Movies - Duel

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	Movies - Duel

Duel is a 1971 television movie directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Richard Matheson (this movie is based on Richard Matheson's short story of the same name.), starring Dennis Weaver and a Peterbilt 351 tanker truck. Duel was Spielberg's feature-length directing debut, following a well-received turn directing a segment of the anthology television series Night Gallery. Initially shown on American television as an ABC Movie of the Week installment, it was eventually released to cinemas in Europe.

Description

Duel is a thriller about a traveling salesman named David Mann, who is played by Dennis Weaver. Mann is driving to a business appointment on the back roads of the California desert. For no apparent reason, he is terrorized by a large truck, which repeatedly chases and attempts to run him off the road. The film consists of a cat and mouse struggle between the truck and Weaver's character. Throughout the film, the driver of the truck remains anonymous and unseen, with the exception of two separate shots where his arm beckons Weaver to pass him, and another shot where Weaver observes the driver's snakeskin boots. His motives for targeting Weaver's character are never revealed.

The truck driver was played by the late stuntman and character actor Carey Loftin, though at times Spielberg and others drove the truck.

Despite its simple plot, a low budget (only $375,000) and very short filming deadlines (originally 10 days), the movie maintains a high level of suspense due to Spielberg's taut direction and the script's refusal to resolve the central mystery of the driver. The film's success put the young Spielberg on the map in Hollywood, and enabled him to move beyond directing for television.

The truck, a Peterbilt 351, was chosen for its "face". For each shot, several people had the task to make it uglier, adding some "truck make-up". The car was also carefully chosen, a red 1971 Plymouth Valiant with an underpowered engine to signify the weakness of the David Mann character.

The script is adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story. It may have been inspired by a 1947 episode of the old-time radio series Lights Out entitled "What the Devil", which had a similar plot but different resolution.

Analysis

Duel falls under the suspense genre, a format popularized by the late director Alfred Hitchcock. In fact, much of the film’s score, particularly the use of the rapidly driving violins, seems to resemble that of Psycho
, one of Hitchcock’s most popular films. It is often speculated that filmmakers use these genres as a means to express some underlying view or views about the world in which we live. We can certainly see this in episodes of The Twilight Zone where the protagonist is often a mere representation of ourselves caught up in some unexplained and often-inescapable circumstance. Is it no wonder that the author of the film's screenplay, Richard Matheson, was actually a recurring writer for such TV shows as The Outer Limits, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, and, of course, The Twilight Zone.

In fact, on some level, Duel seems to play around with the ideologies and concepts of the socially acceptable male versus that of the female. We can see this in our protagonist, who is appropriately named David Mann. While it may appear that he is representing the everyday man, he is just the opposite of what sociologist Janet Saltzman Chavetz believed (in 1974) to be the traditional male. He isn’t tough, he isn’t aggressive, he isn’t proud, and more often than not, he allows his emotions to get in the way of the problem at hand. While very few women appear throughout the film – including his wife, a tomboy snake enthusiast, the waitress at a nearby restaurant – they all seem to be more controlling and more dominant than him. It’s no wonder that his apologetic phone call to his wife pertains to his not speaking up for her when another man was supposedly hitting on her the night before.

Spielberg illustrates how our protagonist lacks this sense of manliness, despite his valiant efforts. The enormous truck that haunts him is simply a manifestation of all the things he has failed to overcome as a result of not “being a man.” (Bear in mind, this is someone who children looked down upon and laughed at during a rather humorous scene in the film.) After several attempts to avoid and bypass the problem (the truck), it appears that it has just become far too powerful and overwhelming. With no other option, he must face the problem head on, as a man should. This, of course, is taken literally in the final scene as Mann has to resort to murder by staging a collision between his own car and the truck in order to lure both over a cliff, and presumably the driver also to his death. The smoke that had once blinded the protagonist from all life’s possibilities has finally cleared and he is left feeling more in control than ever.

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Movies - Duel

Description

Analysis

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