Duel
I have been watching this online and it is one of those low budget films, in most of the scenes there's only Dennis Weaver and an unseen tanker driver, that seems to work. I quite like the way how Weaver, in an underpowered car and with a nervous personality, has to battle against an unseen enemy in a supercharged truck that harasses him all the way through the California desert.
This really is a classic and an excellent debut for Stephen Spielberg, who was only 23 when he directed it.
This really is a classic and an excellent debut for Stephen Spielberg, who was only 23 when he directed it.
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Similar thing, but it was one of the few TVMs that had a general release. Duel is a classic and more proof you don't need CGI and millions of dollars to make a good film. Dennis Weaver is excellent and I'd say it's his best role.
Probably still one of my five favourite Spielberg films.
Basically the lorry driver is a psychopath and the front of his tanker has number plates taken from cars he's driven off the road.
I think the movie is open to interpretation. It was written by the brilliant Richard Matheson of 'Twilight Zone' fame, so you might expect a little thought went into the story.
There are themes concerned with masculinity or emasculation in the movie at the very least. And like a number of movies from the 70s/80s (Deliverance, Southern Comfort) the theme of the comfortable urbanites intereracting with more feral forces.
Scared the crap out of me when I was a kid.
As with a lot of films the sound has been re-done. When the lorry crashes over the cliff at the end the sound has completely lost ALL its impact compared to the original sound.
I agree. We're seeing a revival, I think. Such as home-invasion films (The Strangers, Intruders, The Purge, Panic Room and so on).
Btw, if you like a manic truck driver films, I heartily recommend watching 'Hell Drivers'. The truck in 'Duel' wouldn't have stood a chance against that lot!
It does, you do actually see the driver in the film, just not his face.
The early scene where Weaver pulls in to a gas station you see the driver get out of the truck and walk around, and you even hear his voice.
Unfortunately the dvd offers no option to watch Spielbergs original cut.
The early to mid 70's was a superb era for classic tv movies .
So many good ones and shamefully very few of them have a UK dvd release although quite a few are out elsewhere