The Duel (1971) crazy homicidal trucker movie

[lester1/2jr]

        I caught about the last 3/4 of this movie the other day on AMC.  It was awesome.  this guy somehow p**ses of a trcuker, who's face you never see, who procedes to follow him everywhere he goes trying to run him off the road.  The protagonist is not particularly brave or clever, but manages to put up a fight.  "My snakes!!"  cool flick

[Menard]

I originally saw DUEL in 1971 when it was broadcast on television. I need to see it again as I only remember it in parts, and I imagine it would look better today than it did on the old TV set  on which I originally viewed it.

[Mr_Vindictive]

Duel is a great flick.  My wife bought it for me on DVD for father's day.

As a note of interest, it was Spielberg's first flick.  I've seen it numerous times over the years and it never gets boring.  Dennis Weaver is great as the (at first) timid driver of that beautiful orange Plymouth Valiant.  

They don't make cars like they used to.

[lester1/2jr]

wow I had no idea that was spielbergs first.

[Scott]

Another of my favorite 70's films that I must have seen about 3 times on TV during those days. The truck reminds you of the rusty old vehicle in JEEPERS CREEPERS. Would have loved to have caught that one on AMC. Haven't seen it in years. Looks like it's available on DVD.

[Wence]

Absolutely cool film with a subtile thrill. Cult!

[The Burgomaster]

I bought the DVD a few months ago.  It features an interview with Spielberg that is pretty interesting.  One of the best "made-for-television" movies of all time (although, they did shoot a few extra scenes for the European theatrical release because the original TV movie was only about 75 minutes long, made to fit into a 90 minute time slot with 15 minutes of commercials).

[Archivist]

Oooh, very cool!  I saw this in about 1986 on TV, and the scenes of the torsos hanging in the refridgerated truck stayed with me for years, even though I didn't know the name of the film.  Great stuff.  I had to ask about it here to get an ID of the movie!

~Archivist~

[The Burgomaster]

Archivist:

Sorry - - you're thinking of a different movie.  There were no torsos in a refrigerated truck in this one!

[lester1/2jr]

burgomaster- I wouldn't be surprised if there were!


          What was up with the snakes?  was that suppsed to be symoblism?

[The Burgomaster]

Lester:

Spielberg actually talks quite a bit about the snake scene in the interview that is on the DVD.  I can't remember exactly what he says about it though.  I think it was based on an actual person who had a snake display at the side of the road and he thought it would be interesting to put something like that in the movie.

Also noteworthy is that the story was originally written as a short story by Richard Matheson.  I think it was originally published in Playboy.

The producer wanted Spielberg to film most of the car scenes on a set, but Spielberg thought that it would look fake so he insisted that they film it outside on the road.  He said that it was really tough staying under budget, but they were able to pull it off.