Has anyone seen the film Duel from the 1970s, Steven Spielberg’s first movie? In it, a businessman driving across America overtakes a truck, the driver of which gets angry. The conflict between them escalates into an epic road battle as the truck tries to run him off the road. Today I experienced something similar. Me and five other passengers were in a car to Mukomuko when the driver overtook a small truck in front of us. Within minutes the truck was zooming past us again. The driver overtook the truck again, this time almost killing an oncoming motorcyclist. A few minutes later and the truck was hurtling past us despite our driver trying to block it from doing so. Then the truck came to a dead stop in the middle of the road and the car pulled up just in time, almost rear-ending. The two drivers got out and our driver grabbed the truck driver by the throat. The front passenger of our car had also got out and he separated the two. His wife, also on board, had earlier told me he was a policeman so I felt relieved he was there. Soon peace was restored and both vehicles went on their way, with the truck going far ahead. About an hour later we caught up and I could feel all the fellow passengers tense as we again overtook the truck. Thankfully this time the truck stayed behind and we never saw it again.
It was quite a tight little movie really. Under-appreciated. Dennis Weaver's best performance outside of some episodes of Gunsmoke.
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you and see you are on your way again. Do hope you got a medical consult regarding the kitten nip.
The gravy may have had cossava or tapioca flour. Believe it made its way into cultivation in that area from South America.
Sublime film, and I would dispute that it's under-appreciated - it was effectively what launched Spielberg's career. A point of pedantry - it is clear fairly early on in the film that the truck driver is a serial killer - you can see the trophy plates of his previous victims adorning the truck. Only complaint I have is that they lay on a bit thick the message that Weaver's character is a bit of a wimp (the radio conversation about 'head of the household' followed by the bickering phone call etc) and the theme of the film is therefore him having to get a bit of primeval masculinity to survive rather than trying to run away. But a minor complaint about a classic film.
ReplyDeleteAgree with James that it is a sublime film-never seeing the truch driver's face. I guess the truck is the villan and therefore the serial killer.
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