Post by erik on Nov 11, 2021 17:43:40 GMT -8
Quote by David Mann (Dennis Weaver) in DUEL:
As the world awaits the December 10th release of director Steven Spielberg's take on WEST SIDE STORY, it is important to note that this coming Saturday will mark fifty years since the broadcast premiere on ABC-TV of the made-for-TV psychological thriller that established him as a household name in Hollywood. That film was DUEL. Spielberg wasn't even 25 years old yet at the time; and even more, he was working with an absolutely insane 12-day schedule and a budget of only $700,000 (which doesn't even cover catering costs on a lot of today's Hollywood blockbusters these days), on remote mountain and desert highways in northern Los Angeles County. And yet, he had created a simple but terrifying yarn of what it's like to be stalked for no apparent reason on a public highway, having nobody but yourself to rely on for survival.
With a screenplay by the legendary sci-fi writer Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), based on a frightening encounter with a tailgating semi that Matheson and his fellow writer Jerry Sohl had while driving through Ventura County, California on the day of the JFK assassination, DUEL stars Dennis Weaver as the first of Spielberg's Everyman types, an average auto-driving businessman who passes a road-hogging gasoline tanker truck a couple of times on a deserted highway, only to find himself stalked the rest of the way. The truck driver is never exactly seen, though it is apparent that Weaver is dealing with a complete psychopath here; and given that it's out in the middle of nowhere, he is understandably paranoid, finally being forced to engage in a psychologically violent and prolonged highway chase that ends quite fiercely.
Shot on location in the canyonlands between the San Fernando Valley and the western Mojave Desert, on roads that parallel California Highway 14, DUEL is a masterpiece of pulse-pounding terror, a precursor to the weird phenomenon of recent decades we call Road Rage. Weaver, remembered for his TV roles on McCloud and Gunsmoke, as well as a harried motel clerk in the 1958 Orson Welles cult classic TOUCH OF EVIL, is a perfect example of someone who is not intended to be, act, or think like a stereotypical cinematic hero, which makes him completely credible in the role of a man driven almost literally over the edge. Spielberg's direction, not surprisingly, offered comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock, especially to PSYCHO and (in the above phone booth scene) THE BIRDS, a feeling enhanced by the avant-garde score of Billy Goldenberg (remembered for his work on Elvis' 1968 NBC-TV special). Spielberg is reported to have told Weaver once that he made it a point to watch this single film at least twice a year to remind himself of how he got started, and it's easy to see why. Even at this very early stage of his career, Spielberg had a way of putting audiences in the shoes of his protagonist, something that would be a hallmark of virtually every one of his films. The influence of DUEL can be felt in any number of "road" films like 1986's THE HITCHER, 1997's BREAKDOWN, and 2001's JOY RIDE.
Even fifty years later, DUEL still makes people look in their rearview mirrors driving through isolated settings, much like JAWS would keep a hell of a lot of people off of the beach. That is a mark of a film that remains effective and gets under one's skin even in the CGI era of filmmaking that we live in today.
"Well you never know. You just never know. You just go along figuring some things don't change ever, like being able to drive on a public highway without somebody trying to murder you. And then one stupid thing happens. Twenty, twenty-five minutes out of your whole life, and all the ropes that kept you hanging in there get cut loose. And it's like, there you are, right back in the jungle again."
As the world awaits the December 10th release of director Steven Spielberg's take on WEST SIDE STORY, it is important to note that this coming Saturday will mark fifty years since the broadcast premiere on ABC-TV of the made-for-TV psychological thriller that established him as a household name in Hollywood. That film was DUEL. Spielberg wasn't even 25 years old yet at the time; and even more, he was working with an absolutely insane 12-day schedule and a budget of only $700,000 (which doesn't even cover catering costs on a lot of today's Hollywood blockbusters these days), on remote mountain and desert highways in northern Los Angeles County. And yet, he had created a simple but terrifying yarn of what it's like to be stalked for no apparent reason on a public highway, having nobody but yourself to rely on for survival.
With a screenplay by the legendary sci-fi writer Richard Matheson (I Am Legend), based on a frightening encounter with a tailgating semi that Matheson and his fellow writer Jerry Sohl had while driving through Ventura County, California on the day of the JFK assassination, DUEL stars Dennis Weaver as the first of Spielberg's Everyman types, an average auto-driving businessman who passes a road-hogging gasoline tanker truck a couple of times on a deserted highway, only to find himself stalked the rest of the way. The truck driver is never exactly seen, though it is apparent that Weaver is dealing with a complete psychopath here; and given that it's out in the middle of nowhere, he is understandably paranoid, finally being forced to engage in a psychologically violent and prolonged highway chase that ends quite fiercely.
Shot on location in the canyonlands between the San Fernando Valley and the western Mojave Desert, on roads that parallel California Highway 14, DUEL is a masterpiece of pulse-pounding terror, a precursor to the weird phenomenon of recent decades we call Road Rage. Weaver, remembered for his TV roles on McCloud and Gunsmoke, as well as a harried motel clerk in the 1958 Orson Welles cult classic TOUCH OF EVIL, is a perfect example of someone who is not intended to be, act, or think like a stereotypical cinematic hero, which makes him completely credible in the role of a man driven almost literally over the edge. Spielberg's direction, not surprisingly, offered comparisons to Alfred Hitchcock, especially to PSYCHO and (in the above phone booth scene) THE BIRDS, a feeling enhanced by the avant-garde score of Billy Goldenberg (remembered for his work on Elvis' 1968 NBC-TV special). Spielberg is reported to have told Weaver once that he made it a point to watch this single film at least twice a year to remind himself of how he got started, and it's easy to see why. Even at this very early stage of his career, Spielberg had a way of putting audiences in the shoes of his protagonist, something that would be a hallmark of virtually every one of his films. The influence of DUEL can be felt in any number of "road" films like 1986's THE HITCHER, 1997's BREAKDOWN, and 2001's JOY RIDE.
Even fifty years later, DUEL still makes people look in their rearview mirrors driving through isolated settings, much like JAWS would keep a hell of a lot of people off of the beach. That is a mark of a film that remains effective and gets under one's skin even in the CGI era of filmmaking that we live in today.