For a, seemingly, low budget movie it is very well done.

Like many, I think the first hour of the film should have been the first half-hour of the film; or even less. It was clear right away that the characters wanted to get away from the hell of the village, and then it just went on and on.

I seem to be all alone in this, but I enjoyed the first - casablanca style - half much more than the second. It's just not nearly as thrilling as it's made out to be.

94.250

Tense to a completely insane level. very well made film, masterpiece.

It took me about 20 minutes to really get into the setting, but once you're in you're hooked until the last second. As I'm a pussy when it comes to driving, some of the scenes involving the transports became absolutely terrifying. The suspense in this film is amazing. The misogyny, not so much.

brilliant!5*

This film about high-risk work and its perils has great suspense and good characterization. It is a stylish thriller that involves the viewer because it makes you care about the men involved and empathize with the fear they experience.

206

Suspense for simpletons [Gee, I wonder if ANOTHER obstacle is gonna come up a few miles down the road!]. A particularly terrible performance in the lead, further exasperated by a weak supporting cast and script. Not what I expect from Clouzot.

Takes a while to take off but once the trucks get moving, a masterfully crafted suspense filled atmosphere emerge. If the character developing start had been trimmed this would of been one hell of a movie. Still top tier work.

Well, actually it's a movie a little boring to watch. But it has its qualities.

The setup drags on for too long, I think - it's not bad by any means, but not gripping. However it soon kicks into gear and is progressively tense until the surprising ending.

Great film. I recognized the Pyrenees in some of the landscapes, that was funny.

The characters are poorly conceived as not one of them resembles a "human" in any way. I felt like I was watching a play starring robots. Still, the truck scenes were done very well, but it all came came crashing down (literally) with a brain-dead ending. Ruined the movie for me.

The set-pieces are some of the most thrillingly taut pieces of film-making I've seen.

A kind of dark comedy that somehow remains both humorous and slightly tense throughout its duration and up until the very last second. Its subject seems a bit trivial, but after overall examination of the moral or lack of moral contained within the plot, the plot definitely seems to be deceptively deep. It just contains a natural,organic grit much like that of the earth. It's a movie about labor, sure, but it's also contains a rather bleak existentialist outlook as well.

The striking photography caught my attention immediately, and the town felt really vibrant and full of activity. The candid and unpredictable characters added a large amount of depth to the atmosphere. And when the action started heating up, it kept the tension high right up to the finish.

Holy shit. How did I never see this before? Four down-on-their-luck Europeans, stranded in a dead-end South American town, take on a job of driving two trucks full of nitroglycerin across a mountain range. Simple enough, you'd think; Clouzot, and a fantastic cast headed by Yves Montand, turn it into one of the most white-knuckle thrillers I've seen in a long time.

Absolutely gripping. Brilliant work from Clouzot and the cast.

#178

Takes way too long to really get going, but the second half is amazing and features some of the most intense scenes I've seen in a while.