Duel, 1971, directed by Steven Spielberg, Universal Studios 4K blu-ray (2023), 3.5 stars.
For a guy so well-known for making big, stupendous, seismic spectacles, Steven Spielberg sure knew how to deliver a small, straightforward, simple but thrilling horror film.
Duel, technically, was Spielberg's feature-film debut. It started out as a quickly made, micro-budget TV movie that produced some pretty good numbers for ABC in viewership ratings. It did so well that Universal Studios had Spielberg shoot a few more scenes to pad out its 73-minute runtime for an international theatrical release. And that, dear readers, was how Steven Spielberg's movie career started.
I just watched the theatrical release, re-edited and remastered with the added scenes into widescreen aspect ratio. I really didn't expect much from this movie. I thought it would be a glorified dumbed-down TV movie with mini-cliffhanger commercial-break fadeouts every 12 or 15 minutes. Man, was I wrong.
Duel is a banger. The premise is simple. And relatable. Guy in a Plymouth passes big ole monstrous 18-wheel gasoline tanker on two-lane desert highway. Trucker doesn't take kindly to that and gets all psycho-road-ragey about it. And that's the movie, psycho trucker stalking guy in Plymouth trying his damndest to not get crushed in the California desert.
The cat-and-mouse game is relentless, the tension never eases up for the entirety of this movie. Dennis Weaver is excellent as the terrified Plymouth guy just trying to get to a business meeting. The psycho trucker is a never-seen stunt driver. All we see of the stalker is that big damn monster truck. We have no idea why the trucker is so pissed off, we have no idea where he might be going and why he doesn't seem concerned about meeting a delivery deadline.
It's a fantastic popcorn movie. And it's a film that would fit perfectly in the current cinematic marketplace, where modern auteurs are killing with small-budget indie horror.
This Spielberg guy might have a future in this business, right? I'm probably going to have a look next at Spielberg's first intended feature, The Sugarland Express (1974). I'll let you know how that one turns out.
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This was the talk of the playground the Monday after this debuted. At age 11, it may have been my first exposure to pure dread.
ReplyDeleteWhen “Jaws” hit the screens, we knew we had to see it immediately because it was directed by the “Duel” guy.