Duel (1983)

People are voting emotionally.

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Awesome movie that eventually led to Jaws and all the other wonderful movie Steven Spielberg has crafted.

A well crafted and masterfully edited film about a reluctant man on a journey who is drawn into a fight to the death. Initially made for TV, Duel was released for foreign audiences the same year as a feature film with extra scenes filmed afterwards to take it up to the 90 mins mark. Internationally, it attracted the interest of Fellini, who recognised and embraced young Spielberg as a great new talent.

Television Review: "Duel" (1971)Naming 54 directing credits to his name since 1961; including shorts films, television content and theatrical feature presentations; director Steven Spielberg, at age 24, gets the chance by producer George Eckstein (1928-2009) to direct an original thriller script by screenwriter Richard Matheson (1926-2013) on salesman David Mann, portrayed with beat work and convictions by actor Dennis Weaver (1926-2006) in a casual red car driving U.S. nid-western roads before a small-time roadhouse misunderstanding transforms an unless relaxing sales representative ride into a nightmare of paranoia; while getting chased to the edges of a deserted highway by an old, rusty truck vehicle, which surprisingly stays a 85-Minute suspense entertainment ride produced for primetime NBC Universal television content, airing November 13th 1971 to success with living room audiences, marking first steps towards the name by "Steven Spielberg" as a director's trademark for quality motion picture content, following into further engagements with Hollywood producers Dan Brown and Richard D. Zanuck, when the final breakthorugh hits four years after "Duel" with shark-water-thriller "Jaws" to even more gripping tension points and indentifiable character studies in an open sea adventure story.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

If you want to know the definition of thriller there are quite a few examples in its purest form, most notably the old school Hitchcockian movies, wherein Hitchcock himself referred to as 'Suspense'. This one, however falls right into that category with ease and surgical precision, no unnecessary dialogue or tear-jerking scenes. The honesty of its intentions is admirable and relatable. The movies does what it does, just like in real life, steering away from pretentious make-believe and melodramatic, almost fabulous spin of circumstance. It was Richard Matheson's story, first intended as a screen play for TV and subsequently rejected, Matheson decided to turn it into a novelette, being too short and lacking enough backstory and detail to be a full-length novel. Rather than describing Matheson's inspiration for the story and how he came about writing it, I'll put a link to a YouTube video in which he tells it himself:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I766_4-li14The main protagonist is a wimpy middle class, middle-aged salesman headed for a business meeting. We're are convinced he's on a tight schedule, checking his watch at the slightest delay in his trip, being kind of on edge and distracted in general. His anxiety soon turns into fright and panic shortly after the encounter with a rusty, greasy, and menacing-looking semi-trailer truck, which apparently had just rolled onto the road from a scrap yard with no delivery destination whatsoever, just a ghost truck out of nowhere, by the looks of it. For reasons unknown the truck driver (which we never actually get a glimpse of) had decided to pick on David Mann, the the travelling salesman in his shiny little red Plymouth Valiant with just over 4000 miles on the odometer. What makes it so unnerving is the fact that there's absolutely no justification for the truck driver's actions whatsoever. It just happens, no reasons and no confrontation, beside Mann overtaking the truck the first time for moving quite slowly and puffing too much semi-burned exhausts out its huge, chimney-looking exhaust pipe up the side of its shabby cabin.Could this possibly be enough of a reason for the irrational behavior of the truck driver? I don't believe it, neither did Mann the first time he and we see that the trucker is not joking or playing around. The extreme closeups show real emotion and strain in Mann's face, making us feel what he feels and fearing what he fears. Spielberg's way of shooting each particular scene is gust genius, from the occasional glimpse of the instrument panel gauges to the rumbling truck's big wheels from aside. Each scene tells the story where dialogue could not and would not suffice. All the subtleties about Mann's weakness and lack of strong will are there, presented as the reason for each additional trouble he digs himself into.It's time for Mann to be a Man, but would he stand up to the adversary? Would he confront his fears and destroy them in a one-on-one duel? I hoped so and, if you haven't seen this movie yet, you'll do too...