Duel
The Film That Started It All.
Before spinning cinematic gold from sharks, dinosaurs and homesick aliens, a young Steven Spielberg directed this high-velocity thriller about an innocent motorist terrorized by an evil truck. Spielberg’s first full-length movie, Duel helped jumpstart the director’s big-screen career, with a gripping, action-packed story hailed by critics as a film that “...belongs on the classics shelf reserved for top suspensers” (Dailey Variety). Dennis Weaver stars as the traveling salesman waging a desperate battle for survival after he is mysteriously singled out for destruction. Praised for its deft use of relentlessly mounting psychological tension, Duel features one of the most uniquely terrifying “characters” in movie history: a massive, roaring 40-ton truck with more sheer menace than most flesh-and-blood villains. But Steven Spielberg was, literally, just getting started. A few years later, the action of Spielberg’s blockbuster Jaws would echo Duel’s tale of a lone hero in a heart-stopping fight to the finish against a monstrous, inhuman foe.
Member Reviews
Spielberg's first feature - ShowBill1
I Zipped this movie because I was reminded that it was Steven Spielberg’s first feature film. I recall watching it years ago, but not realizing at the time that it was the premiere of a brilliant director and producer. This is one of those films you want to watch when you are in the mood for a simple, entertaining, and suspenseful movie. The script came from a short story in Playboy magazine. Somebody actually did read the stories in Playboy!!
This was a “made for TV” movie of the week entry, with a minimal budget. The original film was just over an hour long. (I think 74 minutes). This was probably enough. Spielberg added several scenes later to make the movie into a 1 ½ hour feature suitable for theaters. The biggest star in the movie is a 1960s huge, ominous tanker truck. Dennis Weaver (Chester from the old Gunsmoke TV show) was the lone human star on the picture. He had minimal big screen success, but was in several television shows. The main dialogue in the picture was Weaver talking to himself or the truck. The truck driver was kept hidden from the audience, which brilliantly added to the mystery and suspense of the picture.
I liked the start of this film as it showed the road ahead from the car's view as it wound its way through city streets and traffic, out on to the freeways, and finally on to a long, isolated, lonely southwestern highway. This is where the “duel” begins as Weaver’s character passes a slow moving truck on an isolated section of highway.The truck was an ominous, dark, rusted, powerful beast. The driver, for some reason took exception to this and roared past, only to later slow again and proceed to block our guy from getting by. You get the idea, as this went on back and fourth for some time, with increasingly more violent and dangerous results. The character’s problem was amplified as he chose to drive a powerless, red,1971 Valiant as his “battle” car. That was his first mistake of manyExcellent Late Night Movie - Cailiff
I remember seeing this movie in the early 80's one night, at 2am on some TV channel. It was very captivating, and I remember the thrill I got watching Duel.
The problem was, I never remembered the name of the movie. About 10 years later, I would find myself in certain conversations referring back to it, and talking about it, and no one seemed to recognize which movie I was talking about.
One day I stumbled upon it by sheer accident.
If you haven't seen this movie, you owe it to yourself to try it! The way the movie is shot, you can actually put yourself in the person's shoes who is being chased.
There is plenty of the realism to the movie which proves that this could happen to anyone of us.masterpeice - Sterman
i saw it as a kid and loved it back then, watched it twice in 2 days when i got it from zip. you have to understand that this is a one actor movie like Cast Away. The difference is that there are 2 other non-human actors... the truck and the car. This movie is all about great story telling. We don't see that anymore because movies move so fast and we are being fed 20,000 images a second. Dual is a slower past movie but you can't help but to feel for the charracter... something that you don't always wind up doing in today's movies. Awsome late night or sunday morning movie.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Spielberg's first feature - ShowBill1
I Zipped this movie because I was reminded that it was Steven Spielberg’s first feature film. I recall watching it years ago, but not realizing at the time that it was the premiere of a brilliant director and producer. This is one of those films you want ...Excellent Late Night Movie - Cailiff
I remember seeing this movie in the early 80's one night, at 2am on some TV channel. It was very captivating, and I remember the thrill I got watching Duel.
The problem was, I never remembered the name of the movie. About 10 years later, I would find ...masterpeice - Sterman
i saw it as a kid and loved it back then, watched it twice in 2 days when i got it from zip. you have to understand that this is a one actor movie like Cast Away. The difference is that there are 2 other non-human actors... the truck and the car. This movie ...