There are sequences in Wages that I find tenser than the bridge sequence, but I’ll just conceed that point because as sheer spectacle it’s pretty unbeatable. But I really don’t think that most of the rest of the movie compares. Maybe the scene were they blow up the rock/tree is close enough in both movies, otherwise the parallel scenes are all alot more impressive in Wages, IMHO. I’m surprised they even used the scene of them backing onto that rickety platform in Sorcerer, since it sufferers so much in comparison. Also the death of the other guy in the surviving truck is so much more harrowing. I also thought that Sorcerer predicted some 21st century filmmaking trends in a bad way. Maybe if I watch it again without watching the original shortly before it I’ll have a more favorable impression.

There’s also the matter of Wages Of Fear being far too long, wasting our time with all that boring set up in the South American backwater town.

Okay, I really disagree with this. Maybe it could have been trimmed some (much of the stuff with the girl who scrubs the floor), but there’s are atmospheric sets and alot of character work there. The comparable sequence in Sorcerer is just as long and is far more expository. We don’t know the characters as well but we know more about what they’re doing there. And we get more time explaining the disaster and why the explosives are unstable, if that’s what people want about the movie. You could have cut or condensed alot more of that without losing anything. Literally, The Wages of Fear is longer because they’re on the road 1/3 longer, everything before that is very close to the same length in both movies.