Duel – Review

Ah, driving… While some see it as one of life’s pleasures and love the open road, others find it stressful and avoid it when possible. While simply presenting a plain story set in the world of highway cruising, Duel remains to be a great and tense time.

David Mann (Weaver) reverses his 1971 Plymouth Valiant out of his driveway, flips on the radio and putters through town as news and sports highlights play. Eventually he reaches the highway and less congestion.

Unfortunately, he is soon slowed by a large and polluting tanker truck marked flammable which is clearly in no hurry on the two-lane curvy road. Eventually there is an opportunity to pass and David takes it, moving on and thinking very little of it. This simple event begins a strange day for David, full of terror and danger.

It’s hard not to watch Duel and feel the sheer anxiety of David and his ordeal with a random truck driver. Since most everyone has experienced someone else’s road rage at some point, Duel works well as an ‘average Joe’ tale of terror which could happen to anyone.

The film originally was broadcast on TV, but was popular enough to get elongated with additional scenes for a theatrical run, as a certain length of feature was required. Despite being an early feature in his storied career, Spielberg was already perfecting the art of the unknown and less is more that was used years later in Jaws.