Duel

Plot synopsis:
David Mann (Dennis Weaver) sets out from Los Angeles on a business trip driving a 1970 red Plymouth Valiant. His eastward path takes him from the crowded freeways to a long stretch of 2-lane interstate crossing the California high desert. Mann's journey is going reasonably well until he encounters a slow-moving tanker truck. The truck is grimy and oil-stained, and constantly belching black smoke. Mann passes the slow-moving truck, but soon after, the truck roars past him, forcing him to steer sharply to avoid a collision, then returns to its slow-moving speed. Mann rolls his eyes and passes the truck a second time, eliciting a loud, startling blast on the truck's air horn.Mann soon pulls into a small gas station, into which the truck follows him. The driver of the truck, unseen except for a pair of hairy bare arms and blue jeans with brown cowboy boots, is watching Mann through his rear view mirror. He instead exits the truck on the passenger side and walks alongside it, not wanting Mann to see his face. Mann goes inside the station to phone his wife (Jacqueline Scott) at home who is a bit annoyed with him for not confronting one of their friends at a recent party who was making a pass at her. Mann argues that the friend had too much to drink and did not require that kind of overreaction. His wife's anger cools but she chides him for always being one who tends to avoid confrontation, leaving him feeling weak and emasculated. Afterward, the gas station attendant fills up Mann's car with gas and also mentions that Mann needs a new radiator hose for his engine, but he casually puts that off for the moment.Mann returns to his car and continues his drive. He assumes it'll be smooth sailing from here on, but soon the truck approaches him from behind, quickly. Mann politely gestures to the driver to go ahead and pass him, which he does, but then slows to a ridiculously low speed. Highly annoyed, Mann complains out loud, as if to the driver, eventually blowing his horn. Shortly thereafter they reach a passing lane where Mann tries to drive past the truck, but each time he does, it swerves back and forth, blocking his attempts. Mann grows more and more annoyed and for the first time realizes that what might earlier have been seen as simply extreme discourtesy is really a deliberate attempt to frustrate and harass him.The trucker's left arm emerges from the cab window, and encourages him to pass. "Well it's about time, Charlie!" says Mann, before suddenly seeing an oncoming vehicle heading towards him! Mann quickly swerves back into the right lane, stunned at the realization that the driver intended to kill him!Through the rest of the mountainous climb to the high desert, a very shaken Mann continues to try to pass the truck and grows more and more frustrated as he is blocked every time. The game continues as the slopes give way to the flat, arid terrain of the desert, until he sees a turnout on the opposite side of the road. He accelerates and races through it, passing the truck and giving the driver a gleeful snub, assuming he'll now be pulling far ahead of the truck and the incident will be behind him.Before long, however, he is shocked to see the truck pull up behind him at high speed. Mann attempts to outrun the truck and pull ahead, but the truck speeds up as well. Mann is soon freaked out even more when the truck pulls up on him, reaching speeds above 90mph. The truck bumps into Mann's vehicle several times, until they reach a diner (Chuck's Cafe), where he swerves off the road at high speed, coming to rest after striking and damaging a wooden fence. A few friendly locals sympathetically try to help, but there's nothing much they can do.Mann enters the diner to compose himself. After returning from the restroom, he is shocked to see the truck parked outside the diner. Mann studies the diner patrons carefully and begins an inner monologue in which he contemplates the driver's motives as well as the truck's remarkable performance, and second-guesses his decision to sit helplessly in the diner. Most of the patrons sitting at the counter give Mann the impression of malice, but when one leaves, appearing to approach the tanker, he instead drives away in a pickup truck.Mann continues to look around the diner, and soon believes he's found the culprit sitting alone at a table. Approaching the stranger, Mann tells the man to "cut it out". The stranger looks at Mann as if he's crazy, and when Mann continues to accuse him, a fistfight breaks out. When the manager of the diner demands the fight stop, the stranger leaves.... only for Mann to see him get into a different truck. Mann leaves the diner, and the dirty semi roars to life; apparently the driver never entered the diner. As it takes off, Mann runs after it a ways, but as it pulls away, he stops, and watches it recede into the distance.Mann gets back in his car and continues on his way, soon encountering a stalled school bus. The driver asks Mann to give him a push, but Mann's small red Valiant is hardly equal to the task and ends up getting its bumper hooked under the rear of the bus. As he gets out to tell the bus driver, he panics: a short way further on, up in a darkened tunnel, he sees the semi is back, and approaching! Frantically, he manages to free his vehicle and flee, just as the semi truck arrives and pushes the bus (though the driver is still not seen).Mann continues on his way, stopping at a railroad crossing. The sound of the train is so loud that Mann doesn't hear the truck creeping up on him. When it begins to push Mann into the side of the still-moving train cars, Mann attempts to reverse his car to keep from going further. (Note: although the truck could easily overcome any resistance the car might offer, it doesn't, showing that the driver intends to torment him but not injure him... yet.) Just as it seems his efforts have failed, the train finishes going past, and Mann throws the car into 'drive.' Mann drives a ways on, before he veers off the road, with the truck continuing on.A short distance ahead, Mann pulls into a place called Sally's Snakerama Gas Station to call the police and refuel his Plymouth while the truck is seen pulling to a stop ahead on the road. He goes into a phone booth to call the police, but before he can get through, the truck starts up, turns around, roars up, and plows into the telephone booth, with Mann barely jumping clear in time. The truck proceeds to chase Mann as he is on foot, destroying the Snakerama. Terrified, Mann jumps into his car and speeds away. He then hides behind an embankment off the road and sees the truck pass by, apparently without noticing him. He thinks to himself that he'll just wait "at least an hour," sure the truck will be long gone, and dozes off in exhaustion. Shortly thereafter the train approaches, and in his tortured sleep he confuses the sound of the locomotive's horn with that of the truck, until the train bursts past him and he awakens fully, suddenly laughing almost hysterically in relief.Mann then heads off again but is dumbfounded to see that the truck is waiting for him a few miles ahead, just around the bend! Mann stops his car, gets out, and attempts to walk up to the truck to confront the driver and ask why he is chasing him. But when Mann approaches to within a few yards from the truck, the driver (still unseen except for a silhouette) starts up the truck and drives off up the road a short distance, taunting him. The driver clearly does not want to establish any visual or verbal contact with Mann... or let him see his face.Mann returns to his car and attempts to get help from an older couple in a car that is passing by. But the elderly and senile couple think that he is crazy due to his frantic and desperate tone of voice... until they see the truck themselves, backing up towards them at increasing speed. After the elderly couple drives away leaving Mann behind, the truck changes direction and approaches Mann's car, seemingly intent on wrecking it. Mann flees off the road on foot into the desert, but just then the truck stops short, then moves ahead again. By now Mann's state of mind has progressed from victim to warrior; the real duel has begun. Aware that he is on his own, Mann returns to his car. The truck driver, being careful not to let Mann (or the viewers) see his face, sticks his left arm out of the truck's driver's side window and again beckons Mann to pass him. Mann starts his car, shifts into drive, passes the truck, and a climatic high-speed chase begins.Mann again finds himself unable to outdistance the truck, but takes comfort knowing he'll soon reach a steep grade of a nearby mountain on which the truck can't possibly keep up. When he reaches the grade for a steep hill, he is able to put some distance between himself and the truck and starts to relax. But just as he calms down and regains his confidence that he is out of danger, the weak radiator hose fails and the now-overheated engine can no longer deliver more than barely enough power to take the car to the summit. The truck quickly begins gaining on him. Mann barely makes the summit and coasts down the other side as he shifts his car into neutral just as the truck bears down on him.Mann allows his car to coast down the hill, giving the engine a chance to cool down. Descending at speeds too great to control, the red Plymouth Valiant spins out and impacts against a rock wall. The truck speeds toward the damaged car as Mann desperately tries to get it started, succeeding just in time to avoid the truck. He drives off the road and up a dirt road, reaching a dead end which is a locked gate to a nearby ranch that sits beside the edge of a massive cliff. Mann turns his car around to face the oncoming truck. Wedging his briefcase on the accelerator, Mann sets his car right into the path of the truck, jumping out at the last second. The driver of the truck hits the car, but upon realizing there's nowhere left to go, he jams on the brake, but too late. Mann's car and the truck, with the driver still inside, plummets over the side of the cliff wall, collapsing into a pile of twisted metal wreckage and dust at the bottom.Surveying the smoking wreckage of the truck and his car at the bottom of the cliff, the clearly delirious Mann runs around the top of the cliff giggling and jumping (resembling some Neanderthal cave man after having slain a large cave bear) as he celebrates his victory and then sits down, exhausted, on the edge of the cliff. He tosses stones over the cliff as the sun sets and the closing credits roll in silence.

Tags: mystery, cult, comedy, suspenseful

Review:
The fear Dennis Weaver encounters consists not only of the monster truck itself, which is on an unexpected death chase, but of the inability to see who (or what) is behind the wheel.It seemed like a great episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE, and Rod Serling would've been proud.
Though some may argue that "Bullit", "Vanishing Point", or maybe even the original "Gone in 60 Seconds" could be called the ultimate car chase movie, "Duel" deserves this designation better because it does something none of the above films can claim.
For David Mann (played adequately enough by Dennis Weaver) and the monster truck he's trying to get away from, the road and everything alongside it is their entire universe.
While traveling through the desert for an appointment with a client, the businessman David Mann (Dennis Weaver) from California passes a slow and old tanker truck.
The psychotic truck driver feels offended and chases David along the empty highway trying to kill him.In the 70's, in Rio de Janeiro, most of the teenagers like me watched the impressive movie of a new and promising director called Steven Spielberg.
On the beach, in school, in bars, everybody in Rio commented the story of a crazy truck driver that chases a common man in his car along the lonely roads through the desert.
I can recall vividly watching this movie as an ABC movie of the week at the tender age of six.Very few movies at that time in my life had the ability to captivate me.Duel was one of the fortunate few.We have a mild mannered businessman,excellently played by Dennis Weaver,on his way to a very important appointment.Suddenly,there is trouble ahead in the form of a ruthless tanker truck driver.For unexplained reasons,the truck driver singles out David Mann(Weaver)as the recipient of whatever rage and torment possesses him.Along the way,we have an apparently unsympathetic diner crowd,among whom this mad truck driver may have mixed in with while David was freshening up in the diner's restroom.Which one of them is it?Did he ever come in at all?Did he just linger outside,adding to David's torment?Then,there is the lady at the Snakerama,whose reptile displays are leveled when the truck driver realizes that David is trying to notify police in her phone booth.David ends up searching for strength he's not sure he possesses in order to combat this unseen menace.I love the idea of the driver never being seen,as the unseen is often more frightening than what is thrown in our face.This film may have been made for television,but it played like something you would see in a movie theater.I understand that it was in fact,released in theaters in England later on after Spielberg added some more footage.I am envious that they got to see this Hitchcock like thriller on the big screen.I consider it a grand edition to my DVD library.Great stuff.2/28/2006 R.I.P. Dennis Weaver (1924-2006).
Steven Spielberg's first long feature film (sort of) may only just be a TV-movie, its influence, impact and entertainment value overwhelms the majority of big screen productions.
The film is a powerful collaboration between the superb writing skills of Richard Matheson (The Incredible Shrinking Man), the stunningly sublime cinematography by Jack Marta and the over talented vision of Steven Spielberg as a director.
It takes a long time for this particular flair and flavor of film to get boring.Dennis Weaver plays his part of David extremely well; unfortunately, I didn't much care for the spineless middle-class Joe-shmo character on the page.
In my review of T3, I wrote 'I wonder what director will be the first to direct the very first film composed solely of one action scene?' Spielberg comes pretty damn close, and the funny thing is his 60+ minutes of chase footage is more interesting than the new millennium's 10+ minute chases.
Everything about this movie will keep you on the edge of your seat until the credits begin to roll.I think this is Spielberg's best film and fans of his films will definitely enjoy this piece of horror/suspense.
David Mann is played brilliantly by Dennis Weaver and the truck, well, lets say it is one of the most odd murder weapons in movie history.
Goldenberg's melodic clicks and buzzes bring out a real sense of panic and disorientation that is in tune with the discomforting tone of Spielberg's direction, as well as a kind of motor rhythm to add to the high-octane action.So a small movie with fewer elements can often come close to perfection, depending on the inventiveness of its creative team, and really Duel's flaws are minor.
The second time I saw it, when I began collecting VHS tapes, the more it frustrated me and I found it annoying.Dennis Weaver plays a man stalked by a faceless person driving a big semi-trailer truck.
Turnpike Tag. Although Dennis Weaver is probably best known for his two small screen TV series McCloud and Gunsmoke, there are those that hold out for his career role being the frightened and harassed driver in Duel.Some years ago I was with two friends and a passenger in a car going on the Thruway in Upstate New York.
I know exactly what Dennis Weaver was going through.Weaver plays Mr. Average man on his way home from a business trip when some how he offends a faceless truckdriver whom we never see, but whose power behind that tanker truck we definitely feel right along with Weaver.
Duel was a great movie and i really loved it but what really mad me mad was they wouldn't tell who the truck driver was i knew who the actor wasbut what did the character look like you know well anyway thanks Steve i really enjoyed the movie and all your other movies and i really hope you will come out with more thrillers like duel duel was funny and sometimes well not that much frightening as much as it was funny but the funny thing is i saw this movie in drama class because usually all we would do was watch movies and sit around and talk but after i watched the movie i think that the real point was that the well I'm not gonna go and spoil the movie but thanks it was great.
The only way to defeat the rusted out beast is to get even, but David is unable to accept the fact that he may be killed in the process of doing so.Spielberg had the bare minimum to make this film; a Plymouth Valiant, a tanker truck, ten miles of empty road, and barely any dialog.
Written by the cunningly smart Richard Matheson {based on an actual event he was involved in}, and directed by débutant cool cat in waiting, Stephen Spielberg, Duel is a lesson in how to shoot and edit a road chase movie {I highly recommend the S/E DVD with the Spielberg interview on it}, it's an adrenalin lifting, ear pounding 90 minute piece of cinema, a film that becomes one hell of a ride to be part of.Reliable character actor Dennis Weaver takes the role of Mann, and he does a remarkable job in getting the audience firmly on his side, the truck may be the star of the show, but in a film not calling for great characteristics, Weaver shines bright and carries the film adroitly.
If you take Duel as it is, you'll get a nicely directed thriller, where a truck driver tries his best to scare the living day light out of a poor David Mann (Dennis Weaver).
There are a few flaws to the movie ,like it's never explained why Mr truck driver is making life hell for David Mann but I guess this reflects life since so much grief in the world is carried out without motive or reason .
It was frustrating to see a semi truck easily take corners while this guy was running off both sides of the road while going the same speed.(4) This movie is a series of chase scenes that are too long, phony, and repetitive.(5) The movie description I read led me to believe that Mr. Mann would strike back in some way.
Henpecked husband and over-worked businessman David Mann (Dennis Weaver) drives cross-desert to an appointment he never keeps thanks to the unwelcome intervention of a maniacal truck driver (Cary Loftin) who is determined to force him off the road.Steven Spielberg displays all the confidence of a seasoned pro for his full-length directorial feature Duel, clearly determined to make his mark by wringing every last possible drop of tension from his simple set-up.
The establishing shots on the open road drive home the mundanity of a long distance car journey a little too effectively, a Hitchcockian scene in a café goes on and on with little purpose, and the final showdown is flogged for all it is worth.As it stands, Duel is a reasonable enough little thriller, but would have been a far more gripping experience if it hadn't tried to stretch out Richard Matheson's original short story quite so far..
One of the best action-thrillers, Spielberg's Duel doesn't lose your attention even for a moment despite the fact that there are only two lead characters in the film with a very one-dimensional plot.
Dennis Weaver is amazing as the frenzied car driver employing the best expressions of fear, tension, anger and frustration in the film.With a very basic plot, Steven Spielberg weaves magic through his efficient direction.
These two films can't match the power of Duel.Sourced from a story written by Richard Matheson and shot in a mere fortnight, the strength of Spielberg's work comes from his ability to create a fantastic climate from realistic elements.
"Duel" was started off as a TV movie, when it first aired on ABC in 1971 before it was gained to be release in theaters as it was shown in Europe only in 1972 as Spielberg filmed some new scenes to expand the film's run-time from being 74 minutes to 90 minutes.
This is NOT a deep and tense psychological thriller, is is the same scene played out over and over (and over) again - man gets chased by truck, thinks he has escaped, truck comes back...I wonder if this dull film would be so popular if it had been directed by someone other than Spielberg.
I couldn't stop noticing some Hitchcock vibes there - these dense moments where the truck is seeking for it's pray and that score (very similar to Bernard Hermann's work) starts to play.'Duel', being the first feature film for Spielberg, who made many more masterful films in his career, truly stands as a testament to his directing talents..
I have decided to focus on the work of legendary director Stephen Spielberg.Duel was conceived of, filmed for, then broadcast as a made-for-TV movie in 1971, so it's inclusion here may be questionable.
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.
In reality, the central character, played by Dennis Weaver, should have put many miles between the two vehicles in no time, thus leaving the menace trailing in the dust and looking for opposition more its own speed and size.If you manage to overcome that hurdle in terms of believability, you have to wonder why Weaver keeps applying brakes, veering off the road, getting all rattled, and violating all manner of safe driving rules, often upon seeing the tanker truck in the rearview mirror.
And it is in this frantic and obsessive attempt to kill that you realize that the truck driver's IQ is as low as his intended victim's, or he would have stopped the truck before rolling down the hill.Despite glaring flaws, DUEL is a much copied work and its influence can be seen in movies such as LES PASSAGERS (France, 1977, with Jean-Louis Trintignant) and BREAKDOWN (US 1997, with Kurt Russel), among others.It also helped launch Spielberg's career as director and he, like the film, has had ups and downs in terms of quality, from the lofty heights of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, to the depths of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, among others.
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.
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.
We are along for the ride with a regular commuter who is driving his car, and who unfortunately kind-of sort-of cuts off a truck driver who really does not appreciate it.For the rest of the film, the faceless, nameless trucker chases and harasses him, ultimately trying to kill him in their highway game of cat and mouse.The ending is great, though pretty predictable, and a lot of the scenery is really neat too..
The sinister tank truck resembles something out of a Mad Max movie, and only the driver's boots and hands are ever shown, which heightens the terror.The story is told through images, and the dialog is sparse and often trite; the use of a voice over to relate Weaver's thoughts is the only questionable aspect of Richard Matheson's fine screenplay.
Early effort from director Steven Spielberg, here working with writer Richard Matheson on this television thriller about an innocent motorist on the southern California mountain highways locked in a cat-and-mouse game of one-upmanship with the unseen driver of a gasoline truck.
You never see the trucker, just the truck being their as if it has a mind of it's own, giving it a sense of evil.You cannot help feel for Weaver on his frustration and fear, on scene in particular that has the viewer on the edge of their seat.My wife has yet to see this movie, have yet to seat down with her and watch it and see someone's reaction of a first time viewing..
Somehow, he rubs someone the wrong way: the largely unseen driver of a huge diesel truck gets it into their head to start terrorizing Mr. Mann, all the way down the highway.Road rage is taken to an intense level in this memorable movie, with Spielberg making great use of various rural locations.
Matheson and Spielberg don't waste a whole lot of time; it's only about five minutes into the movie when Mann first encounters the diesel truck.
Who would have thought that a story about a man driving a car being chased by an old truck on a highway could make such an engaging thriller?
The story's about a man (Dennis Weaver) driving on a business trip who becomes involved in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a truck driver.
Steven Spielberg's feature film debut is a highly underrated masterpiece which presents the master director making remarkable use of his talent, creativity & passion for filmmaking to craft a mystery-thriller that remains nail-bitingly tense from start to finish and is the first entry in what would later become one of the most celebrated film careers of all time.Initially conceived as a TV film & later turned into a full-length theatrical, Duel concerns a business commuter who's stalked & terrorized by a psychotic truck driver throughout the Californian desert highway for no specified reasons.
Cinematography is no short of spectacular as well since Spielberg makes clever use of camera angles here, including the wide-angle shots.Dennis Weaver delivers a very good performance as the terrified motorist being chased by the mysterious tanker truck whose driver remains mostly unseen throughout the film.
This made-for-TV movie about a man having a bad day, is a very well executed, wonderfully shot story of an angry truck driver, hell-bent on antagonising David Mann (Dennis Weaver), after he overtook him on a dusty, lonely stretch of road.
I have seen Duel at least 20 times and it's one of those films, rather like that other Spielberg classic Jaws, that you can never tire of seeing.
Duel, one of Steven Spielberg's early films (maybe his first), is about a motorist (Dennis Weaver) being terrorized on the open road by an evil truck driver or truck.
Duel, a grippingly pared down chase, is the reason why Steven Spielberg was the ideal choice for a film like Jaws.
In fact both films share common ground; the big ugly truck here basically equates to the great white shark in Jaws in that its almost an alien presence bent on the destruction of the protagonist for no reason, a deadly menace that must be thwarted by an ordinary man.Spielberg expertly builds the tension and paranoia of the lead character (played by Dennis Weaver).
Spielberg did a nice job of fleshing out his characters during his early years before he made "Jaws." Dennis Weaver was excellent as the business men running away from the evil truck.
DUEL is Spielberg's first real attempt at major movie film-making.