Duel (1971)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ½

Duel (1971) – S. Spielberg

Dennis Weaver is a travelling salesman who finds himself chased by a vengeful (perhaps evil) petrol tanker (the driver is never seen), along a very long stretch of California desert highway. The story is by Richard Matheson (Hell House, I am Legend, The Incredible Shrinking Man, etc.). This is, of course, Steven Spielberg’s first feature film (albeit, a TV movie) and it is a carefully controlled exercise in montage (with the occasional longer take), that demonstrates the director’s Hitchcock influences and concomitant manipulation of the audience.  Except, perhaps, he hasn’t quite mastered the latter, as there are only so many scenes of a truck and a car on a road that an audience is prepared to bear.  That said, this film is a bit of a master class in editing (by Frank Morriss) where shots of the truck, shots of the car, shots of Dennis Weaver, and long shots have been expertly stitched together despite having had to have been shot at different times from different angles.  Of course, various pit-stops along the way do break up the action and add suspense which keeps us there until the explosive finale.