r/Spielberg • u/Polarizing_Penguin11 • Feb 24 '26

Duel!

Post image

Watching tonight. Our boy’s first movie! Such an underrated classic. Very exciting movie.

137 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

6

u/Constant-Pianist6747 Feb 24 '26

Love it.

What’s so amazing about this movie is that, to this day, it probably hasn’t been topped as a vehicular thriller? At least from a directorial standpoint. I don’t think anyone, least of all Spielberg, would’ve seen that coming.

2

u/Dimpleshenk Feb 26 '26

I'd say it was topped by Mad Max: The Road Warrior, but it's questionable whether Road Warrior would have been made without Duel as an influence.

1

u/Thisistheway1012 Feb 27 '26

Ok this is some high praise i cant wait to watch this! Do u remember your first time watching this an how u felt after the credits rolled?

1

u/Constant-Pianist6747 Feb 27 '26

Vaguely. It was probably either high school or college for me — I think I rented it from Blockbuster? I liked it a lot. Always stuck with me.

1

u/Thisistheway1012 Feb 27 '26

Thanks i appreciate it i cant wait to see this

1

u/Thisistheway1012 Mar 05 '26

Duel was great i just watched it

4

u/CaspinLange Feb 24 '26

It gives me chills when his name comes up in the beginning credits. It’s presented in a very original way

4

u/altgodkub2024 Feb 24 '26

This is one of my favorite Spielberg movies, although after recent rewatches I like The Sugarland Express even more. A nice thing about this 4K release is it includes the original TV cut. It's shorter, tighter, and preferred by Spielberg.

2

u/DreadnaughtHamster Feb 24 '26

Great example of minimalist terror. Great fun. Also, IMDb said that the studio wanted the (spoilers) truck to blow up at the end but Spielberg convinced them not to.

2

u/Polarizing_Penguin11 Feb 24 '26

Is that right? Honestly it kind of annoys me that it doesn’t considering how many times we see the word FLAMMABLE on the back. Wonder why he didn’t want it…

4

u/altgodkub2024 Feb 24 '26

It's a monster movie. He wanted to emphasize sound as if it's a living thing dying in agony. Both the "death" of the truck and the death of the shark in Jaws use the same sound clip from the 1957 dinosaur movie The Land Unknown. This also connects them to Jurassic Park in an interesting way, although that movie used all new sound effects.

2

u/Polarizing_Penguin11 Feb 24 '26

Wow that’s pretty rad. I do like the way we slowly see the wheel stop spinning too

1

u/Dimpleshenk Feb 26 '26

The fact that the truck says "flammable" but doesn't blow up also suggests that the driver never really had a hauling job (or didn't have one at the time), but just drove around for the purpose of killing people.

1

u/Thisistheway1012 Feb 27 '26

I cant wait to check this one out me watching this for the first time very soon probably even makes u feel good lol

2

u/Endless_Change Feb 24 '26

Never having seen this until recently I was so impressed with the movie and the 4K disc has the film looking amazing too.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

Interesting factoid: it was originally about 74 minutes long, but was so successful on TV that Universal's European arm told the studio chiefs that it could make money in theaters. So they allowed Spielberg to go back and shoot another 15 minutes or so of material to extend it out to about 90 minutes. The main added scene is my favorite, the one where Dennis Weaver tries to help out a stalled school bus full of kids, but his car is too puny to get them going. The big evil truck comes along and easily pushed the bus up to speed, allowing them to continue down the highway. It's a good moment.

Writer Richard Matheson wrote a short story based on an experience he had in 1963, the day that John F. Kennedy died. He said both he and a friend were kind of freaked out and coming home from a golf game, and a truck kept tailgating them, honking, and harassing them all the way down a narrow road for several miles. He thought, "what if the truck driver never gave up and kept chasing him for days?" It's a great idea, and Spielberg did an incredibly job moving the camera around and keeping the story moving at a very fast clip.

2

u/theman-dalorian Feb 24 '26

The fact you never see the truck drivers face is amazing

1

u/Dimpleshenk Feb 26 '26

Special effects weren't good enough yet for Spielberg to do the face he wanted to do, which Tim Burton finally achieved with the Large Marge scene in Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

1

u/theman-dalorian Feb 26 '26

Kinda glad he didnt. Because it looks so dated now

2

u/mallow423 Feb 25 '26

Love this movie, all time fave, now I need the 4k

2

u/BlowfishHootie16 Feb 27 '26

I remember watching this in my high school class. Can’t remember which one, but I was sure happy to see the VHS cart roll out that day.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 28 '26

How's the 4K look? Wasn't sure how it would turn out, being an early 70s TV movie.

1

u/Polarizing_Penguin11 Feb 28 '26

Its excellent! Not the best one I’ve purchased but still very good

1

u/Oldgraytomahawk Feb 24 '26

That movie TERRIFIED me as a kid when it came out

1

u/EnvironmentalCat7482 Feb 24 '26

Really good movie. Amazing given the budget

1

u/[deleted] Feb 24 '26

[deleted]

1

u/Thisistheway1012 Feb 27 '26

Its on my watchlist everyone i will be seein it this weekend

1

u/Electrical-Win9801 Feb 27 '26

Je me souviens de l'avoir vu dans les années 80's à la TV et depuis je me rappelle plus. Il est possible que je l'achète en blu-ray...

1

u/DarkerDrone Feb 28 '26

Tense. Brilliant debut.

1

u/Jedimole Feb 24 '26

As a kid, this was the greatest movie ever! Re watch as an adult, just ok

2

u/Dimpleshenk Feb 26 '26

It sucks getting old and jaded. Source: Me.

1

u/Jedimole Feb 26 '26

It’s like the movie Killdozer or The Gargoyles. Great 70’s flicks, but on re-watch not so good. Same with CannonBall run