The Wages of Fear is no popcorn film. It is a thriller for which
when you turn around a corner after a sweaty struggle, you get a new insight
about human nature. This black-and-white film is indeed a piece of gem, if you
are willing to understand its context in an Existentialist perspective, which
focuses on the question, ‘What is the meaning of one’s existence?’
We all come to this world alone. Culture may bind us
together somehow, yet when it comes to the questions of being, and thus the
meaning of life, no one can help you to confront this responsibility. It is you
who have to answer the question yourself, and to find out your own, unique
response. As Sartre has famously put it, ‘Hell is other people’. Others may
help you or inspire you to find the ultimate answer, but you have to have the
courage to stand up to the absurdity so inherent in human nature. In ‘The Wages
of Fear’, all the 4 males had very their unique characters, and these
differences led to tension and eventually conflicts throughout the perilous
journey. Yet the ultimate nemesis was not each other – that was their own fear,
the questions of life that they were pushed to answer. They might be sitting
next to each other on the trucks, yet they all had to confront their very own
fear, as a bunch of lone warriors. When it comes to the case of existence, it
is individual action that counts. Jo certainly appreciated this in a shallow
way. He was smart enough to believe that, in the game of life, one had to
pretend to be tough, to at least give an edge to himself when in conflict with
others. It might be true, yet when the battle was against the strong clutches
of nature, that was the first time he experienced real fear, and the infidelity
in his psyche.
The arrangement of putting the 2 strong guys (Mario and Jo)
and the 2 more mellow guys (Bimba and Luigi) in different trucks, I suppose,
was deliberate by Clouzot. Since he did not want any sort of ‘balancing
effect’ in here, which would lead to 2 active / reactive pairs and thus diminished
the tension in each compartments. Another great aspect of the film is, the
suspense certainly grounds on anticipation. Just when you show a sign of relief
when one obstacle has been cleared, another is waiting for you around the
corner! Yet what is great, as far as the audience is concerned, is that each
corner pops out a new humanistic insight.
The various challenges in ‘The Wages of Fear’ may sound ludicrous,
yet the implications behind all these bumps and jolts are more than mere pass-the-time-cold-jokes
. Each round represents the distilled essence of the philosophical wisdom of
Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, and the other wise men in human history.
The last laugh, after all, may just be a really nervous one.
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| Dare you getting closer. The 2 trucks almost crash. |
Making Mario and Jo seating at the narrowest arrangement possible
is already unleashing a pressure-cooking situation, and asking them to drive
the truck following Bimba and Luigi is one is even more nerve-crackling. You
see, the two hot heads were always trying to prove themselves, and fed their self-esteem
by exhibiting their physical caliber. Without fully grasping the driving style
yet, they furiously steered their engines and always got the big metal beast
travel a bit too fast. Certainly, by picking up a monstrous momentum of the
truck, Mario and Jo could almost ensure a big crash with the other truck and
resulted in a soul-shattering explosion, wiping them all off the map. As it
seems, sheer power is not enough for the complex game of existence. This
scenario reminds me of Arthur Schopenhauer's 'hedgehog's dilemma'. The hedgehog
is a nice guy, he wants to be friendly. But can we get close? Except we are
ready to be stabbed by the spines on its body! To Schopenhauer, this symbolizes
his view on human relationships. When we need the will to get closer to others around us, it is still important to keep a
distance. This is what we call 'moderation'. Not only for driving
nitroglycerine-loaded trucks or making friends, it seems that this wisdom is
applicable to so many aspects of our lives. And, this also addresses to
Sartre’s idea. Only by keeping a distance, one will be able to appreciate his
own importance, and be responsible for all the decisions he has made in his
life, a direction towards a more authentic existence. To be a great human, it is
indeed an art.
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| On the edge. |
After the quartet has managed not to crash with each other,
have they passed the test? Not quite. The next challenge involved a rough
stretch of un-travelable roads and culminated at the 'washboard', a bridge that
could just collapse with the lightest weight hanging on it. Absurd may it seem,
it serves as the imagery of life on some many levels. First, it expresses the
sentiment of the 'on-the-edge' feeling through the waves of challenges that greet
us throughout our lives. While you are looking at the finish-line, the big
question is, do you have the caliber to stroll through the bridge before it
collapses? That is the legendary
'abyss', which is a symbol present in many movies. From James Stewart hanging
on with his acrophobia in Hitchcock's 'Vertigo', to Rick Deckard holding on to
prevent his demise in 'Blade Runner', all these scenes are the most confrontational
to the audience. These are the images that challenge the viewers to a 'game of
death', to bluff them and see who is ready to go one step further. On the road
to success, don't you find that the rope becomes tighter as you are closer to
the finishing line? This also reiterates Schopenhauer's wisdom on the issue -
to be moderate, and to develop a sense of self-control, can be the ultimate secret
to achievement, or at least, an authentic life. Speaking of the abyss, it also reminds me of my hero, Friedrich
Nietzsche, and one of his most ambivalent and iconic quotes - the 'monster and
abyss' statement.
'He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he
thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will
also gaze into thee.'
Similar to most of great old Fritz's quotes, this one
invites multiple interpretations, and I would like to offer mine and state how
it fits into 'The Wages of Fear'. The reason why we perceive to be 'looking at
the abyss' is because we see as ourselves as the 'subject', and of course, the
abyss is the 'object'. This mindset seems to originate from an old belief that we
can control our fate as we are intelligent and we stand at the center of the
world, thus 'we can be good' by being active to influence others etc.
Unfortunately, we have forgotten human's true position in the universe, and
indeed that can be pretty insignificant. These are the bloating statements that
lead us to believe ourselves as the masters of the universe, and not truly
appreciating the meaning of our existence. Nietzsche's intention may be to
deconstruct the whole notion of 'subject / object', as, what he believes, the
monster fighter is 'becoming' the monster himself. We all have our dark sides,
and there is no way we can hide it. There is a point that we, the heroes, will
have to face our darker aspects. Only then we can truly understand ourselves
and reward with self-knowledge. As you will soon discover, this section can
actually be a nice organizing symbol for the message behind the whole story. As
the men were struggling through the threatening horizons, the demons and dark
sides of themselves were unleashed from their inner psyches. And, unfortunate
for these guys, their worst sides counted on the score sheet of life, too.
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| The duality of the human condition. |
Next time : The End Game that ends it all.
(2/3)
by Ed Law
14/9/2015
Film Analysis - 56
