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Duel (1971)
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Movie Review by Mitch
August 22nd, 2006
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This was Stephen Spielberg's first feature film. It was actually a TV movie of the week back in 1971. David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is driving to a business appointment and passes a dirty semi truck. They pass each other a couple of times and it escalates into full blown road rage. Based on a short story by Richard Matheson who wrote What Dreams May Come, The Incredible Shrinking Man and Stir of Echoes. It's worth seeing just to see how Spielberg got started.
The pacing is kind of slow compared to today's movies but that is because filmgoer's attention spans have shortened in the last 20 years. A couple of interesting techniques are used in the making of this film. You never see the driver of the truck, ever. He is hinted at in the diner scene but you never see his face. The windows on the truck are greasy and bug spattered. This film was shot in only 13 days that is amazing! They had originally given him 10 days but he went over. One trick he used to save time is that on a one mile stretch of road Spielberg would set up 4 or 5 cameras and film the two vehicles passing at different points and then move the cameras to the other side of the road and film them coming back to the starting point. When edited it looks like a totally different location. Using this technique he was able to get twice as much usable film just by moving across the street.
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