenly get off their high horse and mark themselves as cowards, but in return the impressionable newcomer becomes the assertive rock in the surf.

A ride through hell could be the ticket to freedom. After said 45 minutes of introduction, the nitroglycerin-laden trucks are then saddled up and the word "suicide mission" seems to have been invented for this endeavour. "Le Salaire de la peur" is existentialism on four wheels. Every puddle could mean the end, around every bend the big dream could go up in flames and shred the surroundings with a bloodcurdling explosion. It goes without saying that the anti-American critique of capitalism is not neglected. But "Le Salaire de la peur" is an equally brilliant menage of physical borderline experience and the confrontation with human primal fears. Here, the men are not macho decals who always have a dry line on their lips and know how to help themselves throughout; the ambivalence in each individual decides. And to achieve the goal, former friendships are also rolled over in a swampy bath of oil.

The further the vices roll into their (un)happiness, the more Clouzot knows how to tighten the tension screws and - superficially - stylise simple matters into a real adrenaline rush. It gets more and more nerve-racking, the situation is consistently unpredictable, a clear sympathetic figure is conducively dispensed with, there are no heroes in this sense and who can really save themselves from this progressive suspense hell ride is up to the last minute in the stars veiled by exhaust fumes. "Le Salaire de la peur" has its humorous interludes, but remains a grim and exhausting ride through a nightmarish scenario in which one's life is put at risk for paltry money and it is not the notes that are the attraction, but the opportunity they offer people. And now, to bring the superlative mudslinging to a fitting end: First-class, authoritative, consistent, impossibly exciting cinema, in which the sweaty oil film seems to literally taste on the tongue and does not rely on templates, but gives the characters a profile. A must-see.