Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to an all new Reaction & Review. Tonight, guys, I'm gonna be covering a made-for-television movie from 1971. That movie is "Duel".
Now I only know one thing about this movie. It was directed by legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg. Not only that, but it's also his very first feature length film that he ever directed. I've covered a couple of films in this series where he was an executive producer, but I've never covered anything directed by him. Well, except for that one segment in "Twilight Zone: The Movie", which that segment he directed was complete shit. So the man's not prone to making garbage. But I'm curious to see what he did on his first outing, because I've never seen this movie before so it definitely counts for this series.
Now as for the plot, I don't really know much about it. All I know is that it involves a traveling salesman trying to outrun a monster truck. And I don't mean the ones with giant wheels that you normally see at events and such, I mean like an actual big semi-truck. Why he's being a chased by semi truck is anyone's guess, really.
But still, I'm really hoping for this movie to be good. I'm not sure if this first outing from Spielberg will actually be any good, but that's what I'm here to find out. And the only way I'm gonna find out is if I shut up and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Duel".
17 minutes later
You know, guys, I'm a little bit surprised that our main character's reaction to him getting cut off by this monster truck is more...subdued than I thought. I thought he would've just flipped out and cursed at the person driving the big truck by now. But then again, this was made in 1971, so I'm not sure how common swearing was back in the early 70's. Still, if it was me in the driver's seat, and they did that to me more than once, I probably would start getting frustrated and then maybe let out a curse or two. Just my opinion, really.
8 minutes later
OK, I have a question here and this is starting to bug me a little bit. So our main character is driving ahead of the monster truck. The mileage right now is nearing 100 miles from our main character's car. The giant truck behind him, from what I'm seeing, is possibly driving at the same speed limit. Is it really possible for a big truck like that to drive 100 miles to the gallon? I'm really curious about this because I don't even know any giant truck, especially one from 1971, that can go 100 miles to the gallon. Granted, this is coming from somebody who's not a car person, so if there's anyone reading this and you really want to answer if a giant truck can drive a 100 miles to the gallon, please do. Because this is starting to become a little bit ridiculous now.
5 minutes later
All right, I have another question here and this a serious one, too. So, our main character, whose name I honestly don't know if he even *has* a name at this point, is at a diner after that little incident with the giant truck. He comes back out of the bathroom and goes to sit down. And then he notices the giant truck is back out there...and he's not the calling police! If he knows that there's a giant ass truck out there that's been out to murder him, not to mention even stalking him at this point, then why the fuck hasn't he called the police yet?! Granted, I understand it would probably take a few dozen police cars to help stop this monster truck, but still, the fact that our main character hasn't called the police yet is bugging the shit out of me.
7 minutes later
OK, so he *does* acknowledge that he could call the police, but then he realizes that he couldn't provide proof nor would anyone at the diner actually corroborate his statements. OK, that's a somewhat flimsy reason, but at least it's something. Granted, I still would think that the monster truck stalking you simply because you passed by it a couple of times would maybe arouse the police's suspicions, but still, at least he has a reason for not calling the police.
8 minutes later
Is he seriously going to try and push this school bus with his tiny car? There's no way in hell this is gonna work! Again, I'm not a car person, but even I can tell you that there's no way a tiny red car is gonna push a giant school bus back out onto the road. That's just common-fucking-sense!
14 minutes later
Well, guys, I can confirm two things for you. One, we *finally* have a name for our main character. His name is David Mann. And two, the giant truck just ran over the telephone booth that David was using to try and call the police, along with a bunch of snakes trapped in glass boxes. At least the movie's starting to get a little interesting now. Hoping, maybe, it'll last that way throughout the last half hour of the film.
The Review
Well, guys, that was "Duel". And the film ends with David sitting on the ledge while throwing rocks at the wreckage where he's sitting. Well, I'm gonna go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. So, what did I think about Steven Spielberg's first feature length film that he directed? Well, I'm gonna say that...I kinda enjoyed it. However, I should let you guys know that, even though I did enjoy the movie, I am in no way gonna be watching this thing a second time. Partially because, I already know what's gonna happen, and the reason for it happening is really kinda stupid to begin with.
Let's segue-way into this by talking about the writing. I will start by saying that, for the time that this was made, this might've been one of the more original plots that hasn't really been done before. Maybe it might've been done once or twice beforehand in some indie films, but it wasn't exactly a well known kind of plot. If I were to compare this with something more modern, the only film I can think of at the moment is "Christine". The biggest difference between this movie and "Christine" is that the latter is more of a character driven story, while this one doesn't really focus on any kind of character development whatsoever. Now, I'm gonna be a little bit fair here and say that, for Spielberg's first movie, I can kinda let that slide here. Because this movie is more of an experiment for Spielberg and what he could do as a director later on in his career. So, I will give him that much when it comes to this movie.
Now, what about the plot itself? Really, guys, this movie's story is paper-thin at best. Our main character, David Mann, is being chased by a big murderous truck. Why? Well, the short answer is "fuck you, that is why". If you want the more detailed version, um...well, during the beginning of the movie, David passes by the truck a couple of times in order to get ahead and then the truck gets ahead of him whenever this happens, and thus we have our story of David trying to outrun the killer truck. Yeah, I'm not kidding you guys when I say that the story here is incredibly paper-thin. It plays itself out as a thriller kind of story, and I will say that, for the first 45 minutes or so, I was actually kind of invested into what's happening. Even though the story is paper-thin, it actually did intrigue me for a good portion of the movie.
But I did notice a big problem with this movie's writing. As I mentioned earlier, this kind of story, for it's time, was probably one of the more original stories that not a lot of people had seen done before. And while I still stand by that, I do think it runs into a problem here where you can only do so much with a paper-thin story such as this where it's just our main character trying to out run a giant truck. And for the last half hour of the movie, I did notice that it does kinda drag on for a little bit when I realized it's just more of the same thing you've already seen with David trying to outrun and outsmart the giant truck. If this were a shorter film, I would probably say that this works perfectly for a short runtime. However, for it to drag out to an hour and a half, it does start to, pardon the pun here, lose a bit of steam. And that's where I kinda have to draw the line here and state again that I'm not gonna be watching it again a second time because I already know what's gonna happen. And it's not gonna be as interesting as it was the first watching it. Especially knowing that the last half hour is just more of the same like a majority of the film anyways.
The only character I can mention is David Mann. Which, I'm not totally sure if he actually mentioned his name back when he first called his wife, but I could be mistaken there. But yeah, character wise, you don't really know a whole about David, other than that he has a wife and two kids, and he's out to make an appointment. At least until the giant truck plot kicks in, but that's an issue I've already talked about. For the most part, he's trying to figure a way out of his situation with the giant truck. You see him pondering on who the truck driver might be based on his boots. And I'm gonna kinda spoil this, you never learn who drives the giant truck that's after David. So unless there's a sequel to this that I'm not aware of, don't expect any closure about who the truck driver is. But anyway, the whole situation with David's character is sorta one dimensional, but I am gonna say that at least he's being kinda smart about it. I mean, at least he does try to call the police later in the film after I complained that he didn't do it back at the diner. So at least he's a somewhat intelligent character that you can sorta care about, despite not having much of a character to speak of.
Overall, guys, the writing here isn't really the best in the world and, for me anyway, is certainly not gonna rank up there with Spielberg's best directed films. Though personally, I'd have to look back at all the films I've seen where he's directed and find out which of his I like best. But anyway, writing here is paper-thin, but it does kinda work, though it does kinda drag out in the last half hour or so. The acting here is actually really good. Dennis Weaver makes his character stand out in a really interesting way, mostly when he tries to act calm under intense pressure, but sometimes he can't keep it under control and starts panicking when the monster truck is getting closer to him. Granted, most of that is from the last half hour of the film, but it is one of the few things that saves it from being boring. So yeah, his acting in this thing is great, and it kinda makes him one of the reasons to watch this movie, if at least just once.
I'm also gonna say that the cinematography here is great. All of it was shot on location in, I believe, rural California. Either that, or they might've been between the border with Arizona, since a lot of that is just the hot desert. Regardless of either scenario, it looks great. The stuntwork involving the vehicles is also really good, too. I'm actually really impressed with how well done the stuntwork is for this movie. I'm not sure what the budget is, though I imagine, given that it was originally made for TV, it was probably shot on a low budget. But still, the stuntwork here is really good.
The camerawork here is really good, though I'm slightly annoyed by how many times, especially during the last half hour, they kept cutting back and forth to the mileage, oil, and the temperature of David's car. I get that they were trying to play it up as being really intense, but it is a reminder that they didn't need to constantly show up on repeat. That said, everything else here is great. Lighting here is excellent, though that's mainly because most of this movie was shot outdoors. Sound-mixing here is top notch. And the score here, though it's not much to go on, does really try to be suspenseful especially when David's on the run from the big truck. So yeah, all of the technical stuff is great, minus a couple of hiccups.
So, guys, when all is said and done, am I able to recommend to "Duel"? If you're a fan of Steven Spielberg's work and you haven't seen it yet, I would say go check it out. If you're a fan of thrillers, then I would say it's worth a watch. And who knows, maybe you'll enjoy it a whole lot more than I did. Mind you, that isn't to say that I didn't enjoy it. Like I said, I did kind of enjoy it. But I just don't think it's worth rewatching multiple times over. Especially since it kinda starts to drag by the last half hour or so. But that's just me. Like I said, if you enjoy it enough to watch it multiple times over, then that's awesome. Rock on. But I just don't see myself rewatching it again anytime soon. Still though, at least this movie did motivate me into watching another movie involving a killer car. I'm gonna go and watch "Christine" again once I get done typing this review up.
And with that, guys, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.
No comments:
Post a Comment