The story takes place in a place in South America in the 1950s, a small town full of desolation, rundown, and barrenness.
Unemployed young Mario wanders in the streets like most of the unemployed. He has a good old friend. Linda, the bar maid, looks at him from time to time, but because Mario is penniless, he has to watch the bar owner rudely berate his girlfriend. , Even rushed to the small room to do indescribable things. For all this, he also seems to have long been used to it.
There are more and more unemployed people. Poverty and troubles bother them, but they can’t see the way out. They have no choice but to live day by day. They gather in the taverns on the street, twisting their bodies in the crude Latin American tunes. , To dispel the tiredness of the day and forget the sorrowful destiny.
One day, a down-and-out businessman Gio came up to the town to defect to his old friend, the boss of the local oil field. Despite this, Gio’s arrival has also become a celebrity in the town. Mario saw the opportunity and quickly approached Gio. He found out that Gio was actually his hometown. For this reason, he didn’t cherish the date with Linda at all, and tried to find a way. Making money to leave this ghost place is more important than anything else.
One day, the opportunity finally came. The Southern Petroleum Company’s oil well exploded and four truck drivers had to be recruited from the small town to transport 800 kilograms of nitroglycerin to the oil well for disaster relief. This was an extremely dangerous task. However, the high rewards still attracted many people to sign up. In the end, it was Mario, Gio, cement worker Lu Ji and German Bamba who got the chance. Before leaving, Linda lay on the door of the car and begged Mario to give up the task, but Mario roughly pushed her out of the car.
In this way, the four people separated the two trucks and drew on the road cautiously. Goo and Mario are in the same car, and Goo was actually not selected, but at the last minute, another talent was replaced by the design to get this opportunity. Therefore, Mario has a lot of distrust of Goo. As a result, Gio's status was reversed a little bit, and Mario was not at all clinging to it like before.
From the moment the convoy hit the road, danger began to loom over them, and if there was a slight mistake, they would have no bones. On a section of the mountain road, a broken wooden suspension bridge supported the corner ramp. Lu Ji and Bamba passed first. When Mario and Gio arrived, Gio got off and commanded. Mario was in charge of reversing. The trestle was broken and the truck was broken. Backing a little bit, the wheel almost fell to the end of the suspension bridge, almost squeezing Gio to the falling cliff. Mario got out of the car to check and found that Gio was so scared that he was already hiding in the rock. Mario, who was extremely unhappy, cheered and rushed up the slope. The steel wire of the suspension bridge was torn off and the wooden bridge collapsed suddenly. Mario deliberately dropped Gio and let him run after the car. During this process, Gio was completely reduced to a coward, despised by Mario.
On a mountain road, a boulder that rolled down blocked the driveway. Bamba, who was bold and daring, took a bottle of glycerin with a straw from the oil barrel of the car. Lu Ji drilled a hole in the boulder with an iron pestle. Together they blew up the boulder and the team passed smoothly. At the moment when everyone thought victory was in sight, a loud noise came from a distance. Mario and Gio, who were walking behind, were shocked to say nothing, Bamba and Lugina. There was an accident with the car. Obviously, they had suffered an accident.
On a road overflowing with oil sludge, they saw damaged trees and broken oil pipelines. Bamba and Luigi were completely gone. In any case, only to continue to drive through the mud, the car drove into the mud, Gio was responsible for laying branches under the car, but unfortunately he was crushed on his leg. In order to drive the car over, Mario directly refueled and drove by. Ao screamed and his leg was crushed.
From the very beginning, the domineering and cunning completely reduced to a cowardly, poor, unlucky bug, and Gio lay in the position of the co-pilot, dying, and slowly closed his eyes at Mario's call.
The vehicle finally reached the oil well. Mario, who jumped out of the vehicle, looked at the raging fire at the oil well, his legs weakened and fell to the ground and fell asleep. The next day, Mario woke up and got the huge sum of 4,000 US dollars, but it was a pity that his friend Gio would never see it.
This money is tantamount to a windfall. Excited Mario drove an empty car and began to return to the town. At this time, he no longer had to drive cautiously. The wheels drove through the mud and splashed high waves. On a mountain road, he arbitrarily drove the S-shaped route, the balance of the road began to tilt, a loud noise, the truck rushed out of the road, the rolling truck fell into the abyss...
I heard that Linda, who was served smoothly, began to dance happily with a group of people in the bar. The good life will arrive at her side in 2 hours. However, Mario, who had rolled down the cliff, was dead, with a pinch in his hand. A ticket.
The happy ending of the original aftermath was completely reduced to a tragedy at the last moment. What did the director want to express by doing this? Looking back at the scene of life in the small town that appeared in the scene at the beginning, five grasshoppers tied to a rope are being led by a child. This is already an obvious metaphor. Just like these five protagonists, under the harsh environment, they try their best. Struggling still cannot escape the tragic fate. Just like the rope in a child's hand, everyone clings to it at its mercy.
Such a fate followed the social reality of the time. The Southern Petroleum Company founded by the Americans squeezed most of the social benefits, and the depressed economic environment made the people at the bottom even more impoverished. Mutual use has become commonplace, feelings and friendships become less important, and thus become the most direct survival instinct.
To use a Chinese phrase to explain it is: one knows the etiquette while being practical, and one knows honor and disgrace if you have enough food and clothing. Behind the tragedy is the bleak background of the times and the human nature under the harsh living conditions. Their humble status and miserable fate determine their fate.
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