If you take Duel as it is, you'll get a nicely directed thriller, where a truck driver tries his best to scare the living day light out of a poor David Mann (Dennis Weaver). That's it. Perioid.
Dennis Weaver is the only actor we mostly see during the film. There are couple of stops, where we see other people as well, but mainly the film is hanging on the shoulders of Weaver and that huge, corroded truck trailing his car across the desert. It all starts, when he decides to overtake smelly fumes pushing truck, which leads to a cat and mouse play. Spielberg doesn't show us the trucker, nor does he give any direct hints on why the driver does what he does. We can only guess the real reason for his behaviour.
There have been many movies like this, but I presume Duel was, if not the first, at least among the first dirty trucker tries to kill someone films. At least, if it isn't among the first ones, at least it's clearly among the better ones of the genre.
Dennis Weaver is the only actor we mostly see during the film. There are couple of stops, where we see other people as well, but mainly the film is hanging on the shoulders of Weaver and that huge, corroded truck trailing his car across the desert. It all starts, when he decides to overtake smelly fumes pushing truck, which leads to a cat and mouse play. Spielberg doesn't show us the trucker, nor does he give any direct hints on why the driver does what he does. We can only guess the real reason for his behaviour.
There have been many movies like this, but I presume Duel was, if not the first, at least among the first dirty trucker tries to kill someone films. At least, if it isn't among the first ones, at least it's clearly among the better ones of the genre.