85
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Time OutJoshua RothkopfTime OutJoshua RothkopfHere's where it's easiest to see Clouzot's advantage over his more famous peer, as he combines nail-biting action scenes - calibrated to the millimeter - with a Hawksian command of earthy performances.
- 100Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThe film's extended suspense sequences deserve a place among the great stretches of cinema.
- 100ReelViewsJames BerardinelliReelViewsJames BerardinelliWages of Fear is the kind of motion picture for which commonplace phrases like "white-knuckle tension ride" have been coined.
- 100TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineExcellent, but nasty stuff.
- 100The A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloThe A.V. ClubMike D'AngeloDeriving endless anxiety from brawny men moving as gingerly as possible, it’s a riveting anti-action movie, one of the most memorable high-concept pictures ever made in Europe.
- 80Washington PostRita KempleyWashington PostRita KempleyA precursor of The Wild Bunch, it is an expertly directed, personally felt film.
- 78Austin ChronicleKathleen MaherAustin ChronicleKathleen MaherThis film, the inspiration for the less successful Sorcerer, is a textbook case of how to handle suspense. It has also been called the cruelest movie ever made and it certainly earns that title by the film's end.
- 75Slant MagazineEric HendersonSlant MagazineEric HendersonHenri-Georges Clouzot’s The Wages of Fear now seems much less like Salt of the Earth-as-a-potboiler and a lot more like the spiritual godfather to every testosterone-fueled thrill ride since.
- 70The New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe New York TimesBosley CrowtherThe excitement derives entirely from the awareness of nitroglycerine and the gingerly, breathless handling of it. You sit there waiting for the theatre to explode.
- 60Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumChicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumA significant influence on Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch, this grueling pile driver of a movie will keep you on the edge of your seat, though it reeks of French 50s attitude, which includes misogyny, snobbishness, and borderline racism.