OBJECTS IN THE REAR-VIEW FEAR: STEVEN SPIELBERG'S DUEL ISN'T SLOWING DOWN AT 50
Saturday 13 November marks 50 years since Duel premiered on ABC as a TV movie of the week.
It has since accelerated to become not just one of the greatest TV movies of all time, and in Europe even ended up being released theatrically.
Steven Spielberg's career was well on truly on the road to success, and like that truck, he wasn't slowing down.
This is a case of the fast and the extremely furious. Spielberg likes putting the every man - see Roy Scheider's Chief Brody in Jaws (1975) and Richard Dreyfuss' Roy Neary in Close Encounters (1977) - in extraordinary situations.
Like Brody at the end of Jaws, it is a final Duel to the death that sees the reluctant hero have to face his fears and rise to the challenge.
And in this case that man is David Mann, in this battle of Mann against machine. Although that machine is more of a monster, think of it as a pre-cursor to the shark and the film Jaws in many ways.
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Just like the shark in Jaws the truck even has the same death-knell noise as it contorts in twisted agony. Unlike the shark in Jaws, the truck may not be hidden, but the identity of the driver is, and remains so. We see a boot here, but that is about it. I spent many viewings when younger trying to catch a glimpse or freeze-frame it on the VCR.
This mechanical monster on wheels may as well be real, like one of the trucks from Maximum Overdrive (1986). It has lights for its eyes and grill and bumper its mouth, which is why Spielberg 'cast' that particular model from a line-up of seven, and even seems to talk with it bellowing horn.
And with numberplates on front of the truck, it's suggested these are its previous victims. Duel prequel anyone?
Richard Matheson, the original story and screenplay author, deserves much credit. It was he who kept the driver hidden and also had the original idea, which was based on a real event that happened to him when driving on the day that JFK was shot, November 22, 1963.
Matheson is no stranger to transport terrors though, as Spielberg well knew, as he penned perhaps the most famous segment of The Twilight Zone TV series, Nightmare at 20,000 feet.
That episode was set aboard a passenger plane with a character played by William Shatner, convinced that there was a gremlin out on the wing. It was directed by Richard Donner.
Duel is still an edge of your seat game of cat and mouse on the road with few characters and very little dialogue. And like the pursuing truck it is lean, mean and never lets up.
With Spielberg showing some amazing early flair, it still delivers. Like the second half of Jaws, it is largely ageless as it is just two vehicles on a road in the desert for the most part.
Like much of Jaws, this unrelenting terror happens in broad daylight, all of which makes it all that much more realistic and terrifying.
And Spielberg freely admits that without Duel he would not have got his first feature Sugarland Express, and that wouldn't have led to Jaws. In fact, he cites the phone call confirming he'd got the Duel gig as the second most important of his career, after the one he got from Universal head Sid Sheinberg.
Duel is also still hugely relevant, a huge polluting truck and road rage has seemingly never been more prevalent.
It's Hitchcock on wheels, with the break at the diner and then David Mann suspecting everyone in the room, complete with internal monologue, a particular stand out in expert execution.
As is the twisted moment where the murderous truck is trying to kill Mann, a wonderful Dennis Weaver, but will stop to help a group of school kids get their bus going. On more than one occasion we aren't sure if he isn't a little bit delusional.
Shot all on location in just 16 days, like Jaws it was all on location with no plates, no studio shots. And it's that authenticity that see it still stand so tall, and watchable, today.
And like Jaws that came after, it went on to influence a whole series of films with people in peril on the open road.
You can't see the likes of The Hitcher (1986) Breakdown (1997) with Kurt Russell, Jeepers Creepers (2001), Joyride (2001) – which is also known as Roadkill in the UK - all sound their horns in homage to Duel.
If you haven't seen Duel, don't let the TV movie moniker put you off, Europe got it right when they released it on the big screen.
To bring it to the big screen it had to be longer than the 74 minutes it ran without commercials in the US, so Spielberg and co headed back to the road, to help make it that magic 90 minutes long.
They've always been part of the version I've seen - it would be cool to have the original TV version option on disc as an extra in future.
The new scenes shot were the railroad crossing, the school bus, the scene where David Mann phones his wife and the opening scene over the titles with the pov of the car leaving the garage and driving through the city to the open roads of the rest of the film.
Personally, this was probably the first work of Spielberg I ever saw, it turning up on ITV in the UK as part of a Murder, Mystery and Suspense strand of TV movies.
For me, if I ever look in my rear-view mirror and see a lorry approaching, I can't help but think of Duel, especially if I am travelling on my own. It's the equivalent of hearing the Jaws theme when you see a shark.
And, naturally, it makes a great double bill with Jaws: Jaws and Duel: Bonded By Blood, Sweat And Gears — THE DAILY JAWS
Words by Dean Newman
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