The Wages of Fear is a new movie on Netflix and it has created quite the buzz ever since the trailer of the film came out. The film has been directed by Julien Leclercq, who has earlier directed Ganglands, and it follows the story of an explosion at an oil well. Once the explosion happens, a team of experts has 24 hours to transfer nitroglycerine to the site of the explosion in order to extinguish the fire, but the journey is full of danger and twists and turns. But is this film based on a true story? Let us find out.
The Wages of Fear Netflix True Story
The Wages of Fear is not based on a true story and is actually a remake of the 1953 classic French film of the same name. Ever since the film’s trailer came out in January, the fans of the original classic by Henri-Georges Clouzot have been critical of the film and called it closer to being a Fast and Furious remake instead of a The Wages of Fear remake. The original film too was an adaptation of the novel by Georges Amaud.
The film tells the story of an explosion and how it is down to a few people who are struggling in life to come up with a way of extinguishing the fire. Another aspect of the film was how the greedy corporation exploited the local population who had no choice but to work for the corporation for its survival. The original film won the Best Film Award at multiple film festivals including the Berlin International Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival.
At the core of this film is the tension that the audience feels with the central characters as they try to extinguish the fire. In a way, the burning fire and its extinguishing was also a metaphor for the fire that burnt inside of these characters and how this was a way to find their redemption through this act of extinguishing the fire. This is not the first remake of the film. One of the most famous remakes came in the form of the 1977 film Sorcerer by William Friedkin.
This film won over audiences and critics alike for the treatment that Friedkin brought to the story and the stress that he was able to create with his film. As far as the explosions at oil rigs are concerned, they are considered to be the worst kinds of ecological disasters. One of the recent explosions took place at the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion claimed 11 lives and irreversible loss of property.
Do you think this film will live up to the high standards set by the previous films based on the book or do you think the trolls will be proven right and it will turn out to be a generic action flick?
Also Read: The Wages of Fear Filming Locations