Steven Spielberg's first film in the director's chair, 1971's DUEL is one hell of a debut, taking an ABC Movie of the Week (remember those?) to another level.
With a terrific screenplay by Richard Matheson (The Night Stalker, I Am Legend, The Omega Man) based on his novel, the story starts quickly and keeps the pedal to the metal.
Dennis Weaver (McCloud) stars as business man David Mann, heading out on the California freeway in his red Dodge Valiant for a meeting that he describes to his wife as "very important". I'm not sure where they are meeting, but his drive takes him far off the LA coast into the deserts of California. Along the way, he passes a beat up looking fuel truck that looks like it's on its last wheels.
Nothing out of the ordinary, but suddenly the truck flies by him at high speed, scaring the hell out of David, and us, thanks to some great direction by Spielberg.
So begins an escalating game of cat and mouse, with the phantom trucker upping the stakes at every turn in the road.
The film is cleverly structured, with Weaver's character stopping at a diner in the middle of nowhere to catch his breath. When he looks outside and sees the beat up tanker sitting outside, waiting for him, he begins to suspect everyone in the diner is the mysterious man behind the wheel.
Paranoia runs wild.
Weaver is excellent as Mann. He goes through every phase from mildly annoyed to terrified as the life and death measure of the situation settles in. As it becomes clearer that the killer trucker means to take him out at all costs, Weaver's flop sweat is palpable.
The stunt team is first rate, with the legendary 70's stunt driver Carey Loftin (Vanishing Point, OO7's License to Kill, Against All Odds, Raiders of the Lost Ark) making every inch between the semi and the car scream with tension.
Spielberg was only 25 when Universal gave him his first film directing job. Loftin famously asked Spielberg what his motivation was for tormenting the car's driver, Spielberg told him, "You're a dirty, rotten, no-good son of a bitch." Loftin replied, "Kid, you hired the right man."
The sound design team deservedly won an Emmy Award for the aggressive sound mix, way ahead of its time. The truck horn still startles today, as does the absolute ROAR of the truck's engines as it seems to want to devour Weaver and the Dodge.
Shot in twelve days on a $450,000 budget, DUEL remains one of the most confident film debuts of any modern film director.
After this film's superb response, Universal gave Spielberg the Goldie Hawn film "The Sugarland Express" to direct, followed by a little film called "Jaws".
The legend started here.
DUEL gets an A.
Spielberg fans: Lucille Benson, the Lady at the Snakerama Gas Station also appears as a gas station attendant in Spielberg's "1941". The elderly couple in the car who don't want to get involved when Weaver begs them too, were also featured as a couple in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind"!
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