DUEL (1971) -Definitive Spielberg #1 - Hagfilms Honest Reviews

Duel

The 1970's, a decade of cinematic revolution. An army of young filmmakers stormed the decaying studios to liberate the cinema from the clasp of extravagant and over budget period epics and speak out to a generation of young audience, who never usually got a mention at the cinema. Names like Francis Ford Coppolla, Martin Scorsese, John Millius, George Lucas fought to produce films throughout the decade that would speak to the unsung members of the American people, a nation of anti-war, anti-establishment, demonstrators and free love enthusiast, the remnants of the swinging sixties. They wanted gritty movies that reflected their anger and grief with the Vietnam war, their distrust of the government after Nixon and Watergate.

Movies like Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, Taxi Driver, that could be made on a shoe string budget and generate millions in revenue. However, unknown to the studios themselves, there was a lone soldier within their city walls, their own twenty something scruff, a filmmaker with a little more love and respect for the old system. Steven Spielberg had waltzed right in, and through his work on various television programmes, such as Columbo, he'd managed to secure himself a deal to direct a number of TV movies for Universal. Whether he knew it or not, he was going to revolutionise the studios from the inside.

His first feature was Duel, based on a short story by writer Richard Matheson, who also wrote the screenplay. It was story with one main character, hardly any dialogue and miles, miles of dusty desert road and a menacing rust coloured truck. Its protagonist was David Mann (Dennis Weaver), a salesman driving across the Californian Desert in his Plymouth Valiant. Its not long before he meets a slow truck that slows his journey. For a while they harmlessly overtake each other, but when the unknown truck driver waves Mann past him and into an oncoming vehicle, the game becomes a tense and dangerous fight for survival.

Spielberg, being unusually young to have been offered this opportunity picked it up and ran with it. The first great decision he made was to film every last shot of this adventure out there, on location, on the highway. Surprisingly, the studio executives warned that it would be both costly and time consuming to film on the road and recommended that the director should use a rear projections for certain inserts. Spielberg opted for the road and plotted out his entire movie on story boards alongside a giant wall sized map of the road.

As David Mann, Weaver is well cast. He's a gawky, bespectacled man, weak looking, and weak in spirit too from what his phone conversation with his wife tells us. He has no heroic qualities, he could just as likely be you or I, subsequently we feel his fear. It becomes his journey to find the strength to face up to this monster, a journey that similar characters will have to take in future Spielberg films.

Spielberg's clever use of filming against moving backgrounds such as a rock face, or embankment, allowed him to simulate breakneck speeds whilst actually barely moving. Not showing the drivers face enabled the truck itself to become a mindless monster as opposed to a manned vehicle, therefore creating a heightened sense of doom.

The shots of the truck plunging in slow motion, down a cliff face and shrouded in a cloud of red dust is almost the very same shot that he chose for the demise of the great white shark that would terrorise Amity Island in four years time. To accompany both farewell shots, the director also included the roar of the T-Rex from the 1925 movie The Lost World, as above the debris both Mann and Brody manically celebrate ,the relief of their survival and evidence of how close they came to fear induced insanity, or how close they were to devolving back to primitive savages.

Duel was such a success that the studio allowed Spielberg to add additional footage to bring the picture up to a run time that would allow it to be released theatrically, and it received a great response, particularly in Europe. As a product of the seventies the movie displayed effective on location footage, fine editing and a steady pace, with Hitchcock suspense. As the debut feature for one of cinemas most accomplished directors, Duel remains as near prefect and timeless as it did on its release, and a great taster of the delights yet to be produced from this infant in an industry full of old men.

Strangely enough, Spielberg would make movies which would play a great part in ending his friends assault on the studios. Films like Jaws, Close Encounters, ET, would once again place the power of film making back into the hands of the studios, where they would again maximise budget and profit. Only a handful of his friends, with their urban-guerrilla methods and stories, would make it through the battle. Once again, in Hollywood, it was money and scale that would make it to the screen.

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[DraggerLok]

I saw this back in 71 and I remember then knowing there was something special and new about the movie and filmmaker . Excellent spot on review.

[Hagfilms]

@DraggerLok - glad you enjoyed it. Why not subscribe you never know what other reviews may catch your interest.

[OhJaniceWhyOhWhy]

I was 7 when this was on TV, I sat on the floor, bowl of popcorn and, I confess, that was when I learned and felt "suspense" and "anxiety". It was, and still is, amazing! What a great movie and a true "thriller", you just have to believe you are David Mann.

[WinstonSmith6079]

Thanks! I've only just finally seen 'Duel' within the last year, having wanted to see it for many, many years!

What a great movie this is, a harbinger of the unbridled talent of the great filmmaker-to-be Stephen Spielberg.

Not only the predatory truck (sort of) the star of this great made-for-TV film, but even moreso is the amazing picturesque cinematography, but it moves, whatwith being in a movie instead of being like in a frame in an art museum hehehe

[TheMovieRewind]

You, my friend, have really good taste. Its been awhile since I've seen this. I should purchase this on dvd, but it is one underrated Spielberg classic.

[only257]

interesting documentary

[HippyWitchGal]

Still LOVE this film, even today. Never ceases to amaze me how many folks have never seen it. And funny, how this film was WAY ahead of its time (road rage was not as common back then). Your choice of the word "timeless" was absolutely perfect!

[survivorseries2003]

great film :)