By Geno McGahee
Steven Spielberg is one of the biggest names in film history and is associated with many of the most notable movies that have ever graced the screen. He was the man that fingered ET into success. Well, ET did have a glowing finger and I thought the expression was appropriate. By no means was I implying that he fingers aliens. He is also one of the men behind the success of the INDIANA JONES franchise, JURASSIC PARK, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, and WAR OF THE WORLDS just to name a few. In 1971, he wasn’t established just yet and signed on to direct a made for TV movie by the name of “Duel.”
DUEL was written by Richard Matheson, a man with quite the list of accomplishments himself. He also wrote I AM LEGEND, STIR OF ECHOES, and THE OMEGA MAN. The guy knows how to write and DUEL is another example of his talent. Very few films can feature one character and have him float the film, entertaining the audience and keeping you glued to the screen…and when you figure in that this was a made for TV movie, it is even more impressive. Making a suspense film under the restrictions of a television network is not an easy thing to do, but Spielberg and Matheson pull it off.
We begin with David Mann (Dennis Weaver), an arrogant traveling salesman. He just really has a bad attitude and when he cuts off a tractor/trailer, he soon finds the truck following him everywhere. The enormous truck is now everywhere it seems. When Mann stops at a café, after being ran off the road by this truck, he thinks that he is in the clear, but he soon realizes that the tractor/trailer is sitting right outside the window. He panics and looks at the truckers sitting at the bar and wonders just which one is the man that is terrorizing him. They all wear cowboy boots, which was the only thing that he had ever seen from the trucker that was trying to kill him. Why do all truckers wear cowboy boots? They are not cowboys.
One of the best scenes of the film is when Mann thinks that he knows which trucker is harassing him and approaches him at the café and slaps a sandwich out of his hand. It is absolutely hilarious to see the argument and the confused trucker.
As the film goes on, the situation gets more and more bleak for the poor salesman. The truck actually runs through a phone booth that Mann is in while he was trying to call the police. Other films have done this like VACANCY. I wonder if they were inspired by this scene. It’s a natural. If you’re driving a semi and see a prick on the phone, the first instinct should be to run them over, phone booth at all. Now that I think of it, they did this in DREAMSCAPE too. Wouldn’t it have been cool if the trucker got out of the truck after he ran over the booth and told Mann: “I’m sorry. I thought you were Dennis Quiad.”
You never get to see the trucker, which is a great thing because the truck itself takes a life of its own. It’s now man against machine…a faceless killer. And this trucker knows exactly where he is at all times and not only wants to kill Mann, but he wants to terrorize him as well. It’s a game for the trucker and Mann does not want to play but has no choice.
DUEL is a great movie. It is especially impressive when you figure that this is a made for TV movie and that it was still able to deliver suspense and make you forget that you are watching a movie with so many restrictions. I think that it’s pretty fair to say that JOYRIDE was slightly inspired by the gem and so too were many other horror/suspense films. I highly recommend this one.
Scared Stiff Rating: 7/10. Highway fun.
