Duel (1971)
The most bizarre murder weapon ever used!
This one is another request movie. It’s an old one - older even than me - but not so old that it lacks sound or color. In fact, it’s actually one of Spielberg’s earlier movies, and a good number of people grew up watching his various movies.It’s a season spirited movie, for sure, albeit a much different one than some of the normal flicks I throw out using the season of spirits as an excuse. One man’s quest to beat a truck, put on your seat belts and check that radiator hose, tonight we see Duel.
The story is about as simple as it can be, while also being one that you won’t find a whole lot of answers to. The backstory is delivered entirely in a single phone call - a man’s on a trip to visit a business client along a long road. It’s a pretty important client, so he’s gotta do it, but he’s pretty sure he’ll be home in time for dinner. Along the way, something happens and a semi driver takes it upon himself to turn this man’s life into the closest thing to hell he can. Will the man manage to find his way out of harm’s path, or will he be nothing more than a hubcap and some skid marks left in the road?
Like I mentioned, there is no why to be answered here. Our main character even delivers the lack of answers in a monologue at one point when he’s thinking to himself. It’s almost a bit of a misleading thing to call him the main character - he’s more like the only real character in the movie. There’s a side person here or there, but that’s really all they are - someone to get yelled at or provide some other form of problem solving or questioning before it goes back to the Truck and the man. The man of course gets a little family backstory through his phone call, which introduces some tensions outside of that with the truck as we get the sense that everything isn’t entirely cozy at home to begin with. The truck is just big and menacing, looking every bit the killer that it’s supposed to be.
Actor wise, you have our lead. Yes, there are a few folks in there, but pretty much all acting is from the main character, so he’s got to deliver a lot of things from happiness to anger across the time span to get folks invested in what happens to him. He does a pretty good job, not coming off as a total jerk but having a little level of snoot to him at times. The driver of the truck never really gets (at least confirmed) seen outside of his rig, so to say there is anything to really say about the driver as an actor would be better spent trying to explain that the camera work does more for acting then most the rest of the movie. A side character will show up, adequately deliver their handful of lines or glances, then exit stage left when the main takes off again.
The cast
The pacing is pretty slow in this one too. This leads me to believe that people with attention problems won’t enjoy this one that much. You might be talking to your computer and telling it how “that’s not true” - to which I point out that there’s a reason horror movies tend to stick the side of constant jump scares rather than slow burning plots. Heck, some might even have been around for me to praise the original Paranormal Activity for taking the time to be slow and plodding, even if it’s doing it in a totally irrelevant way that ends up feeling like padding time in retrospect. Case in point though, the front end of this movie is slow, and it takes a good while of slowly building up the tension of the truck as a evil entity before it starts getting more constant with the top end of the spook curve rather than the build up.
It does a good job though, factoring in plenty of ups and downs with how it uses what it has - which is essentially two vehicles and an actor driving a big old road. You might know what’s coming, but it’s a matter of when it’s going to get to it. It gives plenty of lulls until that final act as well, letting the tensions build and release in different ways - providing a respite from lethality while the rusty presence looms just off screen. Heck, there’s even moments in here where it makes you second guess if perhaps the truck is some sort of mental issue of the man - although that would fly in the face of the people who interact with it earlier on in the movie. As much as a lot of people won’t like getting reasons behind the actions either, I do think it was a good move to leave it ambiguous as sometimes there is more terror in not knowing what particular horror afflicts the situation than having it all spilled out.
Audio was there, although outside of a scene or two the fact there was music in the movie almost feels like me making it up. Everything is pretty audible, outside of a few lines delivered before a nap that I wouldn’t even know were there if it wasn’t for subtitles - a instance made a bit odder by the fact it’s more internal monologue than actual out-loud speaking. Beyond that, the sounds of the road, wind, and vehicles do a wonderful job of filling things in and it never really feels like it’s too quiet and nothing is happening outside of when it explicitly wants it to feel that way. Admittedly, I assume a lot of this might have had something to do with budget, but what’s there isn’t bad by any means.Of the more movie-part elements, the camera work and how they use it and angles and POV shots does a wonderful job of making the vehicles feel like characters.
The enemy
It’s a fine movie. It shows it’s age less than it shows it’s budget, and perhaps not everyone is going to be suited for this much of a slow-start, time-taking thriller of suspense. All the various elements in the movie are well enough done that it doesn’t feel like a bad movie, and you get the feel that the direction had a pretty good idea of what it wanted. The truck feels as much like a character as any human villain could, and the main character does a good job showing off various states from panic to acceptance. It’s the kind of movie where I never mind watching it once, but can’t dedicate myself to massive repeat viewings personally. You know it can’t be that bad regardless how you feel about it, because I know for sure it spawned all manner of clones and knockoffs throughout the years. If nothing else, the fact that this is essentially road rage the movie should ring true and spook any modern audience that drives - cause the core concept of this bad boy will probably never age.