June 17, 2026

Duel (1971): Spielberg's Road Terror Classic

Duel (1971): Spielberg's Road Terror Classic
Duel (1971): Spielberg's Road Terror Classic
Cinematic Flashback
Duel (1971): Spielberg's Road Terror Classic
RSS Feed podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon Amazon Music podcast player icon Apple Podcasts podcast player icon iHeartRadio podcast player icon PlayerFM podcast player icon Podchaser podcast player icon YouTube podcast player icon
RSS Feed podcast player icon Spotify podcast player icon Amazon Music podcast player icon Apple Podcasts podcast player icon iHeartRadio podcast player icon PlayerFM podcast player icon Podchaser podcast player icon YouTube podcast player icon
Season 2

In this episode of the Cinematic Flashback Podcast, Chuck and Matt continue their Origin Stories month with a look at Duel (1971), Steven Spielberg's breakthrough television thriller starring Dennis Weaver.

What begins as a routine business trip through the California desert turns into a terrifying game of cat and mouse when an ordinary salesman finds himself relentlessly pursued by a mysterious tanker truck. With a simple premise and minimal dialogue, Spielberg creates a tense thriller that still holds up more than fifty years later.

The hosts discuss:

• How Richard Matheson's real-life experience inspired the story
• Spielberg's early career and the road that led to Duel
• Dennis Weaver's performance as David Mann
• The truck as the film's true villain
• The differences between the television and theatrical versions
• The film's connections to Jaws and Spielberg's later work
• The practical filmmaking techniques that helped create the suspense

They also talk about the ABC Movie of the Week, the challenges of making a film on a tight television schedule, and why Duel remains one of the most memorable made-for-TV movies ever produced.

As always, it all comes down to the final question:

Does Duel groove through the decades… or lose its beat?

Links & Contact Website:
https://www.cinematicflashback.com

Contact Us:
https://www.cinematicflashback.com/contact/

Listen to Previous Episodes:
https://www.cinematicflashback.com/episodes/

Leave a Review:
https://www.cinematicflashback.com/reviews/new/

Read the Blog:
https://www.cinematicflashback.com/blog/

Subscribe:
https://www.cinematicflashback.com/follow/

Share the Show:
Tell your movie-loving friends!

Other Podcast You Might Enjoy:

  • Surely You Can't Be Serious Podcast
  • 30 Something Movie Podcast
  • A Film By Podcast
  • Dockingbay 77
  • Def Dave's 1984
  • Accidental Legends
  • Phasers Set to Stun
  • Children of the 80s
WEBVTT

1
00:00:01.679 --> 00:00:08.199
I want to cut it out right, just just cut

2
00:00:08.240 --> 00:00:18.519
it out. Okay. So wow, now come on, I mean, please,

3
00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:20.800
I don't. Let's not play games.

4
00:00:22.480 --> 00:00:23.679
Well, how are you talking about?

5
00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:30.679
I'm called please? Do you think that I won't?

6
00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:35.759
You know, mister, if you think you can take that truck,

7
00:00:35.799 --> 00:00:37.560
if you wis and just use it as a murder weapon,

8
00:00:37.640 --> 00:00:41.759
just killing people on the highway, you're wrong. You've got

9
00:00:41.799 --> 00:00:42.560
another thing coming.

10
00:00:46.840 --> 00:00:50.920
Welcome to the Cinematic Flashback Podcast. Get ready to hop

11
00:00:50.960 --> 00:00:53.560
into the wayback machine as we journey through the wild,

12
00:00:53.640 --> 00:00:57.920
bolt and unforgettable films of the nineteen seventies. Each episode,

13
00:00:58.079 --> 00:01:01.240
do we break down a classic movie or forgotten Jim

14
00:01:01.280 --> 00:01:04.040
seeing how it performed then and now, and wrapping things

15
00:01:04.120 --> 00:01:06.680
up by asking did a groove for the decades or

16
00:01:06.719 --> 00:01:09.319
did it lose its feat I am your host, Chuck Bryant,

17
00:01:09.319 --> 00:01:13.599
and today we are reviewing Steven Spielberg's nineteen seventy one

18
00:01:13.680 --> 00:01:18.280
thriller Duel starring Dennis Weaver. This is our second film

19
00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:21.840
in our Origin Stories month, where we focused on the

20
00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:25.920
first films of directors in the seventies. Last time, we

21
00:01:25.959 --> 00:01:29.599
looked at George Lucas's THHX eleven thirty eight, and this

22
00:01:29.799 --> 00:01:33.760
time we are focusing on Steven Spielberg and I am

23
00:01:33.879 --> 00:01:37.280
looking in my rearview mirror and writing my bumper is

24
00:01:37.480 --> 00:01:40.359
Matt Sargent. Matt, welcome back Burg.

25
00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:45.680
I'm coming right up with you. Chuck.

26
00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:46.079
Yeah.

27
00:01:46.159 --> 00:01:49.079
Oh, I'm so happy to be doing this origin series

28
00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:51.879
because it casts a lot of light on how these

29
00:01:52.040 --> 00:01:55.640
directors we might call their formative films that certainly they

30
00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:58.439
weren't watching the movie of the week or something with

31
00:01:58.480 --> 00:02:00.640
the family and would have been a movie that we

32
00:02:00.760 --> 00:02:03.519
would have watched. I'm surprised that we didn't see it. It

33
00:02:03.519 --> 00:02:05.840
probably came out at some time or something or other

34
00:02:05.879 --> 00:02:08.719
that we weren't watching, because back then you didn't have

35
00:02:08.960 --> 00:02:11.840
DVRs or VCRs or anything like that. You watched it

36
00:02:11.919 --> 00:02:12.960
when it was broadcast.

37
00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:16.800
Matt, in our very first episode of the Cinematic Flashback,

38
00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:20.199
you used a phrase that I had never heard before.

39
00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:24.680
It was appointment scheduling television. What did you mean by.

40
00:02:24.560 --> 00:02:27.120
That, Well, it's like, you know, you knew when when

41
00:02:27.199 --> 00:02:29.360
mash came on it was at a certain time on

42
00:02:29.400 --> 00:02:32.080
a certain day of the week, and everybody made sure

43
00:02:32.120 --> 00:02:34.080
they were available. I mean that went up until my

44
00:02:34.159 --> 00:02:39.120
college years because we watched Magnum Pi on Thursday evenings

45
00:02:39.439 --> 00:02:43.439
at my apartment in Harrisonburg. My best friend from college

46
00:02:43.479 --> 00:02:46.680
and still very very good friend of mine, probably still

47
00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:48.680
my best friend. He would come over to the apartment

48
00:02:48.719 --> 00:02:51.199
and we'd watch Magnum Pi. And a lot of people

49
00:02:51.240 --> 00:02:53.599
had shows like that obviously, you know, there were soap

50
00:02:53.639 --> 00:02:56.400
operas that were on every afternoon that people watched. That

51
00:02:56.479 --> 00:02:57.759
sort of thing very common.

52
00:02:58.039 --> 00:03:02.080
Sometimes the ABC movie the Week was actually a theatrical

53
00:03:02.080 --> 00:03:04.719
film that they had cut for television. That's how I saw.

54
00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:07.240
A lot of the films were rated are, but they

55
00:03:07.240 --> 00:03:09.199
had been sanitized a little bit.

56
00:03:09.439 --> 00:03:12.759
Yeah, they sometimes sanitize them for content, but also they

57
00:03:12.759 --> 00:03:16.120
would cut them to fit into the available time slots

58
00:03:16.199 --> 00:03:20.120
and commercial breaks. So one hundred and twenty minute movie

59
00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:24.159
with commercial breaks might be way too long to broadcast,

60
00:03:24.199 --> 00:03:26.360
so they would cut out. So that's where a lot

61
00:03:26.360 --> 00:03:30.360
of and I believe I remember hearing stories about directors saying,

62
00:03:30.599 --> 00:03:33.199
I won't put my film on TV because it'll they'll

63
00:03:33.240 --> 00:03:35.759
just chop the butcher it, yea. And they feel like

64
00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:37.800
they've already cut it to the bone to tell the

65
00:03:37.840 --> 00:03:40.080
story they want to tell, and they just can't imagine

66
00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:42.560
cutting anything more out now. I think we've all seen

67
00:03:42.599 --> 00:03:45.159
a few films that could bear with a little cutting

68
00:03:45.159 --> 00:03:48.360
out in the middle. So again, an artist in this

69
00:03:48.520 --> 00:03:52.280
craft might sometimes not always be compatible with selling.

70
00:03:52.400 --> 00:03:54.680
So well, great, I'm sure we're going to talk more

71
00:03:54.719 --> 00:03:57.520
about made for TV movies today since this is the

72
00:03:57.599 --> 00:03:59.439
topic of movie that we're watching.

73
00:03:59.639 --> 00:04:02.039
Matt, who do we have talking to us today? Well,

74
00:04:02.080 --> 00:04:05.280
I'm happy to report that we have Maddie B. Nineteen

75
00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:08.080
and that is not me. I did not make a

76
00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:11.520
suit about that. I did not make a pseudonym to

77
00:04:12.400 --> 00:04:16.240
make a comment. Guys, listen to last episode. We had

78
00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:18.360
a comment that was a little more critical. This one's

79
00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:20.399
a little more positive. So we like to mix in

80
00:04:20.439 --> 00:04:22.319
the good with the bad. So here we go. So

81
00:04:22.399 --> 00:04:25.319
he brings a quote from one of our favorite films,

82
00:04:25.360 --> 00:04:28.079
Dirty Harry. He left us five stars, thank you very

83
00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.879
much and says quote, do you feel lucky? The podcast

84
00:04:31.959 --> 00:04:35.040
is informative, fun and insightful. If you're a fan of

85
00:04:35.240 --> 00:04:39.279
seventies films, you just hit the jackpot. The logo is

86
00:04:39.319 --> 00:04:44.399
really good as well. Thank you, Maddie B. Nineteen for

87
00:04:44.480 --> 00:04:47.079
that review. We really appreciate it. We hope you tell

88
00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:49.319
your friends that you like the podcast and you find

89
00:04:49.360 --> 00:04:52.639
it somewhat pleasurable to listen to and somewhat informative. That's

90
00:04:52.639 --> 00:04:54.639
what we're here for. To have a little fun and

91
00:04:54.680 --> 00:04:57.079
to sort of spread the good word of some famous

92
00:04:57.120 --> 00:04:59.839
seventies films and a new light and sometimes some maybe

93
00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:02.879
not so well known seventies films.

94
00:05:02.959 --> 00:05:06.399
So that's the mission. That's the first time anyone has

95
00:05:06.560 --> 00:05:10.079
ever commented on our logo. To be honest, I think

96
00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:13.879
I found some clip art and it eventually evolved where

97
00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:17.279
I thought of putting a TIEDI item behind it. That's

98
00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:19.199
the evolution of that logo.

99
00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:22.000
I feel strongly that our listeners are going to now

100
00:05:22.199 --> 00:05:25.360
take some of our podcast, go to an ai and

101
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:28.560
generate us a new logo and then post it on

102
00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:30.800
our reviews and we will look at each of those

103
00:05:30.839 --> 00:05:32.360
logos and have some fun with them.

104
00:05:33.680 --> 00:05:34.720
That's very good.

105
00:05:34.839 --> 00:05:37.240
You guys can use your own tokens to generate those

106
00:05:37.319 --> 00:05:43.199
logo or send us the prompt you know exactly. So

107
00:05:43.720 --> 00:05:48.240
we are looking at Steven Spielberg's first film, and I know, Chuck,

108
00:05:48.439 --> 00:05:50.759
you always have a lot of information with a little

109
00:05:50.759 --> 00:05:53.000
bit of backstory. How did this movie happen?

110
00:05:53.240 --> 00:05:57.079
Matt. To rightly discuss how this movie happened, we have

111
00:05:57.160 --> 00:06:00.759
to go back just a little to nineteen six when

112
00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:05.480
Sid Sheinberg joined the television division of MCA and Universal.

113
00:06:05.600 --> 00:06:08.879
Now Sid is important for a couple of reasons. One,

114
00:06:09.120 --> 00:06:11.920
he became one of the key figures of modern television

115
00:06:12.040 --> 00:06:16.680
entertainment by popularizing the concept of quality made for TV movies.

116
00:06:16.920 --> 00:06:20.120
The other reason is because of a short twenty six

117
00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:23.800
minute film that he watched called Amblin, directed by this

118
00:06:23.959 --> 00:06:28.560
young English major attending cal State Long Beach. That student,

119
00:06:28.720 --> 00:06:32.439
as you may have guessed, was Steven Spielberg. While Amblin

120
00:06:32.759 --> 00:06:35.199
may have been his first film shot on thirty five

121
00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:39.000
millimeter film, it was not his first film. Spielberg had

122
00:06:39.040 --> 00:06:41.680
been making movies since he was a kid, and what

123
00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:45.759
Sid Sheinberg saw was talent, and he offered Spielberg a

124
00:06:45.839 --> 00:06:49.639
seven year contract to come work for him in television.

125
00:06:49.839 --> 00:06:54.199
His first television episode was for the Rod Sterling anthology

126
00:06:54.319 --> 00:06:57.959
series called Night Gallery. The episode Spielberg was a sign

127
00:06:58.279 --> 00:07:01.399
was called Eyes and Joan Crawford.

128
00:07:01.439 --> 00:07:04.800
I remember more than anything else, the first day of shooting.

129
00:07:05.480 --> 00:07:09.120
The crew had a very antagonistic reaction to my involvement

130
00:07:09.160 --> 00:07:11.240
as the director of the show. Because in those days

131
00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:14.040
we're talk about nineteen sixty nine, the crews the average

132
00:07:14.079 --> 00:07:16.800
age was fifty to fifty five and sixty. And these

133
00:07:17.079 --> 00:07:19.120
crew members who worked with all the great directors, they

134
00:07:19.160 --> 00:07:22.319
worked with capperin Sturges, they worked with Hawks and Ford,

135
00:07:22.560 --> 00:07:26.040
they worked with CB de Mill And I remember Joan

136
00:07:26.439 --> 00:07:29.720
giving a speech and standing up and saying, I have

137
00:07:29.800 --> 00:07:32.720
great respect for this director. I've worked with him before

138
00:07:32.759 --> 00:07:36.759
a Small White Life, and I want you to treat

139
00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:39.720
him as well as you would treat me. Well, we're

140
00:07:39.720 --> 00:07:41.839
all professionals. And I don't forget that speech he gave

141
00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:44.399
to the whole crew. And from that moment on, not

142
00:07:44.439 --> 00:07:46.399
only did the crew should be better, but Joan treating

143
00:07:46.439 --> 00:07:48.439
me like I've been directing for fifty years. She I

144
00:07:48.439 --> 00:07:50.160
guess just imagined I was George Kukoor.

145
00:07:50.319 --> 00:07:54.480
But Spielberg is only half of the equation. For the

146
00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:57.600
second half, we have to leave the seventies and go

147
00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:01.879
back to Friday, November twenty second, nineteen sixty three, the

148
00:08:01.959 --> 00:08:06.839
day that JFK was assassinated. Writer Richard Matheson was playing

149
00:08:06.839 --> 00:08:09.120
golf with a friend when he heard the news.

150
00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:14.120
The idea for Duel came to me on the day

151
00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:18.079
that President Kennedy was assassinated. A friend and I were

152
00:08:18.120 --> 00:08:22.160
playing golf over in Filmore, and when we came in

153
00:08:22.199 --> 00:08:25.720
for lunch, we heard about the assassination, and we were

154
00:08:25.759 --> 00:08:29.399
so distressed by the news that of course we forgot

155
00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:33.240
about the golf game and started going home. And as

156
00:08:33.279 --> 00:08:35.720
we were going through this narrow pass on the way

157
00:08:35.759 --> 00:08:40.720
back home, this huge truck started tailgating us, and we

158
00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:43.320
went faster and faster. He went faster and faster, and

159
00:08:43.399 --> 00:08:46.519
we were screaming out the windows, with as much fury

160
00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:49.080
about the assassination as about him trying to kill it.

161
00:08:49.600 --> 00:08:52.679
And finally my friend pulled off into a dirt siding

162
00:08:52.679 --> 00:08:57.200
and his car spun around, and this truck went flying past,

163
00:08:57.600 --> 00:09:01.360
and we were really shaken up by it, but having

164
00:09:01.399 --> 00:09:04.759
the true writer's mind, within a few moments, I thought,

165
00:09:04.759 --> 00:09:08.399
ah Man gets chased by a truck, and I wrote

166
00:09:08.440 --> 00:09:08.799
on an.

167
00:09:08.799 --> 00:09:12.320
Envelope That incident led him to write a teleplay called Duel,

168
00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:15.960
but no studio wanted it. Matheson adapted the story to

169
00:09:15.960 --> 00:09:19.159
a novel lette and found it published in Playboy magazine

170
00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:22.320
in March of nineteen seventy one, and this is where

171
00:09:22.360 --> 00:09:26.320
Nona Tyson, Spielberg's assistant, spotted it and brought it to

172
00:09:26.360 --> 00:09:31.480
his attention. But Spielberg was considered too inexperienced. Fortunately, he

173
00:09:31.559 --> 00:09:36.639
had advocates like Sheinberg and Duel's producer George Eckstein. Based

174
00:09:36.679 --> 00:09:40.559
on his television work, Spielberg was already employing techniques by

175
00:09:40.600 --> 00:09:43.919
two of his heroes, John Fordes and Howard Hawkes. He

176
00:09:43.960 --> 00:09:47.200
would use wide shots to establish a scene and then

177
00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:49.840
close ups to tell the narrative. The film was so

178
00:09:49.919 --> 00:09:53.519
affected that Universal later financed additional scenes so it could

179
00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:57.919
be expanded into a theatrical feature for overseas distribution. Today,

180
00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:02.279
Spielberg's production company is still named after his short film

181
00:10:02.480 --> 00:10:07.039
Ambling and the relationship between Spielberg Sheinberg. In Universal, it

182
00:10:07.080 --> 00:10:11.240
became one of the most successful director studio partnerships in

183
00:10:11.279 --> 00:10:16.919
Hollywood history, producing films like Jaws Et, Jurassic Park, Schindler's List,

184
00:10:17.120 --> 00:10:20.720
and many more. And Matt, that is how this film happened.

185
00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:23.159
That's an amazing story, and it's cool to get that

186
00:10:23.399 --> 00:10:26.120
background on how it kind of came to be and

187
00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:27.879
that it was a little bit of a test case

188
00:10:28.200 --> 00:10:30.759
and they picked the right guy. It would seem as

189
00:10:30.840 --> 00:10:31.399
a director.

190
00:10:31.679 --> 00:10:34.120
The story is is that he only had ten days

191
00:10:34.399 --> 00:10:37.320
to shoot duel. That's amazing, and he did it in

192
00:10:37.480 --> 00:10:42.000
thirteen and because of how efficiently he shot the first

193
00:10:42.159 --> 00:10:45.039
three days and they were seeing how quickly he was

194
00:10:45.080 --> 00:10:48.240
shooting that thirteen days was not a problem.

195
00:10:48.480 --> 00:10:50.879
That's amazing. And I mean it goes to the thing.

196
00:10:50.879 --> 00:10:53.120
It's like it's a TV move it the movie. The

197
00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:56.200
budgets are smaller, the time frame that you can shoot in.

198
00:10:56.240 --> 00:10:58.639
And we talked about the size of the screen. Nowadays,

199
00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:01.480
people don't realize that when you were watching film, you know,

200
00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.840
something on TV in the nineteen seventies, you weren't looking

201
00:11:04.879 --> 00:11:07.360
at a four K image. You were looking at you know,

202
00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:10.159
with five hundred and twenty five lines of resolution or

203
00:11:10.200 --> 00:11:12.960
something like that on a sure you know, it was

204
00:11:13.120 --> 00:11:16.559
just not of high resolution screen. So the idea of

205
00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:19.440
wide shots is exactly what they're saying. You always had

206
00:11:19.440 --> 00:11:23.000
close ups. That's why the soap operas and personal drama

207
00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:25.679
films where you had close ups of everybody face has

208
00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:28.240
worked really well because that worked great on that format.

209
00:11:28.320 --> 00:11:30.519
So it was a real it was a real trick

210
00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:34.080
for him to get something this exciting in that format

211
00:11:34.399 --> 00:11:37.080
and have it so well received by the by the

212
00:11:37.240 --> 00:11:40.679
watching public so well. With that said, I think we're

213
00:11:40.759 --> 00:11:43.840
just about ready to get into production details. But before

214
00:11:43.879 --> 00:11:46.039
we could do that, we need to take a quick break.

215
00:11:46.039 --> 00:11:53.480
Back and amatic flash back the.

216
00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:16.240
Movie of the Week presenting the world premiere of an

217
00:12:16.240 --> 00:12:24.399
original motion picture produced especially for EBC. Tonight on the

218
00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:35.159
Movie of the Week, you are man hit that car

219
00:12:35.240 --> 00:12:44.639
head on Dennis Weaver, Open Jack, I've read why why

220
00:12:44.799 --> 00:12:45.519
is he doing this?

221
00:12:51.000 --> 00:12:56.919
Feel welcome back. Let's go through the production details. Duel

222
00:12:57.000 --> 00:13:00.759
originally aired on November thirteenth, nineteen seventy one, as part

223
00:13:00.799 --> 00:13:03.440
of ABC's Movie of the Week. It was later given

224
00:13:03.480 --> 00:13:07.799
an international theatrical release by Universal, with additional footage bringing

225
00:13:07.799 --> 00:13:10.639
the running time from seventy four minutes to ninety minutes.

226
00:13:10.759 --> 00:13:13.759
And what is remarkable here is that Duel was made

227
00:13:13.799 --> 00:13:16.960
for around four hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The film

228
00:13:17.039 --> 00:13:19.759
was directed by a twenty four year old Steven Spielberg

229
00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:23.559
and what essentially was his feature film debut. The screenplay

230
00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:27.279
was written by Richard Matheson, adapting his story that had

231
00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:31.600
originally appeared in Playboy magazine. Earlier that same year. Duel

232
00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:35.879
would be Man's last short story. The cinematographer was Jack Marta,

233
00:13:36.039 --> 00:13:39.480
and Spielberg insisted on shooting out on a real desert

234
00:13:39.559 --> 00:13:43.559
highway in California, even though the production team thought that

235
00:13:43.679 --> 00:13:46.360
the schedule and budget were just too tight to make

236
00:13:46.440 --> 00:13:51.039
that practical. The entire movie was shot in roughly thirteen days.

237
00:13:51.240 --> 00:13:54.120
As a note, Matt Spielberg would make this same decision

238
00:13:54.240 --> 00:13:56.919
later when he decided to shoot Jaws not on a

239
00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:59.960
production studio backlot but out on the open ocean.

240
00:14:00.440 --> 00:14:02.960
Yeah, and Martha's vineyard right exactly.

241
00:14:03.080 --> 00:14:06.840
The score was not composed by John Williams. That relationship

242
00:14:06.840 --> 00:14:10.840
would start in his next film, The Sugarland Express. The

243
00:14:10.879 --> 00:14:14.759
score was composed by Billy Goldberg, who had already worked

244
00:14:14.799 --> 00:14:19.279
with Spielberg on television projects before Duel. Spielberg did not

245
00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:23.200
want a musical score. He wanted noise. For my money.

246
00:14:23.519 --> 00:14:26.759
This score reminded me a lot of Bernard Hermann's music

247
00:14:26.840 --> 00:14:32.559
from Psycho. And there is very little dialogue in this movie.

248
00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:39.720
Yes, it's definitely a movie of action and things happening. Necessarily, Also,

249
00:14:39.919 --> 00:14:42.639
this movie is limited to really to the main action

250
00:14:42.759 --> 00:14:46.200
that's going on, so we don't have a very big cast. Yeah,

251
00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:48.799
it's just a few people, and will lead off with

252
00:14:48.879 --> 00:14:53.120
the main character, Dennis Weaver playing David Mann. And as

253
00:14:53.159 --> 00:14:56.279
you say, he is an every man, and I think

254
00:14:56.360 --> 00:15:00.519
the name of the character David Mann is meant to that.

255
00:15:00.919 --> 00:15:03.759
At the time that this movie was made, Dennis Weaver

256
00:15:04.279 --> 00:15:08.120
was appearing in the TV show McCloud. He was Sam McLeod,

257
00:15:08.159 --> 00:15:10.960
the lead character in that show, and they stopped production

258
00:15:11.320 --> 00:15:13.559
for McLeod for the thirteen days that it took to

259
00:15:13.639 --> 00:15:16.759
film this. I was speaking about this film to a

260
00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:19.679
friend at work and he said, oh, Dennis Weaver, he

261
00:15:19.799 --> 00:15:23.679
played Chester on gun Smoke, And that blew my mind

262
00:15:23.720 --> 00:15:26.600
because growing up as a kid, Gun Smoke was one

263
00:15:26.639 --> 00:15:31.080
of my favorite TV shows and I remember Chester vividly,

264
00:15:31.200 --> 00:15:33.519
and I did not put it together that these two

265
00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:35.360
characters were played by the same actor.

266
00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:38.320
Picture me the same way, because I'm thinking two hundred

267
00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:42.480
and ninety episodes of gun Spot. That's amazing. And I've

268
00:15:42.519 --> 00:15:44.720
always liked Dennis Weaver. I though, yeah, you know, I

269
00:15:45.000 --> 00:15:47.879
I of course remember him from all of the regular

270
00:15:47.960 --> 00:15:51.840
stuff he came upon later because you know, being my age,

271
00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:54.120
you know, I sort of realized these things when I

272
00:15:54.200 --> 00:15:56.960
got older and he had kind of you know, moved

273
00:15:57.000 --> 00:16:00.559
out of you know, Gentle Ben and McLoud and unspoken

274
00:16:00.720 --> 00:16:04.440
was in sort of featured actor on the love Boat

275
00:16:04.559 --> 00:16:06.720
and stuff like that or whatever. Maybe I don't even

276
00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:09.559
know if that happened, but my guess is probably because

277
00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:13.759
that's sure they would. Yeah, everybody went through the through

278
00:16:13.799 --> 00:16:16.440
the love Boat. But yeah, I've always thought Dennis Sweever

279
00:16:17.200 --> 00:16:19.960
was a great actor. I mean clearly from this just

280
00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:23.039
this little list we have of Chester on gun Smoke,

281
00:16:23.240 --> 00:16:27.399
Tom Wedlow on General Ben, which another show I watched

282
00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:31.080
as a kid, forty six episodes of McLeod obviously he

283
00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:34.200
was the main character. Is amazing. I mean, that's that's

284
00:16:34.240 --> 00:16:38.120
a huge television repertoire right there. That's years and years

285
00:16:38.159 --> 00:16:41.360
of working actor. You can't not be good to be

286
00:16:41.480 --> 00:16:42.440
engaged that long.

287
00:16:42.840 --> 00:16:45.919
So, Matt, we don't have a lot of actors. I

288
00:16:46.159 --> 00:16:50.720
did want to recognize the truck driver because we only

289
00:16:51.080 --> 00:16:54.600
see an outline of him and we see his arm,

290
00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:57.679
but we never really see him or interact directly with

291
00:16:57.799 --> 00:17:02.679
him as a character. But he was played by Carrie Lofton,

292
00:17:03.039 --> 00:17:07.519
and Carrie was an American professional stuntman, a stunt coordinator

293
00:17:07.759 --> 00:17:11.200
and an actor. He was called the greatest car man

294
00:17:11.680 --> 00:17:15.079
in the business, and he was in such movies as

295
00:17:15.519 --> 00:17:19.359
stunt coordinator on Bullet he was involved with our favorite

296
00:17:19.440 --> 00:17:23.440
car chase scene in The French Connection. Duell got him

297
00:17:23.559 --> 00:17:27.440
his most iconic role for the main character, truck, and

298
00:17:27.519 --> 00:17:32.480
because of that, he got cast as the stuntman for

299
00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:39.039
over thirty movies and television programs that involved trucks, including

300
00:17:39.440 --> 00:17:43.079
White Line, Fever, Smoky in the Bandit as well as

301
00:17:43.079 --> 00:17:45.240
its sequel, I don't know if you remember BJ and

302
00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:49.279
the Bear, the TV show A hundred. Was also one

303
00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:53.000
of the drivers for Sylvester Stallone and Over the Top,

304
00:17:53.319 --> 00:17:58.880
and he also drove the green Goblin truck in Maximum Overdrive.

305
00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:04.000
How cool is it to actually end up going out

306
00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:07.920
of a long career being the truck guy. I mean, like, like,

307
00:18:07.960 --> 00:18:10.960
there's enough movies that are out there about semi trucks

308
00:18:11.240 --> 00:18:14.480
that you can make a successful career being the guy.

309
00:18:14.839 --> 00:18:18.200
Yeah, well, you know there. I remember this is where

310
00:18:18.200 --> 00:18:21.839
my age will show. I remember being in the nineteen seventies,

311
00:18:21.880 --> 00:18:24.160
and of course this movie must be one of the

312
00:18:24.200 --> 00:18:27.319
main reasons why you were out. We would every summer

313
00:18:27.400 --> 00:18:30.440
go on these long trips to Cape Cod from northern Virginia,

314
00:18:30.519 --> 00:18:32.400
so it's like a twelve hour drive. When you were

315
00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:35.880
in a VW bus which only went about sixty miles

316
00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:38.119
an hour, so it was like a twelve hour drive.

317
00:18:38.160 --> 00:18:40.119
So you're out there with the trucks all the time,

318
00:18:40.160 --> 00:18:41.400
and you know, you're like, oh.

319
00:18:41.359 --> 00:18:41.960
The big trucks.

320
00:18:41.960 --> 00:18:43.079
Everybody scared of the truck.

321
00:18:43.240 --> 00:18:43.720
Yeah.

322
00:18:43.759 --> 00:18:47.480
It took until I was an older person driving myself

323
00:18:47.519 --> 00:18:49.880
on the highways to realize that truck drivers, you know,

324
00:18:49.960 --> 00:18:53.920
professional truck drivers are really really good drivers. They generally

325
00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:57.799
don't cause any trouble. It doesn't help them in any way.

326
00:18:57.839 --> 00:19:00.200
To be kind, I'm not trying to murder, you know,

327
00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:02.920
not at all, but I mean did most of the

328
00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:05.880
driving car public thinks that's the case, but they clearly

329
00:19:05.880 --> 00:19:08.480
aren't because they need to get and deliver their load.

330
00:19:08.559 --> 00:19:11.720
They don't need any of this nonsense of an accident

331
00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:14.720
or something happening or the police being called on them.

332
00:19:15.079 --> 00:19:18.319
The other thing that's starkly apparent in this movie, just

333
00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:24.559
all the quick aside, is the lack of phones. Like nowadays,

334
00:19:24.680 --> 00:19:26.599
this wouldn't happen because you just get on your cell

335
00:19:26.640 --> 00:19:29.599
phone and go, hey, this, This truck is harassing me

336
00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:31.720
and the next thing you know, the police would be swarming.

337
00:19:31.839 --> 00:19:34.440
But back then you can barely find a payphone.

338
00:19:34.640 --> 00:19:37.519
Our dear listeners know that Matt and I do have

339
00:19:37.559 --> 00:19:41.319
a thing about phones in the seventies and how these

340
00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:44.240
movies today would have to find a different stick to

341
00:19:44.359 --> 00:19:44.720
make them.

342
00:19:45.119 --> 00:19:46.759
You'd have to be in some kind of Oh, there's

343
00:19:47.279 --> 00:19:52.240
a nationwide cellular outage, and then we can have this movie. Anyway,

344
00:19:52.640 --> 00:19:55.799
Let's move on to a couple of other actors which

345
00:19:55.880 --> 00:19:59.359
I actually got were kind of they tickled me. And

346
00:19:59.400 --> 00:20:02.200
there's not everybody else is a bit character, right, there's

347
00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:04.559
really nobody else in this film. They're only in it

348
00:20:04.640 --> 00:20:06.880
for like a second, yeah, or you know, a scene

349
00:20:06.960 --> 00:20:09.119
or two to kind of set some more thing. But

350
00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:11.839
really they're not recurring at all because of the nature

351
00:20:11.880 --> 00:20:14.400
of the film is they're driving through the desert, so

352
00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:16.279
I mean, anybody they're running into, they're sort of going

353
00:20:16.359 --> 00:20:18.200
to interact with and then they're going to drive off,

354
00:20:18.279 --> 00:20:20.359
you know, going on. But the one of the funniest

355
00:20:20.400 --> 00:20:23.839
one in The Funniest Ones is Lucille Benson, and she

356
00:20:24.039 --> 00:20:26.759
is the lady that runs the snake a Rama.

357
00:20:27.079 --> 00:20:30.359
Oh that that was a great scene. That was a

358
00:20:30.400 --> 00:20:34.559
great scene that that that's playing into your phone booths scene,

359
00:20:34.839 --> 00:20:38.519
because that's that's where the truck comes crashing through the

360
00:20:38.519 --> 00:20:40.880
phone booth while Dennis Lever is trying to make a call.

361
00:20:41.359 --> 00:20:44.480
Yeah, that is actually in my recollection of the film,

362
00:20:44.519 --> 00:20:48.519
that was the first really overt murderous intent.

363
00:20:48.599 --> 00:20:49.799
Sure in the film.

364
00:20:49.960 --> 00:20:52.599
Everything else was a guy running up on your bumper,

365
00:20:53.079 --> 00:20:57.039
angry that you pass them type of behavior. Maybe there

366
00:20:57.079 --> 00:21:01.079
was a bump I can't because they ran into the

367
00:21:01.279 --> 00:21:04.799
it ran into the fence. But I mean basically though.

368
00:21:04.720 --> 00:21:06.039
Pushing him into the train.

369
00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:09.079
All of that could have been like, oh I bumped

370
00:21:09.119 --> 00:21:11.720
you by a mistake, you know, But this one was

371
00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:15.319
he literally. But the funniest part about this is, and

372
00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:17.440
I always do this kind of thing, I kind of

373
00:21:17.480 --> 00:21:19.720
like to look in the background of scenes. Yeah, and

374
00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:22.359
the scene at the at the Snake Rama, which is

375
00:21:22.359 --> 00:21:25.000
a gas station but also has all these cage snakes

376
00:21:25.160 --> 00:21:29.519
in the background, there's an old time Corse drawn carriage

377
00:21:29.559 --> 00:21:34.559
type thing that's titled Doctor Stringfellow's or Juvenator Medicine show movie,

378
00:21:34.640 --> 00:21:37.359
Wow medicine show thing. It's a trailer back there. You

379
00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:39.119
can barely see it. I pause the movie to look

380
00:21:39.119 --> 00:21:40.720
at it because I were like, that seems I wonder

381
00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:43.359
if that's real. I wonder if that is a real thing,

382
00:21:43.400 --> 00:21:45.279
because it was like, it looks like it's something from

383
00:21:45.319 --> 00:21:48.519
you know, the old days. What turns out that that

384
00:21:48.680 --> 00:21:54.200
wagon actually came because it was part of a scene

385
00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:57.720
from another show in the Night Gallery. Here in an

386
00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:01.559
episode season two, episode nine of Night Gallery, which aired

387
00:22:01.599 --> 00:22:05.160
in November of seventy one, the same year Duel was released,

388
00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:08.559
and the segment in that show, Forrest Tucker plays doctor

389
00:22:08.640 --> 00:22:12.000
Ernest Stringfellow, a fraudulent Old West medicine man.

390
00:22:12.279 --> 00:22:13.559
So oh that's cool.

391
00:22:14.240 --> 00:22:16.720
Why help you missed too?

392
00:22:16.960 --> 00:22:20.680
Or you go to total out in back for surely

393
00:22:21.759 --> 00:22:22.759
something for your car?

394
00:22:25.240 --> 00:22:27.640
Well you can put one effle, you can get in

395
00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:28.839
a tank, all regy.

396
00:22:35.440 --> 00:22:38.440
Would you mind checking those Radiator hosts out they.

397
00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:41.079
Take a look at nice nights if you have so.

398
00:22:41.799 --> 00:22:46.480
Steven Spielberg has a kind of a paying it forward

399
00:22:46.599 --> 00:22:51.599
where he will reuse different actors or different nods to

400
00:22:51.799 --> 00:22:56.759
previous movies in future movies. In the movie nineteen forty one,

401
00:22:57.160 --> 00:23:01.759
there's the scene where John Belushi's wild Bill is landing

402
00:23:01.799 --> 00:23:05.319
his plane out in the desert and he lands at

403
00:23:05.640 --> 00:23:09.079
snake a Rama. It's the same gas station. It has

404
00:23:09.200 --> 00:23:12.839
Lucille Benson as the lady who fills up his gas

405
00:23:12.880 --> 00:23:20.799
tank with ethel up so.

406
00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:24.359
Along with Spielberg's callback for gas Mama in the film

407
00:23:24.480 --> 00:23:29.319
nineteen forty one. He also has two actors that appear

408
00:23:29.359 --> 00:23:32.640
in this film, Amy Douglas and Alexander Lockwood. They're an

409
00:23:32.720 --> 00:23:36.599
elderly couple in the car that you know that is

410
00:23:37.119 --> 00:23:41.839
encountered along the way. And it's interesting Spielberg would later

411
00:23:42.000 --> 00:23:45.440
place both those actors in Close Encounters of the Third Kind,

412
00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:48.200
which is a cool got a callback, you know.

413
00:23:48.440 --> 00:23:51.720
That's right. These two characters I want to believe were

414
00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:55.119
involved in the dual incident and then later would be

415
00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:59.519
the same characters involved in the Close Encounters incident. That's

416
00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:01.960
that's how I want to believe that were in.

417
00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:04.759
The same universe. Yeah, yeah, they're in the same universe.

418
00:24:06.319 --> 00:24:09.119
Okay, man, I think I think we've covered all of

419
00:24:09.160 --> 00:24:09.880
our actors.

420
00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:13.640
Oh no, no, no, I beg to differ. We have

421
00:24:13.799 --> 00:24:17.319
more really we need to talk about. Okay, And that

422
00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:22.759
character in this film actually had auditions, and that character

423
00:24:22.920 --> 00:24:24.000
is the truck.

424
00:24:23.960 --> 00:24:25.519
They auditioned a truck.

425
00:24:25.640 --> 00:24:28.920
Yeah, so there's actually two trucks. One was destroyed at

426
00:24:28.960 --> 00:24:30.960
the end of the film, obviously, So tell me about

427
00:24:30.960 --> 00:24:35.200
this audition. I'm curious. Well, it turns out Steven Spielberg

428
00:24:35.279 --> 00:24:37.559
looked at a variety of different trucks that it might

429
00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:39.599
be used and tried to pick one out. And Steven

430
00:24:39.759 --> 00:24:45.200
Spielberg really favored the traditional look of an elongated front truck.

431
00:24:45.319 --> 00:24:47.880
He felt like it looked more like a face. It

432
00:24:47.960 --> 00:24:51.279
had the big dark windows as eyes, had the big

433
00:24:51.319 --> 00:24:54.839
long snout. You know, it's a very almost feral type

434
00:24:54.880 --> 00:24:57.240
of look to it, kind of aggressive, very hard to

435
00:24:57.279 --> 00:25:00.519
see into it. And from the angle this shot, and

436
00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:02.319
we'll talk a little bit about that, there was a

437
00:25:02.319 --> 00:25:04.599
lot of low angles kind of from the bumper and

438
00:25:04.640 --> 00:25:06.519
from the bumper when that truck is very close, you

439
00:25:06.559 --> 00:25:09.559
can't even see the driver. Yeah, you just see that

440
00:25:09.759 --> 00:25:13.519
giant radiator type front end grill of the truck. So

441
00:25:13.559 --> 00:25:15.119
it was very effective and I think he made a

442
00:25:15.160 --> 00:25:17.240
great selection. The other part about the truck is at

443
00:25:17.240 --> 00:25:20.960
it it looks in disrepair. It looks very rugged, and

444
00:25:21.319 --> 00:25:25.839
it has the words flammable written all over it. Very

445
00:25:25.880 --> 00:25:29.319
disconcerting for someone being followed by a truck full of

446
00:25:29.400 --> 00:25:31.119
some sort of explosive liquid.

447
00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:34.519
Now you saw all the multiple license plates on the front.

448
00:25:34.559 --> 00:25:38.200
Spielberg said that they were suggesting that maybe this driver

449
00:25:38.799 --> 00:25:41.920
was perhaps a serial killer, and that these plates were

450
00:25:42.079 --> 00:25:46.440
possibly his trophies from other vehicles that he had run down.

451
00:25:46.920 --> 00:25:49.119
I actually looked at it and thought, oh, I guess

452
00:25:49.119 --> 00:25:50.799
it's back in the days where you had to get

453
00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:54.039
a truck license for every state you operated in. But

454
00:25:54.119 --> 00:25:55.960
then I thought about that, and I'm like, I'm not

455
00:25:56.000 --> 00:25:56.920
sure if that's a thing.

456
00:25:57.119 --> 00:26:00.759
And that was exactly my thought as well. All just

457
00:26:00.839 --> 00:26:04.000
watching some behind the scenes, Yeah, well that's cool, Matt.

458
00:26:04.079 --> 00:26:07.599
It's November thirteenth, nineteen seventy one. You and your family

459
00:26:07.599 --> 00:26:10.119
are sitting down in front of the TV. Your dad's

460
00:26:10.160 --> 00:26:12.519
got the TV guy and he's reading it about this

461
00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:15.599
movie called Duel. What are you guys about to tune into?

462
00:26:16.200 --> 00:26:18.440
I think it was probably went more like, we're sitting

463
00:26:18.480 --> 00:26:21.200
down to see a nice, lovely movie with that great

464
00:26:21.240 --> 00:26:26.079
actor that we love so much, Dennis Weaver, and probably

465
00:26:26.119 --> 00:26:28.400
going to be something along the lines a gentle Bend

466
00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:33.119
or a reprise of his role in Gunsmoke and the

467
00:26:33.160 --> 00:26:38.839
movie starts and you're like, we're not in Kansas anymore anyway,

468
00:26:38.920 --> 00:26:42.200
So here, let me read you. This Duel is a

469
00:26:42.279 --> 00:26:46.599
stripped down suspense thriller about an ordinary salesman driving through

470
00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:51.480
the California desert who finds himself relentlessly pursued by a

471
00:26:51.519 --> 00:26:56.680
mysterious tanker truck after a seemingly minor encounter on the highway.

472
00:26:56.920 --> 00:27:02.039
What begins as irritation slowly turns into paranoia and survival

473
00:27:02.079 --> 00:27:06.720
as Steven Spielberg transforms an everyday stretch of road into

474
00:27:06.759 --> 00:27:13.480
something tense, isolating, and deeply unsettling. Minimal dialogue, practical filmmate making,

475
00:27:13.640 --> 00:27:17.559
and mounting suspense turn a very simple premise into one

476
00:27:17.599 --> 00:27:20.880
of the most effective thrillers of the nineteen seventies.

477
00:27:21.079 --> 00:27:24.079
All right, when we come back, we're diving into our

478
00:27:24.160 --> 00:27:27.240
thoughts on Duel, but first we need to take a

479
00:27:27.319 --> 00:27:29.000
quick break. Don't go anywhere.

480
00:27:31.720 --> 00:27:33.160
Would you like to hop into the phone booth with

481
00:27:33.160 --> 00:27:35.359
Bill and Ted, go back in time with Huey Lewis,

482
00:27:35.480 --> 00:27:38.160
and dive into the totally tubular world of the nineteen eighties.

483
00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:41.400
Welcome to Children of the Eighties, the most excellent podcast that

484
00:27:41.480 --> 00:27:44.079
takes you on a nostalgia fuel journey through the Rattus

485
00:27:44.079 --> 00:27:46.920
decade in history. Join June and Lindsay.

486
00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:48.960
As we transport you to a time when Neon ruled,

487
00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:52.240
big hair was gnarly, and the music was like totally radical.

488
00:27:52.440 --> 00:27:54.720
Children of the Eighties is the ultimate time machine to

489
00:27:54.759 --> 00:27:56.720
relive the most epic decade ever.

490
00:27:56.920 --> 00:27:59.440
So grab your walkmin dust off your VHS tape, then

491
00:27:59.559 --> 00:28:01.640
join us or a righteous blast from the past.

492
00:28:01.720 --> 00:28:05.240
Get ready to rewind, reminisce and rock out with Children.

493
00:28:04.839 --> 00:28:05.359
Of the Eighties.

494
00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:07.680
Subscribe now wherever you get your podcasts and let the

495
00:28:07.720 --> 00:28:14.880
eighties magic begintic flash.

496
00:28:14.599 --> 00:28:19.440
Back Welcome back. From here on out, We're gonna be

497
00:28:19.440 --> 00:28:22.720
talking about the movie and that may contain spoilers, so

498
00:28:22.880 --> 00:28:26.480
be aware. If you haven't already watched Duel and you

499
00:28:26.559 --> 00:28:29.519
don't want the spoilers to ruin it for you, hit pause,

500
00:28:29.880 --> 00:28:32.160
go rent it at the usual locations, and come back

501
00:28:32.240 --> 00:28:35.400
right here and continue playing. I think you may get

502
00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:37.759
more out of it, although I don't have a problem

503
00:28:37.799 --> 00:28:39.960
if you want to listen to the spoilers. It's still

504
00:28:39.960 --> 00:28:42.440
a thrilling movie even if you know how things turn out.

505
00:28:43.119 --> 00:28:46.160
Matt, have you ever heard of the Hitchcock bomb analogy,

506
00:28:46.440 --> 00:28:49.519
I have not. Okay, Hitchcock tells it this way. Four

507
00:28:49.599 --> 00:28:53.119
people are sitting around the table talking about baseball. Five

508
00:28:53.160 --> 00:28:57.240
minutes of it, it's really dull. Suddenly boom, a bomb

509
00:28:57.319 --> 00:29:00.279
goes off, blows the people the smithereens. What did the

510
00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:03.759
audience have? They have ten seconds of shock. Take the

511
00:29:03.839 --> 00:29:07.119
same scene and tell the audience that there's a bomb

512
00:29:07.359 --> 00:29:09.240
under the table and that it's going to go off

513
00:29:09.279 --> 00:29:13.680
in five minutes. Now the whole emotion of the audience

514
00:29:13.759 --> 00:29:17.519
is totally different because you've give them them that information.

515
00:29:18.079 --> 00:29:21.319
Now that conversation about baseball becomes very vital because the

516
00:29:21.359 --> 00:29:25.160
audience is saying, don't be ridiculous, stop talking about baseball.

517
00:29:25.400 --> 00:29:29.680
There's a bomb under there. You've got the audience working

518
00:29:29.960 --> 00:29:34.079
for you. And I think that Steven Spielberg must have

519
00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:37.839
taken some lessons from Alfred Hitchcock, because I feel he's

520
00:29:37.920 --> 00:29:41.039
set that story up at the beginning in the same way.

521
00:29:41.279 --> 00:29:41.920
What do you think?

522
00:29:42.119 --> 00:29:45.400
I agree? I agree. I think the radiator hose is

523
00:29:45.480 --> 00:29:47.480
definitely the bomb in this story.

524
00:29:47.599 --> 00:29:50.240
Oh yeah, at least it's what do they call it,

525
00:29:50.319 --> 00:29:54.079
Chekhov's gun, It's Chehoff's radiator hoses. They introduce it in

526
00:29:54.119 --> 00:29:55.559
the first act, so you know in the third act

527
00:29:55.599 --> 00:29:56.960
it's going to come to play.

528
00:29:56.839 --> 00:29:59.880
Right, Actually it's in all three acts because oh y,

529
00:30:00.279 --> 00:30:03.240
he has a snake of rama. Lady, check the hoses,

530
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:05.319
or at least he says, check the hoses, and then

531
00:30:05.359 --> 00:30:07.920
shortly after that they almost get run down. But you

532
00:30:07.920 --> 00:30:10.799
know that's I don't think she ever gets to check

533
00:30:10.799 --> 00:30:11.279
the hoses.

534
00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:14.119
Well, this film has a lot of inner dialogue, and man,

535
00:30:14.240 --> 00:30:17.480
I note before you've talked about inner dialogue with relationship

536
00:30:17.559 --> 00:30:20.400
to movie like Dune. Does this work because he's the

537
00:30:20.400 --> 00:30:21.359
only guy in the car.

538
00:30:22.359 --> 00:30:27.799
Well, you never know. You just never know. You just

539
00:30:27.799 --> 00:30:32.599
go along figuring some things don't change ever, like being

540
00:30:32.640 --> 00:30:35.359
able to drive on a public highway without somebody trying

541
00:30:35.359 --> 00:30:41.920
to murder. Yet, and then one stupid thing happens twenty

542
00:30:41.960 --> 00:30:45.519
twenty five minutes out of your whole life, and all

543
00:30:45.559 --> 00:30:48.200
the ropes that kept you hanging in there get cut loose,

544
00:30:49.640 --> 00:30:53.119
and it's like there you are, right back in the

545
00:30:53.240 --> 00:30:58.960
jungle again. All right, boy, it was a night Marember,

546
00:30:59.000 --> 00:30:59.720
it's over now.

547
00:31:00.279 --> 00:31:04.480
I felt that there could have been a better way

548
00:31:04.519 --> 00:31:06.759
to do this, but based on the fact that it

549
00:31:06.799 --> 00:31:09.599
was a TV film being filmed in thirteen days with

550
00:31:09.839 --> 00:31:12.960
limited technical support and things like that. It's probably the

551
00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:16.240
best way to get the inner conflict out into the

552
00:31:16.319 --> 00:31:20.039
open without having to put more payphones along the road

553
00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:22.000
where you can talk to his wife and tell her

554
00:31:22.000 --> 00:31:24.599
what's happening and tell her what he's planning. And it

555
00:31:24.599 --> 00:31:27.200
would have made the movie too long in terms of minutes,

556
00:31:27.519 --> 00:31:31.720
because again we're trying to fit into a TV movie timeframe.

557
00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:33.960
So I think it was really the only answer, and

558
00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:37.119
it works because you at least get a peek into

559
00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:38.279
what he's thinking.

560
00:31:38.480 --> 00:31:41.119
The other reason why we can relate to this is

561
00:31:41.319 --> 00:31:44.759
it's a simple premise. Who has not been on the

562
00:31:44.839 --> 00:31:48.319
highway and you're either afraid of the traffic that's coming on,

563
00:31:48.519 --> 00:31:51.079
or maybe you're a little worried about that truck that's

564
00:31:51.200 --> 00:31:53.400
riding up closer. It doesn't have to be a truck,

565
00:31:53.440 --> 00:31:55.319
it can be anybody. I mean, it's going to be

566
00:31:55.400 --> 00:31:58.200
years before the term road rage is invented, but I

567
00:31:58.240 --> 00:32:01.519
think all of us today who've been in that situation

568
00:32:01.799 --> 00:32:04.400
can relate to the main character of this story.

569
00:32:04.680 --> 00:32:08.160
Oh one hundred percent. It's definitely very relatable. I will

570
00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:11.119
say there was a bit of a frustration because one

571
00:32:11.160 --> 00:32:13.039
of the things is like and you brought it up

572
00:32:13.039 --> 00:32:16.160
because you compare kind of the similar type of thing

573
00:32:16.240 --> 00:32:21.400
with Jaws, right as the shark being the truck, Well,

574
00:32:21.640 --> 00:32:24.759
the shark in the truck and you're in the shark's

575
00:32:25.200 --> 00:32:28.880
environment with the boat and you have a maniacal captain

576
00:32:28.920 --> 00:32:33.039
who won't leave the ocean. Right. Sure, in this case,

577
00:32:33.200 --> 00:32:35.240
David ban needed to just turn around and go the

578
00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:37.359
other way. He wasn't going to make a sales meeting,

579
00:32:37.599 --> 00:32:39.839
that was clear. I think this movie would have been

580
00:32:39.920 --> 00:32:43.359
better if he had turned around and the truck continued

581
00:32:43.359 --> 00:32:45.200
to follow him, because it would have shown that he

582
00:32:45.720 --> 00:32:49.119
had no escape. Right At My point is it goes

583
00:32:49.160 --> 00:32:50.920
on and on and on and he never even tries

584
00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:53.680
to disengage or drive to the nearest police station.

585
00:32:53.960 --> 00:32:56.640
Hey, but you know what, you bring a really good

586
00:32:56.880 --> 00:33:00.519
connection point. You actually talk about the same in a

587
00:33:00.559 --> 00:33:04.079
way of Jaws. That came to my mind. At the

588
00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:07.400
end of Jaws, the shark has pulled the orca, right,

589
00:33:07.680 --> 00:33:10.079
and so there's all the salt water that's inside the

590
00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:14.119
orca's engine and they're trying to bring the orca into

591
00:33:14.160 --> 00:33:16.400
the shallows where they're going to drown them right, and

592
00:33:16.440 --> 00:33:19.279
this is where finally the Orca grinds to the halt

593
00:33:19.359 --> 00:33:22.799
and they ultimately put Dreyfus into the cave. So in

594
00:33:22.880 --> 00:33:27.039
the scene where the radiator hose, he's trying to get

595
00:33:27.039 --> 00:33:30.119
to this pass because he figures that he can get

596
00:33:30.200 --> 00:33:32.920
to this pass, the truck won't be able to catch

597
00:33:32.960 --> 00:33:35.920
him and he'll be able to escape on the other side. However,

598
00:33:35.960 --> 00:33:38.640
that's when the radiator hose. That's when the bomb goes

599
00:33:38.680 --> 00:33:40.640
off and you see all the smoke. So to me,

600
00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:44.039
I was like going, ooh, that little red Valiant car

601
00:33:44.359 --> 00:33:46.960
just starts to spew smoke so much like what the

602
00:33:47.079 --> 00:33:51.359
Orca does. It's just kind of grinding down. That Valiant

603
00:33:51.359 --> 00:33:54.559
car was truly valiant. I mean, even after the radiator

604
00:33:54.599 --> 00:33:57.079
has has exploded, he still gets gets.

605
00:33:56.839 --> 00:33:58.680
A lot of it gets over the head.

606
00:34:00.440 --> 00:34:02.759
And Yeah, we were looking at it and my wife said, oh,

607
00:34:02.759 --> 00:34:05.000
he put it in neutral, but wasn't the steering wheel

608
00:34:05.079 --> 00:34:06.720
lock up. I'm going to assume that it.

609
00:34:06.839 --> 00:34:10.440
No, No, the steering wheel lock is on the key

610
00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:13.840
ah and neutral is neutral. Now she put it in park,

611
00:34:13.880 --> 00:34:16.199
and she may have confused that with putting it in park,

612
00:34:16.280 --> 00:34:19.960
which does engage the lock, so neutral's fine. In fact,

613
00:34:20.039 --> 00:34:21.679
I was surprised that he didn't reach down to turn

614
00:34:21.760 --> 00:34:23.280
the engine off to let it cool off.

615
00:34:23.360 --> 00:34:26.920
But oh yeah, that was There's lots of a panic

616
00:34:27.119 --> 00:34:29.480
that happens in this film beginning. One of the things too,

617
00:34:29.639 --> 00:34:33.039
it's not going to strike people funny today. But when

618
00:34:33.039 --> 00:34:34.840
he gets in the car near the end and he

619
00:34:35.119 --> 00:34:39.000
puts the seat belt on right like, I mean business now,

620
00:34:39.360 --> 00:34:43.320
it's like, because nobody wore seat belts in the seventies,

621
00:34:43.639 --> 00:34:45.760
it was unusual to put your seat belt on.

622
00:34:45.840 --> 00:34:46.800
It's crazy for me.

623
00:34:47.159 --> 00:34:50.800
The most seventies thing of this whole movie. How about

624
00:34:50.880 --> 00:34:54.880
David Mann's glasses. Those sunglasses were perfect. I want a

625
00:34:54.880 --> 00:34:59.800
pair of those sunglasses right now. Yeah, eat them. They're great.

626
00:35:00.159 --> 00:35:01.760
Oh yeah, they're so great.

627
00:35:02.039 --> 00:35:02.360
Definitely.

628
00:35:02.519 --> 00:35:06.079
Kerrie Loughton, I said, had worked previously on Bullet. Also

629
00:35:06.599 --> 00:35:10.760
on Bullet was a small camera car that they had

630
00:35:10.800 --> 00:35:14.239
built that sat about six inches above the ground so

631
00:35:14.280 --> 00:35:16.639
that they could put a camera in it and then

632
00:35:16.880 --> 00:35:19.400
track with the various cars in Bullet. That's what makes

633
00:35:19.480 --> 00:35:22.519
those scenes with the car chases so good. And Spielberg

634
00:35:22.719 --> 00:35:25.599
uses this the same car in Duel, and that's how

635
00:35:25.639 --> 00:35:29.000
he's getting all those low shots where he pans from

636
00:35:29.039 --> 00:35:32.280
like first he's beside Dennis Weaver, and then it accelerates

637
00:35:32.320 --> 00:35:34.119
and you're now in front of the truck. Like you

638
00:35:34.159 --> 00:35:38.320
were describing, You're already starting to see Spielberg develop his

639
00:35:38.599 --> 00:35:42.679
own cinematic language that he has, and talking about the

640
00:35:42.719 --> 00:35:46.519
pacing a little bit, it does seem to have built

641
00:35:46.559 --> 00:35:51.920
in pauses, whether it's little points along the way. I

642
00:35:52.000 --> 00:35:56.039
felt that there were some sequences in the movie version

643
00:35:56.360 --> 00:35:58.800
that brought it down a little bit too much. What

644
00:35:58.880 --> 00:35:59.519
did you think?

645
00:35:59.679 --> 00:36:02.880
Yeah, I think that it was handled well because you know,

646
00:36:03.079 --> 00:36:05.679
the normal situation will be a car can outrun a truck.

647
00:36:05.719 --> 00:36:08.199
I mean, we've all been in a car going up uninclined.

648
00:36:08.239 --> 00:36:09.760
The car is going to make it up the incline.

649
00:36:09.800 --> 00:36:13.400
The truck is shifting down into lower gears and creeping over.

650
00:36:13.480 --> 00:36:15.519
Now on the other side, they're going to come barreling

651
00:36:15.559 --> 00:36:17.599
down because they want to make up that time and

652
00:36:17.639 --> 00:36:20.079
the energy and stuff. But with the car, you're definitely

653
00:36:20.079 --> 00:36:22.239
going to outpace him. So in the movie you see

654
00:36:22.239 --> 00:36:25.079
that he outpaces the truck. He thinks, yeah'm done, you know,

655
00:36:25.519 --> 00:36:27.400
and he pulls in and then the next thing you know,

656
00:36:27.519 --> 00:36:30.880
the truck comes barreling up, which is great because it's like, oh,

657
00:36:30.920 --> 00:36:34.039
all right, he's okaya. Oh nope, here's the truck again.

658
00:36:34.119 --> 00:36:37.920
So there's that pause that helps relieve the tension and

659
00:36:37.960 --> 00:36:40.480
then immediately start to build it again, right, because you

660
00:36:40.519 --> 00:36:43.440
can't just have tension tension, tension, tension, intention people will

661
00:36:43.480 --> 00:36:46.039
fatigue at that tension level and it will be no

662
00:36:46.079 --> 00:36:48.920
longer interesting because it just sits there at that high

663
00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:51.599
level until the ultimate resolution at the end of the movie.

664
00:36:51.599 --> 00:36:53.320
People would just get bored and turn it off. You

665
00:36:53.360 --> 00:36:55.280
have to relieve it and then build it again, just

666
00:36:55.320 --> 00:36:57.519
like I think, now you can. You can help me

667
00:36:57.559 --> 00:36:58.039
with this, Chuck.

668
00:36:58.159 --> 00:36:58.480
Sure.

669
00:36:58.519 --> 00:37:02.440
I think the same thing happens in music. Build. You

670
00:37:02.559 --> 00:37:04.960
build tension in the music, then you release it. Then

671
00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:07.079
you build, and then then you release it, and then

672
00:37:07.119 --> 00:37:10.320
you build to a crescendo, and that makes it much better.

673
00:37:10.400 --> 00:37:12.360
Right, Matt, you're speaking my language.

674
00:37:12.400 --> 00:37:14.599
I figured it would be something you would do about

675
00:37:15.119 --> 00:37:17.280
So I think you're right. And what you're pointing out

676
00:37:17.400 --> 00:37:21.639
is in the theatrical release they put some more of

677
00:37:21.679 --> 00:37:25.079
that tension breaking that is a little bit longer and

678
00:37:25.239 --> 00:37:29.719
maybe stretch the movie time out, right, But maybe didn't

679
00:37:29.760 --> 00:37:32.599
help that pacing, but I don't hate it. We know

680
00:37:32.719 --> 00:37:35.719
that in the theatrical release there's the whole bus scene

681
00:37:35.760 --> 00:37:38.000
with the children in the bus and him trying to

682
00:37:38.159 --> 00:37:40.519
push the bus and a bunch of stuff, and then

683
00:37:40.559 --> 00:37:43.840
the truck actually saving the day to help the bus.

684
00:37:44.119 --> 00:37:46.400
All of that kind of brings a lot of nuance

685
00:37:46.480 --> 00:37:50.480
into the idea of maybe this truck driver isn't all bad,

686
00:37:50.800 --> 00:37:54.000
or maybe he has a soft spot for children. Who

687
00:37:54.039 --> 00:37:57.119
knows what it is, but it clearly puts in some questions,

688
00:37:57.480 --> 00:37:59.599
which is a good thing, right. I will say though,

689
00:37:59.599 --> 00:38:02.599
that I think in the theatrical release the version of the

690
00:38:02.639 --> 00:38:06.360
movie I watched, the entire first few minutes was like

691
00:38:06.400 --> 00:38:09.960
a POV. It was just the front of his car

692
00:38:10.400 --> 00:38:12.880
from his driving position right right right.

693
00:38:12.920 --> 00:38:16.480
It was a car at that level of his bumper.

694
00:38:16.320 --> 00:38:20.039
Yeah, and just driving through the neighborhood and no words

695
00:38:20.079 --> 00:38:22.639
at all are being spoken. That was a pretty cool

696
00:38:22.719 --> 00:38:24.679
way to start out the movie. But I don't believe

697
00:38:24.719 --> 00:38:27.280
that happened in the TV release, and I don't think

698
00:38:27.320 --> 00:38:29.480
it would have been well received in the TV release

699
00:38:29.559 --> 00:38:33.760
because you're not and I think there's this probably if

700
00:38:33.800 --> 00:38:36.320
if we had Steven Spielberg gone, We asked him, he'd

701
00:38:36.320 --> 00:38:39.320
probably say, you have to capture your TV audience in

702
00:38:39.360 --> 00:38:43.039
the first five minutes or they are gone, right, and Mike,

703
00:38:43.320 --> 00:38:46.480
unlike a movie theater where you have a certain amount

704
00:38:46.480 --> 00:38:48.719
of grace because you've paid a ticket and you're sitting

705
00:38:48.719 --> 00:38:51.159
in a seat, you're gonna give it more time before

706
00:38:51.199 --> 00:38:53.400
you absolutely just get up. And I think with a

707
00:38:53.480 --> 00:38:55.760
TV you change the channel, you get up and do

708
00:38:55.840 --> 00:38:58.280
something else. So I think you have to capture him sooner.

709
00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:00.800
We need to take a quick break, but we'll be right.

710
00:39:00.599 --> 00:39:10.360
Back and flash back, welcome back. Why do you think

711
00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:13.320
this truck works so well as a monster? Well, it's

712
00:39:13.559 --> 00:39:16.679
it looks like a monster. It's very dingy. It's covered

713
00:39:16.679 --> 00:39:21.119
in oil, and it's not exactly rusty. It's just dark, right, yeah,

714
00:39:21.440 --> 00:39:24.719
just dark everywhere. It's like brown, right, yeah.

715
00:39:24.519 --> 00:39:28.119
It's like a dirty brown, but not dirty oil streaked.

716
00:39:28.440 --> 00:39:31.679
Yeah. Yeah, obviously the truck sat in the makeup chair.

717
00:39:32.000 --> 00:39:34.440
You make them intimidating, right, It.

718
00:39:34.480 --> 00:39:38.559
Needed was a big, snidely whip black mustache on the front.

719
00:39:39.239 --> 00:39:42.119
You have David Man's car is a is a It's

720
00:39:42.159 --> 00:39:45.800
called a Valiant. I don't recall the manufacture of the

721
00:39:45.880 --> 00:39:48.320
value Plymouth I think was it a Plymouth value? I

722
00:39:48.320 --> 00:39:51.639
think you're right, Yeah, I think you're right. Spielberg wanted

723
00:39:51.639 --> 00:39:53.519
a red car, right, and so that you would have

724
00:39:53.559 --> 00:39:57.679
these nice distinctions between the truck and his car. Now.

725
00:39:57.760 --> 00:40:01.840
I think we've talked about previous how much we liked

726
00:40:02.039 --> 00:40:04.920
the Mad Max series. Am I remembering that right? Yeah?

727
00:40:04.920 --> 00:40:06.719
Well, I'm sure because I would have definitely said I

728
00:40:06.800 --> 00:40:07.360
liked him a lot.

729
00:40:07.480 --> 00:40:13.199
Well. The camera movements in Duel directly influenced George Miller

730
00:40:13.519 --> 00:40:16.599
and how he set up his roadshots. Every time I

731
00:40:16.599 --> 00:40:19.519
would see the camera start up high and it's the

732
00:40:19.599 --> 00:40:22.079
truck is tracking in front, and then the camera would

733
00:40:22.119 --> 00:40:24.760
kind of dolly in and come down low in front

734
00:40:24.800 --> 00:40:26.719
of the truck as and you're kind of focus on

735
00:40:26.760 --> 00:40:29.280
the grill and on the headlights. I'm just sitting there

736
00:40:29.320 --> 00:40:31.679
thinking to myself, this looks like Mad Max to me.

737
00:40:31.960 --> 00:40:34.119
Well, the other thing that will remind you of Mad

738
00:40:34.199 --> 00:40:38.280
Max is the liberal use of speeding up the frames, oh,

739
00:40:38.320 --> 00:40:40.960
to make it look like things are going faster, and

740
00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:43.400
that was used all through Mad Bax. You're like, wait,

741
00:40:43.880 --> 00:40:46.320
that's the wind is not blowing the same it was

742
00:40:46.360 --> 00:40:48.880
blowing before, and they do that in this film. But they,

743
00:40:49.079 --> 00:40:52.119
I have to say, Steven Spielberg used to a deaf hand

744
00:40:52.320 --> 00:40:56.000
with this, and only in very small shots can you

745
00:40:56.079 --> 00:40:59.360
detect that the truck isn't really going seventy miles an

746
00:40:59.400 --> 00:41:02.119
hour but thirty five at two times the frame rate

747
00:41:02.199 --> 00:41:02.639
or whatever.

748
00:41:02.880 --> 00:41:05.480
Now, Spielberg, in order to get it done in such

749
00:41:05.519 --> 00:41:08.480
a short timeframe, they had a block of road that

750
00:41:08.519 --> 00:41:11.559
they were able to use. It was enough road to

751
00:41:11.599 --> 00:41:14.840
where he could film going one way and then set

752
00:41:14.880 --> 00:41:17.519
the crew up and then go the other way. Genius,

753
00:41:17.840 --> 00:41:20.239
and it would look like a completely different road because

754
00:41:20.280 --> 00:41:22.480
now you're seeing the other side. I thought that was brilliant.

755
00:41:22.559 --> 00:41:24.480
I usually can pick up on those sorts of things,

756
00:41:24.559 --> 00:41:26.440
as I'll see the same thing go by on a

757
00:41:26.519 --> 00:41:29.000
road that went by before, because I typically try to

758
00:41:29.039 --> 00:41:31.039
notice those things. I did not notice on this film.

759
00:41:31.079 --> 00:41:32.400
So he did a wonderful job on that.

760
00:41:32.480 --> 00:41:35.039
To finish up talking about this truck, I think they

761
00:41:35.159 --> 00:41:39.480
gave this truck a big personality. In the end, when

762
00:41:39.519 --> 00:41:42.960
the truck goes over the side of the ledge and

763
00:41:43.000 --> 00:41:45.519
it's in its death throes, I don't know if you

764
00:41:45.599 --> 00:41:49.760
picked up on its death scream. It's almost a primal

765
00:41:50.239 --> 00:41:53.679
sound of a beast. Yeah, it was like a.

766
00:41:59.519 --> 00:42:02.280
The most thing I noticed was that the driver's side

767
00:42:02.320 --> 00:42:05.800
door was open. Well, we saw that too as well,

768
00:42:06.599 --> 00:42:09.599
but yeah, no, I definitely heard that sound of wrenching

769
00:42:09.679 --> 00:42:13.599
metal with an overtone of something organic. That same sound

770
00:42:13.599 --> 00:42:17.519
effect was used in Jaws when the shark exploded and

771
00:42:17.559 --> 00:42:21.840
the carcass was going down inside a cloud of blood,

772
00:42:21.920 --> 00:42:29.760
and you heard that same sound of everything. That works

773
00:42:30.079 --> 00:42:34.039
better in the theatrical version. That scene works better because

774
00:42:34.079 --> 00:42:37.000
you have the expanded screen on the side and you

775
00:42:37.079 --> 00:42:40.559
see way more of that truck flipping over, and it's great.

776
00:42:40.920 --> 00:42:43.840
We didn't get our big kaboom with the flame, but

777
00:42:43.880 --> 00:42:47.199
I think we got a great death. David Mann is

778
00:42:47.280 --> 00:42:50.719
waiting to see if the driver comes out, and eventually

779
00:42:50.760 --> 00:42:53.960
Stephen teases us for a little bit until he shows

780
00:42:54.039 --> 00:42:56.679
us the blood dripping from the steering wheel, letting us

781
00:42:56.719 --> 00:42:59.639
know that the killer is dead or is he.

782
00:43:00.239 --> 00:43:00.760
I don't know.

783
00:43:00.960 --> 00:43:04.719
I don't believe it, knowing what we now know about Spielberg,

784
00:43:05.039 --> 00:43:08.400
I think we could make an argument that maybe he

785
00:43:08.440 --> 00:43:10.880
didn't know it at the time, But Duel was a

786
00:43:10.960 --> 00:43:14.239
dress rehearsal for Jaws in much the same way that

787
00:43:14.559 --> 00:43:17.440
many of the elements of THHX eleven thirty eight we

788
00:43:17.480 --> 00:43:20.679
would see echo again in Star Wars. What do you

789
00:43:20.719 --> 00:43:21.360
think about that?

790
00:43:21.719 --> 00:43:24.679
I agree. I think you definitely can see some of

791
00:43:24.719 --> 00:43:29.400
the parallels between Jaws and Duel. I mean, certainly on

792
00:43:29.440 --> 00:43:32.400
a smaller scale, not a large cast of a bunch

793
00:43:32.440 --> 00:43:36.559
of people moving, but definitely this every man battles the monster.

794
00:43:36.880 --> 00:43:40.920
You have the policeman in the little town of Amity,

795
00:43:41.159 --> 00:43:43.920
and do you have David Mann doing battle with this

796
00:43:44.440 --> 00:43:47.719
big truck. I think there's some argument to be made

797
00:43:47.719 --> 00:43:49.639
in this that you could have just turned around and left,

798
00:43:49.679 --> 00:43:51.800
But I like to believe that he tried to do

799
00:43:51.840 --> 00:43:55.599
that and it still was following him, so right right, I.

800
00:43:55.639 --> 00:43:58.519
Think it still would have chased him down, because one

801
00:43:58.559 --> 00:44:00.880
of the things with this truck that made it insidious

802
00:44:01.000 --> 00:44:02.760
was that David did some of the things that I

803
00:44:02.800 --> 00:44:04.760
would have thought about. Hey, let's just pull over to

804
00:44:05.079 --> 00:44:09.920
the world's greatest diner. Yeah right, Chuck's Diner still there?

805
00:44:10.039 --> 00:44:14.360
Still there, dude. One day we're gonna have to make

806
00:44:14.400 --> 00:44:14.920
a road trip.

807
00:44:15.199 --> 00:44:16.719
Yeah, that would be fun. We got to add an

808
00:44:16.719 --> 00:44:18.679
East Coast movie. Then we have to drive so far.

809
00:44:18.840 --> 00:44:22.320
Yeah, I think it's fun to watch the theatrical version,

810
00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:25.480
which is much easier to watch, and the smaller screen version,

811
00:44:25.519 --> 00:44:28.920
which is definitely there's no fluff in it, right, it's

812
00:44:29.039 --> 00:44:33.760
it's bam bam bam. It's all action. The only scene

813
00:44:33.800 --> 00:44:37.840
of release is at Chuck's Diner, a little bit of trivia,

814
00:44:38.320 --> 00:44:41.960
the scene where Dennis Weavers spins out and hits that

815
00:44:42.000 --> 00:44:44.960
white fence in front of the diner that was reused

816
00:44:45.079 --> 00:44:50.840
in another very popular nineteen seventies television show, The Incredible Hultrill.

817
00:44:50.960 --> 00:44:54.360
They lifted that scene directly put it in, much to

818
00:44:54.440 --> 00:44:56.480
the chagrin of Spielberg, who.

819
00:44:56.320 --> 00:44:58.880
I was going to say it clearly can't imagine him

820
00:44:58.880 --> 00:44:59.840
being okay with that.

821
00:45:00.039 --> 00:45:03.000
He was definitely not happy about that.

822
00:45:03.280 --> 00:45:05.599
Yeah, I'm sure it made it into whatever riders he

823
00:45:05.679 --> 00:45:09.880
had later foul shout, not use my films.

824
00:45:10.079 --> 00:45:12.400
One last thing, and I didn't know if you put

825
00:45:12.440 --> 00:45:16.000
this together or not. The final scene of THCHX eleven

826
00:45:16.079 --> 00:45:19.960
thirty eight is when THCHX is finally gotten outside of

827
00:45:19.960 --> 00:45:22.840
the city underground City, and he is now standing in

828
00:45:22.840 --> 00:45:26.400
front of the sun. The final shot of duel is

829
00:45:26.519 --> 00:45:29.719
David Mann sitting down in front of a setting Sun

830
00:45:29.800 --> 00:45:33.400
as It's going Down. Two directors who had their first

831
00:45:33.440 --> 00:45:38.599
movies end nearly in the same identical thematic way. Their

832
00:45:38.679 --> 00:45:43.079
next film would be Sugarland Express for Spielberg. George Lucas's

833
00:45:43.079 --> 00:45:46.000
next film would be American Graffiti, which was a very

834
00:45:46.039 --> 00:45:49.800
big hit. But the films both directors would do next

835
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:55.360
would cement them forever in movie history. Of course, George

836
00:45:55.400 --> 00:45:58.840
Lucas comes out with Star Wars. Steven Spielberg comes out

837
00:45:58.840 --> 00:46:03.159
with Jaws. Everything about them that we ever need to know,

838
00:46:03.599 --> 00:46:07.639
as started in these early origin stories that we got

839
00:46:07.639 --> 00:46:10.079
a chance to cover Matt, it's time to ask the

840
00:46:10.239 --> 00:46:14.079
question does Dual groove through the decades or has it

841
00:46:14.119 --> 00:46:14.840
lost its beat?

842
00:46:15.119 --> 00:46:18.400
So this was a tough one for me because, like

843
00:46:18.440 --> 00:46:21.119
I said, I did not see it in the nineteen seventies,

844
00:46:21.199 --> 00:46:23.920
and I watched the theatrical release, which is a little

845
00:46:24.000 --> 00:46:27.480
unfair since it was released originally for the TV. But

846
00:46:27.679 --> 00:46:30.639
I won't be honest with you. I enjoyed it. I

847
00:46:30.760 --> 00:46:33.360
did enjoy it. I really liked it. I think it's

848
00:46:33.400 --> 00:46:36.559
well worth seeing. I think with the added color of

849
00:46:36.599 --> 00:46:41.239
it being Steven Spielberg's first kind of real movie. Even

850
00:46:41.239 --> 00:46:43.320
though it was a small budget for a small screen

851
00:46:43.519 --> 00:46:47.559
with a small timeframe. I think given those challenges and

852
00:46:47.639 --> 00:46:50.679
what he comes out with is a real eye opener.

853
00:46:50.760 --> 00:46:54.960
And clearly the studio must have been like, ah, we

854
00:46:55.119 --> 00:46:57.920
got a hot one. Oh yeah, this guy knows what's happening,

855
00:46:58.079 --> 00:47:00.519
you know, because this was a great movie shot in

856
00:47:00.599 --> 00:47:04.440
thirteen days. The budget was probably minuscule, and you know,

857
00:47:04.559 --> 00:47:06.880
yes it was made for TV. But I guarantee you

858
00:47:06.920 --> 00:47:10.920
people in their living rooms were riveted to this because

859
00:47:10.960 --> 00:47:14.119
it was a good movie, good pacing, good like all

860
00:47:14.159 --> 00:47:16.400
the things we talked about about, the suspense and the

861
00:47:16.440 --> 00:47:19.159
things like that. So I think, yes, it grooves. I

862
00:47:19.280 --> 00:47:21.519
enjoyed it. I think if you're a fan of Steven

863
00:47:21.599 --> 00:47:25.360
Spielberg's this is a must watch. You should definitely watch

864
00:47:25.400 --> 00:47:29.400
this because it will really help you appreciate the strides

865
00:47:29.440 --> 00:47:34.199
he took, but the kernel of genius that was already there.

866
00:47:34.519 --> 00:47:36.679
Is it the greatest movie that's ever been filmed? No,

867
00:47:36.920 --> 00:47:38.440
not by any stretch of the imagine it is the

868
00:47:38.440 --> 00:47:41.880
greatest movie of the seventies, No, not anywhere close. Is

869
00:47:41.920 --> 00:47:44.800
it something that should be in your repertoire if you

870
00:47:44.840 --> 00:47:48.960
want to speak semi intelligently about Steven Spielberg and his

871
00:47:49.039 --> 00:47:52.119
later films, and I think, yeah, it absolutely, you should

872
00:47:52.159 --> 00:47:54.239
definitely see it. I'm actually a little ashamed that I

873
00:47:54.280 --> 00:47:57.920
haven't seen it till till now. So dear listeners, I

874
00:47:57.960 --> 00:48:00.440
will call out to you and say, I make it

875
00:48:00.480 --> 00:48:02.760
your task. If you have not seen Duel, you should

876
00:48:02.760 --> 00:48:06.360
watch it and you will enjoy it. And that's about

877
00:48:06.360 --> 00:48:07.480
all I have to say about that.

878
00:48:07.800 --> 00:48:11.880
Okay, Forrest, so go ahead.

879
00:48:12.199 --> 00:48:15.400
That's about all I have to say about that. Now, Chuck,

880
00:48:15.519 --> 00:48:18.559
I have the feeling that you have something to say

881
00:48:18.599 --> 00:48:20.880
about this, and I think it's probably positive.

882
00:48:21.320 --> 00:48:23.920
You know, I tend to be very positive in a

883
00:48:23.960 --> 00:48:27.599
lot of films. It's very hard for me to spend

884
00:48:27.639 --> 00:48:31.400
time with a movie and spend time with how how

885
00:48:31.440 --> 00:48:34.960
that film came to be, and it's sometimes it's hard

886
00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:37.760
to look at it critically because you begin to understand

887
00:48:38.039 --> 00:48:41.840
the constraints in which film was being made at that time.

888
00:48:42.079 --> 00:48:44.280
And you know, we've been taking a look at these

889
00:48:44.280 --> 00:48:47.760
two origin stories with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and

890
00:48:47.800 --> 00:48:50.960
for me, both of them are just really incredible directors.

891
00:48:51.199 --> 00:48:54.639
They're incredible artists, but each had a different approach. Now,

892
00:48:54.760 --> 00:48:58.400
Lucas was coming from the Film School of usc he

893
00:48:58.639 --> 00:49:02.480
was working with a major studio. He had major studio

894
00:49:02.639 --> 00:49:05.800
money to be able to do THCHX eleven thirty eight,

895
00:49:06.039 --> 00:49:11.119
and to some degree, he had a bit of ambition

896
00:49:11.639 --> 00:49:14.840
because he wanted to make this movie THCHX eleven thirty

897
00:49:14.840 --> 00:49:17.400
eight in the way that he wanted to make it,

898
00:49:17.679 --> 00:49:21.119
and the result was a film that nobody really could

899
00:49:21.119 --> 00:49:25.000
relate to. Spielberg, on the other hand, was given an

900
00:49:25.039 --> 00:49:29.119
opportunity to move from directing television shows to directing and

901
00:49:29.159 --> 00:49:32.280
made for TV movie. I believe he made the most

902
00:49:32.320 --> 00:49:35.719
of it. He even went against advice. He didn't want

903
00:49:35.760 --> 00:49:38.639
to film this at the studio using rear projection. He

904
00:49:38.760 --> 00:49:42.119
wanted to film it on the road because that would

905
00:49:42.159 --> 00:49:45.800
look more real. And he made the same decision with Jaws.

906
00:49:46.039 --> 00:49:49.639
Filming on the open ocean looks more real and more

907
00:49:49.719 --> 00:49:53.920
convincing than the studio water tank. And what Spielberg turned

908
00:49:53.920 --> 00:49:58.599
in was not your ordinary TV movie. Cinema had a language,

909
00:49:58.679 --> 00:50:02.360
but Spielberg's movie have their own language, and it was

910
00:50:02.400 --> 00:50:06.000
being developed in dual Spielberg connected with the audience at

911
00:50:06.039 --> 00:50:08.400
a primal level in a way that I don't think

912
00:50:08.480 --> 00:50:12.960
Lucas did. It's not that I didn't like THCHX eleven

913
00:50:13.079 --> 00:50:17.079
thirty eight, but I can understand that that movie is

914
00:50:17.159 --> 00:50:21.159
going to have very limited appeal. Duel doesn't suffer from that.

915
00:50:21.440 --> 00:50:23.480
You can show it to anyone and they are going

916
00:50:23.559 --> 00:50:26.760
to connect to the plight of David Mann. So yeah,

917
00:50:26.800 --> 00:50:30.199
for me, Dual grooves Mad. Did you have any final thoughts?

918
00:50:30.440 --> 00:50:33.280
Yeah, I would say that, as usual, you were able

919
00:50:33.320 --> 00:50:36.239
to put that into words much better than I was,

920
00:50:36.320 --> 00:50:39.760
and I agree one hundred percent. I did not care

921
00:50:39.800 --> 00:50:42.880
for TCHX eleven thirty eight very much. I think it was,

922
00:50:43.000 --> 00:50:46.039
like you said, interesting to watch as a development of

923
00:50:46.119 --> 00:50:50.920
George lucas As film unto itself. Man, right, it's a film.

924
00:50:51.159 --> 00:50:53.760
It's a work. Yeah, it's a work. But this film

925
00:50:54.079 --> 00:50:56.920
it was entertaining and it was exciting, and it was

926
00:50:57.039 --> 00:50:59.559
it was fun to watch. It was not it was

927
00:50:59.559 --> 00:51:01.840
an ad. So yeah, I one hundred percent agree with you.

928
00:51:01.920 --> 00:51:06.719
I think it proves I think that really differentiates Spielberg

929
00:51:06.880 --> 00:51:11.159
and Lucas individually. I think I think Lucas tends to

930
00:51:11.760 --> 00:51:16.239
he's more concerned with how a film is made, you know,

931
00:51:16.280 --> 00:51:20.800
whether it's how the sound and or the cameras say

932
00:51:20.800 --> 00:51:24.599
what you will. The impact that George Lucas has had

933
00:51:24.719 --> 00:51:29.960
on movie technology is just it's beyond anything. I mean,

934
00:51:30.079 --> 00:51:33.320
what we have today in our movie theaters are all

935
00:51:33.360 --> 00:51:37.159
directly responsible by George Lucas in one way or another.

936
00:51:37.239 --> 00:51:40.880
You can you can trace it all back to George Lucas. Spielberg,

937
00:51:41.000 --> 00:51:44.960
on the other hand, always knows that you're connecting with

938
00:51:45.079 --> 00:51:49.079
an audience. And what makes Raiders of the Lost Art

939
00:51:49.440 --> 00:51:52.599
so good is that it's the combination of these two

940
00:51:52.639 --> 00:51:57.880
guys coming together and making arguably one of the most

941
00:51:57.920 --> 00:52:01.199
exciting trilogy of movies of the nineteen eighties.

942
00:52:01.519 --> 00:52:03.960
Yeah, I was going to say, maybe it had something

943
00:52:03.960 --> 00:52:07.719
to do with George Lucas being a film studio a

944
00:52:07.800 --> 00:52:12.920
student right, a studied film and Steven Spielberg being an

945
00:52:12.960 --> 00:52:16.320
English major who basically gets pulled out of college. And

946
00:52:16.559 --> 00:52:20.079
absolutely so you have someone who is story focused and

947
00:52:20.719 --> 00:52:23.159
you know, like we see with Steven Spielberg, and we

948
00:52:23.159 --> 00:52:26.840
see someone who is a little more of the kind

949
00:52:26.920 --> 00:52:31.679
of avant garde filmmaking type of stuff, which I, yeah,

950
00:52:32.239 --> 00:52:34.000
I think makes some difference.

951
00:52:34.119 --> 00:52:37.920
So yeah, can I even go further back to even

952
00:52:37.960 --> 00:52:41.400
illustrate the same difference you just said when George Lucas

953
00:52:41.519 --> 00:52:44.559
was growing up, he was into cars, so he was

954
00:52:44.800 --> 00:52:46.880
he was a mechanic on cars. He was souping up

955
00:52:46.920 --> 00:52:53.360
cars for racing. He's very engineered minded, right, Spielberg was

956
00:52:53.480 --> 00:52:58.159
making movies right, So that right there just shows this

957
00:52:58.360 --> 00:53:02.679
difference between both of the these incredible talent and artist

958
00:53:02.800 --> 00:53:06.840
and directors and influencers right from their Have you seen

959
00:53:06.840 --> 00:53:09.920
the movie The Fablemans. Yes, Yeah, that is a semi

960
00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.320
autobiographical movie that Spielberg did that kind of tells a

961
00:53:14.320 --> 00:53:16.679
little bit of the story of things that were in

962
00:53:16.800 --> 00:53:17.760
his youth as well.

963
00:53:18.000 --> 00:53:20.159
Yeah, that's a great that's a great movie, by the way.

964
00:53:20.199 --> 00:53:22.000
I mean, I really enjoyed it. It's a lot of

965
00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:24.639
fun and great actors in it, of course, and kind

966
00:53:24.679 --> 00:53:28.199
of it's a nice like look back on someone's past.

967
00:53:28.239 --> 00:53:31.480
And honestly, we talk a lot about the seventies. That

968
00:53:31.559 --> 00:53:34.039
movie actually has a lot of what do you call

969
00:53:34.079 --> 00:53:37.920
it kitsch from the seventies. That absolutely, the living rooms

970
00:53:37.960 --> 00:53:41.679
and stuff is very well done. And so earlier I

971
00:53:41.719 --> 00:53:45.440
had mentioned how Spielberg was using a lot of techniques

972
00:53:45.480 --> 00:53:47.800
that he had learned from John Ford, or he.

973
00:53:47.760 --> 00:53:50.679
Had learned from Howard Hawks. Howard Hawks was the director

974
00:53:50.719 --> 00:53:52.519
of The Searchers, which you and I are going to

975
00:53:52.599 --> 00:53:56.159
go see together at the Narrow This summer awesome. So

976
00:53:56.360 --> 00:53:59.719
at the end of the Fablemans, the young protagonist is

977
00:53:59.760 --> 00:54:03.400
me john Ford for the first time, and he gets

978
00:54:03.519 --> 00:54:07.639
the he gets the opportunity to work as a movie director,

979
00:54:07.880 --> 00:54:12.199
and he walks out and all is ended. So okay, Matt,

980
00:54:12.280 --> 00:54:15.280
that wraps up our origin stories month. Coming into July,

981
00:54:15.599 --> 00:54:19.559
we're going to keep on trucking with two films that

982
00:54:19.719 --> 00:54:25.079
embraced the nineteen seventies trucking culture and turned eighteen wheels

983
00:54:25.119 --> 00:54:29.920
into symbols of rebellion, survival, and life on the open road.

984
00:54:30.519 --> 00:54:35.039
First up is Jonathan Kaplan's nineteen seventy five film White

985
00:54:35.400 --> 00:54:40.119
Line Fever, a gritty, blue collared action film heavily influenced

986
00:54:40.159 --> 00:54:44.440
by Sam Peckinpah and starring Jan Michael Vincent along with

987
00:54:44.639 --> 00:54:49.480
several familiar Peck and Pop basses, including Slim Pickens, L Q. Jones,

988
00:54:49.559 --> 00:54:53.639
and R. G. Armstrong. Then we're gonna move to Peck

989
00:54:53.719 --> 00:54:57.679
and Pah himself with nineteen seventy eight's Convoy, starring Chris

990
00:54:57.880 --> 00:55:02.280
Christofferson and Ali McGrath, where the trucker movie becomes a

991
00:55:02.360 --> 00:55:06.679
full blown outlaw road epic. Fu'll buy CEBE Radios, Anti

992
00:55:06.760 --> 00:55:11.960
authority energy and just pure seventies Americana. So grab your

993
00:55:12.000 --> 00:55:15.400
CBE Radio, keep the hammer down, and join us for

994
00:55:15.760 --> 00:55:19.559
keep on trucking mop here on the Cinematic Flashbacks ten four.

995
00:55:19.639 --> 00:55:23.320
Good buddy, thanks for tuning in. Let us know what

996
00:55:23.360 --> 00:55:26.159
you thought about Duel. You can reach us at Cinematic

997
00:55:26.199 --> 00:55:29.480
Flashback dot com and don't forget to leave us a

998
00:55:29.559 --> 00:55:32.079
rating and a review. It might just get read on

999
00:55:32.119 --> 00:55:34.760
the air. If you enjoy the show, help us grow

1000
00:55:34.800 --> 00:55:37.679
by sharing it with your friends. Also, if you haven't

1001
00:55:37.719 --> 00:55:40.440
done so already, go ahead and hit the subscribe button.

1002
00:55:40.840 --> 00:55:43.360
That way you'll never miss an episode. And if you're

1003
00:55:43.480 --> 00:55:46.280
one of our listeners on YouTube, thank you and be

1004
00:55:46.400 --> 00:55:50.000
sure to smash that like button and hit subscribe as well.

1005
00:55:50.360 --> 00:55:52.440
Join us next time as we hop back into the

1006
00:55:52.480 --> 00:55:55.599
wayback machine and head once again to the nineteen seventies

1007
00:55:55.599 --> 00:56:01.719
for another classic. See you then, Last Seventies, Stay the

1008
00:56:01.880 --> 00:56:04.480
wign just Little Whiplagus All