Duel

Greetings, ‘Duel’ is a movie from 1971 that is among the very earliest directorial efforts in Steven Spielberg’s lengthy and distinguished career. It is his second feature film with his first being ‘Firelight’ which he directed while he was only 17 years old. ‘Duel’ was a made for television movie that was based on a screenplay by Richard Mattheson, a familiar name to many ‘The Twilight Zone’ fans and the writer behind ‘I am Legend’ and ‘The Incredible Shrinking Man’. The picture has a considerably limited cast due to the nature of its plot but stars Dennis Weaver as the protagonist David Mann, a largely unseen Carey Loftin as the murderous truck driver and a brief performance from Jacqueline Scott as Mrs Mann. The music was composed by Billy Goldenberg who worked on American television shows including ‘Kojak’ and ‘Colombo’ as well as Rod Serling’s other horror anthology series, ‘Night Gallery’.

The plot begins with David, a family man and travelling salesperson, driving through the dusty Mojave Desert for a business meeting. He is enjoying his own company and listening to the radio when he gets stuck behind a dirty fuel tanker. After patiently following the slow truck for a little while, David decides he should overtake the vehicle in order to make his meeting in good time. He does so and thinks nothing of it until a few moments later when the truck suddenly ramps up speed and is in front of him again. David is disgruntled by the rude display and manages to successfully overtake the vehicle once more. This irritates the truck driver who blares his horn incessantly much to the smug satisfaction of David who leaves the other driver far behind. Soon after David pulls into a nearby petrol station to top up his car and is a little unnerved when the aggressive trucker drives into the same place.

David takes the opportunity to phone his wife. The conversation is brief but it reveals she is frustrated as she claims that David failed to stand up for her during a party the previous night. It isn’t long before David is back on the road again after he refuses an offer from the station attendant to have his radiator hose replaced. Much to David’s annoyance, the truck has returned and plants itself firmly in front of him. David swerves his car on both sides of the road to overtake but the tanker blocks the path forward as well as his vision. While David becomes increasingly agitated with the situation, he believes the unpleasant ordeal has come to an end when the driver waves him forward. David begins to overtake but is deeply alarmed when he is facing oncoming traffic. He spins the car back just in time and his agitation turns to fear when he realises the nightmare is only getting started.

The simple premise of ‘Duel’, a deadly cat and mouse chase fuelled by road rage, had always been interesting to me which is why it had been on my watch list for quite some time. I’m glad to say it didn’t disappoint when I finally got around to seeing it. The movie manages to create a pretty tense atmosphere that slowly builds up to the climactic scene. A lot of this is due to techniques that were later reused by Spielberg a few years later in ‘Jaws’ such as keeping the antagonist as obscured as possible. The dialogue is fairly minimal since David is alone in his car for a lot of the film but the script gives viewers a good idea of his personality, especially when he begins to understand the predicament he is in and starts having a nervous breakdown. If you are looking for something a bit different to watch, then this may just be the one for you.

Plot=8/10

Characters=7/10

Special Effects=7/10

Overall=8/10

Quote of the Day

Hello. I'm Leonard Nimoy. The following tale of alien encounters is true. And by true, I mean false. It's all lies. But they're entertaining lies. And in the end, isn't that the real truth? The answer is no. Now our story begins on a Friday morning in a little town called Springfield...

Leonard Nimoy

The Simpsons