Wow! Such a good movie.

Sick Product of a Sick System

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is a 2 hr movie carrying no more information or message than you'd find on a 30 sec news footage about road rage.

Fortunately I saw this film at the cinema and was unaware of its TV origin. It was the support movie but impressed me so much that I can't even remember what the main feature was. The only other B movie to have that effect on me is Beach Red. In the UK Dennis Weaver was only known to us as Chester from Gunsmoke, and in Duel he plays a similar meek character. His wife does not appreciate him and his boss is demanding. However, like a lot of us; in his car, he is king. Thus, when he is held up by a filthy smoke-belching truck, he is quite happy to indulge in a little alpha male posturing with the other driver and quickly overtakes. His victory is short lived since the truck driver retakes the road aggressively. From then on the situation gets out of hand rapidly. Although our man gets in front again, the truck begins to tailgate him at high speed, eventually forcing him off the road near a diner. But it's not over. After a brief rest and a mistaken confrontation with the wrong trucker, the chase is on again and the situation gets more and more terrifying. The eventual resolution should be a letdown, but it isn't. In the final showdown on the clifftop I was expecting the trucker to confound our frantic hero by saying something like he was a hit-man hired by the wife. But we never get an explanation or see the driver's face. The mighty truck simply plunges over a cliff roaring and groaning with primeval fury. And you're so breathless by this time it doesn't matter. And you've enjoyed a cracking movie!

Duel was Steven Spielberg's debut film, made as a TV in the US but extended to be a theatrical film in Europe.Duel follows David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is a businessman who ends up being chased and tormented by a large truck on the Californian Roads. This simple premise was great for a first-time director to cut his teeth on and even at the age of 24 Spielberg showed his talent. Duel was basically a chase film/horror-thriller that only had a few moments of respite.Spielberg knew how to make increase the tension of the situation, working with his composer and editor to do this. It is especially true for the final showdown between David and the Truck. For a fan of practical effects Duel is a treat because of all the car chases and stunts. It is even more impressive because the film's budget $450,000, which even by early '70s standards a modest sum. It was similar to the first Mad Max film which was also a car movie made cheaply.The problem with the film is the writing. Duel was written by Richard Matheson, best known for writing I Am Legend. Matheson also wrote episodes of The Twilight Zone and Duel was basically an extended episode. Even at 89 minutes Duel was padded - 50 to 60 minutes would have been sufficient.

In my opinion, this "Duel" is Steven Spielberg's most Hitchcockian movie. Simple, effective, with great talent, using actors who are not celebrities - they are not even known - he manages to make a film that does not let you get bored at all, you follow it with much interest from start until the end. After 46 years from my first view, I really enjoyed it again. Best film of Dennis "McCloud" Weaver and one of Spielberg's best. Pure suspense. But with an original Spielberg brand. Very much appreciated how it is filmed and how it is edited.