At the beginning, I didn't understand the price of fear in the title. For more than an hour of meticulous characterization, I couldn't find the shadow of fear at all. But it is undeniable that it is precisely because of the careful preparation of the first half that the whole film reaches a climax, especially the ending of the final film, which makes it a classic textbook. It's not like the current high-yield movies, who are impatient with foreshadowing and pondering, and they will come up with a boring plot that you can guess at the end.
There are not many characters in the film, except for the three people and Linda who are transported together, which is the protagonist Mario. In fact, this protagonist is not very obvious, but it can be said that they are all developed around him. The theme of the film "evil" is also mainly reflected in him.
Linda is a barmaid, beautiful but uneducated. She loves Mario, and Mario also likes him. But two people are not equal. Mario regards Linda as dispensable, and the film strongly outlines this unequal pay relationship through several events. What impressed me was the first scene where Linda appeared at the beginning, kneeling on the ground and wiping the floor, with a beautiful and lovely face and a small vest, and her clean breasts looming. Mario beckons her to go over, teasing like a puppy. It can be said that there is only Linda who is the purest and kind, especially the scene where she is reluctant to run around with her shoes on and barefoot, which has a sense of holiness as a Christian.
But this does not affect Mario, he is a real person, and all the natures of "people"-selfish, cruel, scheming, and the pain and suffering that people face in reality, are all manifested in him. Moreover, he is not a representative of evil-because he also has a good side, but a manifestation of "evil", the saddest manifestation of why a person is a human being. The descriptions of the other three characters are also trying to convey the real personality forced out by the display. Absolute good and evil, pros and cons are not seen here, only real characters that the audience has to identify with.
Don't be misled by the title, it's not actually a horror movie at all, it should be a bit horror and suspense to be precise. The director’s technique is as pure as the fire, and the angle of photography and composition are well matched with the rendering of the atmosphere. From those thrilling scenes, we can deeply experience how these techniques create the atmosphere, including the bar scene and the broken bridge. , Another car exploded without warning, waiting for everyone's nervous performance when the stone was blasted. Those who specialize in film should feel more deeply.
All four people want to escape from this cage-like place. They can disregard the danger and even pay the price of their lives for money, and all this is due to the cruelty of life and reality. There is no road to go out, so I can only fly by plane, but the plane tickets are too expensive, the job is hard to find, the money is pitiful, and I can only go out on a desperate risk. The result of the adventure is that they all hang up, and even Mario, who finally arrived at the destination, didn't let him go. He overturned the cliff when he happily drove back and forth in a curve on the return journey. There is a fatalistic taste of existentialism.
ps: The literal translation of the title is a reward for fear, maybe it will be easier to understand the theme.
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