AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

nicksk-53433 Who'd of thought, that one day, a little story of a truck would end up the make for one, if not the GREATEST Director of all time? Steven Spielberg had done it all, T.V episodes and short films, then, came his big break, IN A PLAYBOY. A simple story of an everyday man, a business man, going for a long drive to save/finish an account. The open road, call of the morning, is answered by evil in it's most, AWESOME form. A tanker truck, a staple of action films. This, well Duel was the set up for mad max in a sense, just 2 warriors on the road, occasionally people, but, it was THEIR WAY on the highway. This 100% pure cult THRILLER, is, a new type ( well, classic) of a creature feature, the monster truck, driven by a serial killer, has it's sights ( the brilliant cinematography to show more of the truck like it's alive, though, sharp eye viewers will see the driver, least 5 times a clear shot) on the target, a red valiant. There's chilling moments with suiting music, light comedy, a touch of blood and, well, Duel will fuel you for more. There wasn't a sequel, but in a sense, a decent spiritual/remake, Joyride aka Roadkill. That is a decent thriller, and could be argued as a sequel. In Duel, David Mann ( the late great Dennis Weaver) has 2 sons, one old other young. In Joyride, two brothers, drive in a Valiant, and pick up one's girlfriend drive cross country and are terrorised by a truck driver. They're dad is estranged, so, in Fan theory, Joyride is Duel 2, just when the year is set, well, say the kids were 8 and 5, ad just over 20 then, it would work. Duel, a staple and a great ride, edge of your seat.

muons This is a 2 hr movie carrying no more information or message than you'd find on a 30 sec news footage about road rage.

Leofwine_draca DUEL is an exemplary addition to the 'car chase' genre of films in the 1970s. Remembered today for being Steven Spielberg's first movie, it's also his best directed, even today. He doesn't let himself get distracted by character, sentiment or special effects; instead it's just a car, a truck, and a lengthy and picturesque stretch of desert road on which to film. He keeps what is in essence a single-location thriller interesting through lots of inventive camera angles, camerawork which alone adds to the tension and build up of suspense; watch, for instance, just how many times you see the truck in the background of a shot. The vehicles and action are perfectly filmed and although the story is a little slow at times (the extra padded scenes required to build this up to feature rather than TV movie length) even these moments have the requisite tension. Dennis Weaver does a stalwart one-man-band job but the real star of the show is unsung hero and stunt driver Carey Loftin, the man behind the wheel of that Satanic lorry.

adrian-43767 It would always have been a tough call to do a 90-minute movie on such exiguous material, both in terms of script and equipment: basically a massive tanker truck and a small car. Given that just about the entire 90 minutes are on the road, one who knows anything about trucks knows that the menacing old jallopy of a tanker truck could never pump up to the speeds it appears to be doing in the movie. In reality, the central character, played by Dennis Weaver, should have put many miles between the two vehicles in no time, thus leaving the menace trailing in the dust and looking for opposition more its own speed and size.If you manage to overcome that hurdle in terms of believability, you have to wonder why Weaver keeps applying brakes, veering off the road, getting all rattled, and violating all manner of safe driving rules, often upon seeing the tanker truck in the rearview mirror. And, as if that were not questionable enough, twice he runs in the hope of catching up to the dastardly truck, as if he could catch up on two legs and businessman shoes!... and what about his fear that causes him to go all nervous upon sight of the truck, does it disappear miraculously when he is away from his own car and apparently even more vulnerable?Let me say without any hesitation that the character played by Weaver is not blessed with a high IQ. Quite the contrary, he decides to get into a phone booth standing in the middle of poisonous snakes and tarantulas while the truck is speeding up in his direction - and, needless to say, flattens the booth, snakes et all. The script is necessarily squalid, a monologue for the most part, and not a particularly exciting one at that. Camera work deserves plaudits for making the most of bare bones and Weaver's acting is competent and relatively convincing, once you've accepted that he is not the brightest spark around.You never get to see the truck driver, only his arm, very briefly, waving to Weaver to overtake, but he is a nasty villain obviously determined to prevent Weaver reaching his business meeting in time, to bother Weaver all he can, to place Weaver in harm's way, and, ultimately, to kill him. And it is in this frantic and obsessive attempt to kill that you realize that the truck driver's IQ is as low as his intended victim's, or he would have stopped the truck before rolling down the hill.Despite glaring flaws, DUEL is a much copied work and its influence can be seen in movies such as LES PASSAGERS (France, 1977, with Jean-Louis Trintignant) and BREAKDOWN (US 1997, with Kurt Russel), among others.It also helped launch Spielberg's career as director and he, like the film, has had ups and downs in terms of quality, from the lofty heights of SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, CATCH ME IF YOU CAN and RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK, to the depths of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, among others. 6/10 for Spielberg's honorable debut at age 22, and courage in taking up such a potentially un-filmable project as DUEL.