Synopsis: Four guys with nothing to lose drive 2 trucks of nitroglycerin across mountain roads
Director: H G Clouzot
Actors: Yves Montand, Vera Clouzot, Charles Vanel
Date: 1948
How viewed: already in my collection
Rating: 4/5
David Meyer says:
With his single lens, unmoving camera, and apparent determination to kill his cast, Clouzot merges the pre-war action extravaganza with the post-war personal statement picture.
I say:
This takes an awfully long time to get going, as the first half of the film just records the day to day existence of a bunch of guys who have somehow finished up in a back of beyond town in South America and don't have the money, passports, visas or wherewithal to get out. There's a lot of bitching about the local American oil company, until one of their wells 300 miles away catches fire and they offer a bucket load of money to recruit 4 drivers to take 2 truckloads of nitroglycerin taken there to blow out the fire (remember how Red Adair used to do that every week a few decades ago..). But once the drive starts the tension builds up incessantly. Predictably rivalries emerge and everything can go wrong does, and the good guy survives, but it's still a great roller coaster ride. Interesting connections with Speed (at one point they have to drive at a consistent 40mph), 2001 (the truck and the townsfolk waltzing to Strauss), and the Italian Job (those treacherous mountain roads..), and I kept thinking of that road in Peru - I found this but almost can't watch it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0153h6s/Worlds_Most_Dangerous_Roads_Peru/
aargghhhhh.....
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