The Movie that Made Steven Spielberg

A review of the legendary film director's 'Movie of the Week' film, Duel, and ranking my favorite Spielberg flicks

Dennis Weaver stars as David Mann, a salesman, who is stalked by a tanker truck with an unseen driver. (ABC/Universal)

‘Duel’ is a gritty tale of a salesman (Dennis Weaver) locked in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse — or of truck-and-car. With California’s desert highways providing the backdrop, his red Plymouth Valiant sticks out as an easy, visible target for a crusty, oily, dark tanker truck driven by an unknown antagonist.

Ironically, Mann is trapped in the sweeping, winding roads, attempting to escape from the truck barreling down the back of his neck. His important business meeting — or even dinner with his family — is quickly forgotten as he tries to survive in a ‘Most Dangerous Game’ scenario but with motor vehicles.

The movie never explains exactly why the truck’s driver toys with Mann — but, after Mann tries to innocuously pass the initially slower truck (marked ‘Flammable’), the hunt begins. From then on, ‘Duel’ is a strap in your seatbelt feature that utilizes every plausible and conceivable interaction between the anxious prey and vehicular predator — with cinematography reminiscent of the classic car chase flick, ‘Bullitt.’ The Hitchcockian fear of the unknown is nail-biting, expertly sustained not only on the road, but whenever Mann makes a pitstop to collect his wits or tries to find help.

On paper, ‘Duel’ is a classic B-movie, premiering as an ABC ‘Movie of the Week’ in November 1971. The reason why this film receives more attention than others from that time period is due to its director: Steven Spielberg.

At the time, the 24-year-old Spielberg had yet to break into full-length filmmaking, relegated mostly to episodic television, particularly Columbo. But the adaptation of Richard Matheson’s short story was his first of a four picture deal with Universal. It was a chance to prove himself. Yet the aspiring director had only ten days scheduled for principal photography.

He ended up shooting between 12 to 13 days, but the extra photography was worth it. ‘Duel’ became one of the most popular TV films ever, so much so that Universal felt confident enough to screen the film in Europe, while requesting Spielberg to add twenty more minutes for a theatrical run.

‘Duel’ has a spontaneity, run-and-gun style filmmaking, making Weaver’s hellish ride continually fresh and engaging. Additionally, Spielberg resisted executive pressure to shoot in a controlled studio environment, favoring practicality — which both is more thrilling (with Weaver doing much of his own stunt driving) and gives the film a longevity. Every inch of both the Valiant and truck is covered, with technical/editing ‘cheats’ to make the vehicles appear faster and the driving more violent.

The film clearly shows Spielberg’s talents that are later echoed — and perfected — in subsequent movies Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Ark. ‘Duel’ is an interesting view if only to see the origins of a legendary filmmaker find his voice. But, strangely, the movie is more than a horror road rage feature. Unintentionally or not, the film also studies a man’s fight for his own masculinity — i.e. to be courageous in the face of danger. This is bolstered by an additional scene where Mann (see, is anything coincidental) speaks to his wife, who scolds him for not defending her at an offscreen dinner party. This is reinforced by quips of how he is not “the man” of his domain.

So is the truck more than a vacant monster, perpetuating an unknown fear — or does it represent a force within Mann extinguishing his cowardly spirit?

Europeans audiences, meanwhile, saw ‘Duel’ as a commentary on American classes pitted against one another (the silent majority vs. more elitist suburbanites). I’m not so sure, even Spielberg says that isn’t the case — but he does mention in an interview (see below) how no one sees a film the same way.

There are plenty of neat nuggets to learn about ‘Duel.’ For instance, the truck’s numerous license plates displays how many victims the truck has already claimed. From a production perspective, Spielberg utilized a map — that wrapped around his motel room — to plot shooting sequences, and he cast Weaver due to Spielberg’s love of the actor’s performance in Touch of Evil. What’s more, Spielberg repurposed sound effects and people that appear in his later films.

Overall, ‘Duel’ feels like a young man having a good time with the camera, pouring his kinetic energy into the visuals and drama. His skill is a testament to the film’s longevity, and relevancy in the cultural lexicon — for it inspired countless other stories centered on haunted cars (most notably, Stephen King’s Christine).

After ‘Duel,’ the young director went on to direct Sugarland Express and then the cultural phenomenon that introduced blockbuster into the modern movie-landscape, Jaws. But, as Spielberg said, without ‘Duel’ there would be no Spielberg — and what would moviedom be without his touch.

Three out of Four Stars

*Below is a behind-the-scenes interview with Spielberg from the early 2000s. If you love filmmaking, and have an interest in his creative process, be sure to check it out.

*As promised, below is my ranking of my top ten favorite Spielberg movies (or at least of the ones I have seen)…

Time to either make you angry or say ‘yep, that’s correct.’ But let me know in the comments what you think! And this is in order:

1. Raiders of the Lost Ark

2. Jaws

3. Jurassic Park

4. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

5. Schindler’s List

6. Saving Private Ryan

7. Lincoln

8. Catch Me If You Can

9. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

10. Close Encounters of the Third Kind