He has little dialogue, and only brief scenes with other actors. That Spielberg and his crew achieved such results on such a tight deadline remains a marvel.ĭennis Weaver has a difficult task as Mann, since so much of acting relies on re-acting to other performers. Such intense photography and editing (thanks to future Blue Thunder and Romancing the Stone editor Frank Morriss) lift the film up even today: it is a tremendous work of rising tension. There is an underlying theme to the script – literally Mann versus machine – but it never feels overly forced or emphasised.įor his own part Spielberg directs with a level of intensity and atmosphere that was rarely seen in television productions of the period. The pace varies up and down, as does the precise manner in which the truck threatens Mann and Mann’s scrambles for assistance or escape. Matheson’s screenplay does a superb job of taking a very simple concept and stretching out to 86 minutes.
An attempt at overtaking turns into a small road rage incident, and before long into an actively dangerous game of cat and mouse with Mann under relentless and violent pursuit. Within minutes he finds himself stuck behind a massive old truck, covered in rust and grime, and belching out ugly clouds of smoke. The film begins with Weaver’s hapless motorist David Mann driving out of Los Angeles for a business meeting. (A previous feature-length TV work, The Name of the Game, is essentially unavailable.) Duel presented a early chance to demonstrate his potential at directing feature films, and he clearly grabbed the opportunity with both hands. At the time of directing Duel, Spielberg had assembled a reasonably resume of television episodes, including those in Night Gallery, Marcus Welby MD, and Colombo. As an example of the director’s early work, it clearly points to a hugely successful future career. Certainly it more than stands up to the quality expected of a feature film: sparsely populated, stripped down to its most essential components, and edited and paced in a non-stop, high-tension fashion.
While his feature film debut was The Sugarland Express in 1974, Duel was so popular and well-reviewed on its initial ABC broadcast that Universal Pictures elected to distribute the film internationally through cinemas rather than television. It is an interesting step in Spielberg’s career. A Californian motorist (Dennis Weaver) becomes the target of a monstrous and anonymous truck, in Steven Spielberg’s 1971 made-for-television film Duel – adapted by Richard Matheson from his own short story.
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