My movie-going journey has taken me to many places, discovering filmmakers and movies that I probably never thought I would see, either on the big or silver screen. However, just as a normal human being born in the 20th century, it would be fair to say that almost everyone has Steven Spielberg somewhere in their childhood. I mean…we all grew up on such masterpieces like E.T. (1982), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Jurassic Park (1993).

One thing I actually never did until today is go back to the VERY beginning of Spielberg’s filmmaking career. At one point, in the early 1970s, even before he spawned the concept of the “blockbuster” with Jaws (1975), Spielberg was a young student of the art of cinema in college. He wasn’t known yet and he was trying to find his voice as a film director in his 20s. Apart from smaller debuts in film direction with hit series like Night Gallery and Columbo, the start of his career can be summarized in one simple word: Duel. Contrary to the common belief, Jaws was not his first film. He made a simple 90-minute film made for TV in collaboration with Universal Television, with a very small budget of $ 450,000. Now considered a classic in its own right, it didn’t start that way back in 1971…

It took me so much time to watch this one. Considering I adore the great Spielberg like most of my peers, how is it that I still haven’t watched his entire filmography yet? On the shelf of my local municipal library, the DVD of Duel was calling to me….and I finally answered! Let’s ‘drive’ in, shall we?

Rest assured, Duel‘s synopsis is about the simplest there is, you can’t get any more straightforward than that. A salesman on the road named David Mann (Dennis Weaver) is driving across the Californian desert to get to an unknown destination in his elegant little red Plymouth Valiant. At one point, on the country roads, he decides to overtake a big rusty fuel truck that was dragging its feet on the road…unaware that this would be such a big mistake. The truck driver decides to go nuts and starts chasing the salesman in his beast, launching a murderous game of cat and mouse across the Californian roads…leaving only one man standing behind the wheel. This movie was written as a short story by a known figure in the industry, Richard Matheson, who was inspired to write the screenplay after his strange encounter with a tailgating truck driver on November 22, 1963 – the same day John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Oh and yeah….the driver of the truck in this story is never (not once) shown on screen as a whole person, leaving only the monstrous truck as the main antagonist, roaring and leaking oil on the desert roads.

Of course, the similarities between this film and Jaws are countless! First of all, this is 100% a monster film, not merely a car chase flick similar to what was hot in the 70s following Vanishing Point or Mad Max. We know for sure Spielberg had a fascination for the monster genre in his earlier work (thinking also about Jurassic Park), but this takes it to a whole other level. Interesting reference to be made here; in his latest biopic which he himself directed, The Fabelmans (2022), the famous filmmaker told us that he had a fascination with huge means of transportation and roaring vehicles at a young age. He explained this through a train crash that he saw in theatres with his parents and tried to recreate it with a smaller model at home. And in 1971, the train takes the form of an oil truck, how poetic!

Although it wasn’t his choice for Jaws, considering that the mechanical shark, nicknamed “Bruce”, kept breaking down and he couldn’t film with it as often, Spielberg consciously made the enemy completely invisible in Duel. There’s a conscious decision to NOT put a human face on evil, a move he would employ in the opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan, but rather let the vehicles do the talking themselves. Needless to say, this is a brilliant choice! The subject of our fears takes the form of a big and ugly machine instead of a character; we are most afraid of the unknown and it’s too quiet on the roads surrounding our salesman. No kidding, I was afraid of the simple static shot on a tripod seeing a truck arriving, slowly, in the frame.

I agree that my review might be a little simplistic, but Duel is truly like Jaws but on wheels. Their way of pacing the movie and building tension through pure suggestion of threat is too noticeable to be ignored. Here, their ocean is a dry Californian desert where one can feel totally alone for miles and miles (apart from a small batch of secondary characters here and there as obstacles during the chase). My main scare here was that the Red Plymouth would eventually overheat after being pushed too hard, and the same for Quint’s boat chasing the shark during the final showdown.

In its short runtime of 90 minutes, it’s such a wonder to see Spielberg start so strong, considering that Duel never drags, even if the setting from scene to scene can become a little redundant. We need to remain fair to Spielberg’s career as a whole, Duel will never be his best movie, while there is some undeniable talent here. Narratively simplistic, the same for the filming style, the movie is well-made and gets the job done in terms of thrills.

I’m sure we mentioned this many times, but in the era of the film spectacle where we don’t make smaller movies for cinemas anymore, this is an example that you don’t need much to deliver a good motion picture! A big open space, two different vehicles, a good leading actor, a stunt crew to capture the chase while driving, a couple of extras…and VOILÀ!

*If you’re as curious as I was, you can find Duel easily on Apple TV and Prime Video to purchase or rent. I think you will enjoy its elegant simplicity.