Another notable road movie that is 40 years old this year is the debut from director Steven Spielberg, initially made for TV and re-released in a theatrical version.
Duel (the poster above may have deliberate misspelling) featured Dennis Weaver as a motorist who while driving in the desolate semi mountainous roads near Acton northeast of LA, is picked on by a psychopathic trucker (never seen) who for his perverted enjoyment from time to time selects motorists to kill by crashing them off the road, and who then puts their number plates on his truck as trophies. The 'duel' is the battle between the drivers, the psychotic trucker in a suitably evil looking 1955 Peterbilt 281 with 'flammable' written on it, and David Mann in a 1970 Plymouth Valiant.
The story writer was inspired by a real incident of being tailgated by a big truck (an experience motorists often have), and some of the evil manoeuvres that the trucker makes in the movie were also inspired by real incidents on the roads.
The 90 minute movie is riveting, scary viewing.
No comments:
Post a Comment