Let's be realistic.

Brilliant and touching

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Duel: A Conversation with Director Steven Spielberg (2004) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Excellent interview with Spielberg who discusses his movie DUEL. Just about every aspect of the movie is covered here as the director starts off talking about what he was doing during this period of his career and then he goes into hearing about the story and that Richard Matheson was doing a screenplay. He then talks about how he sold the producer on the idea of hiring him and then we go into the details of the production. Spielberg talks about the ten days he was given to shoot the movie, the casting of Dennis Weaver and of course the various stunts that were done in the film. Spielberg said he always saw this story as a Hitchcock movie like PSYCHO or THE BIRDS but this here was on wheels. He goes into great details about how he was able to get so many shots in one day and also on trying to make sure that the suspense doesn't let up and that not everything is explained in the end. Fans of the film are really going to get a great kick out of this featurette because you really get a wonderful idea of everything that went into its filming. Just about every aspect of the filmmaking process is covered and Spielberg really comes across as being very energetic and excited to be talking about the movie. He shares some stories about how big of a hit the movie was, the alternate takes for the European version and the film allowing him to go overseas.

"Duel" was the movie that put Steven Spielberg on the map. The DVD edition was released in 2004, with this roughly 36-minute featurette. Instead of an audio commentary, we get this, although I wish there was a commentary that lasted the length of the movie itself (90 minutes).In this feature, Spielberg explains the way Duel was filmed, and how much time was given to work on it. He also explains his interest in horror and thriller movies, along with works by Alfred Hitchcock and Dennis Weaver's performances in "Touch of Evil".He tells his opinion very well, and also how he re-used characters and other things from Duel in his later works, "Jaws" (the shark making the dinosaur roar when dying, the same sound used when the truck on Duel falls off the cliff), "Close Encounters of a Third Kind" (the old couple in the car reappear in the helicopter scene), and "1941" (the Snake-A-Rama Lady appears at the gas station).All-in-all, it's for anyone who loved the film "Duel", and it's quite interesting. A 10 out of 10.