Sorcerer

The idea of remaking Clouzot's Wages of Fear seems like both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it is quite likely that not many in the audience will have seen the former, and a curse because it is next to impossible to top the suspense of Clouzot's film. Wages of Fear has three or four of the most suspenseful and nail-biting scenes in film history, and the best director William Friedkin can hope for is to match them using very similar circumstances. The story involves four men in a small, South American village who our down on their luck. But fate steps in, in the form of an American oil company who offers top dollar to four men who will drive two trucks of cargo through the jungle to one of their sites. The serious catch is that their cargo is nitro glycerine, and they must drive the unpaved, unpredictable roads through the jungle without it so much as shaking. They drive over rickety rope bridges that I wouldn't walk across, along mountain roads, through water and mud. There are some pretty intense scenes, but the best ones are the ones that most closely resemble the original film. It's a good film and it works, but see Wages of Fear it's better.