Duel

[Botch]

When I was living at home (not sure my age, mebbe 10-15) we watched a made-for-TV movie that really stuck in my head all these years. The actor (I believe it was Dennis Weaver) was driving a car down a 2-lane highway, came up on a semi-truck, and the truck driver waved him around. He started to pass, and just narrowly avoided a head-on collision. The rest of the movie was a "Duel" between Dennis in his vehicle and the semi-truck (you never saw the driver). The movie ended with a do-or-die collision where Dennis dived out of his car at the last minute, the semi t-boned his car, and drove over a cliff. Dennis sat on the edge of the cliff and tossed pebbles down. And that was it. :|

Fast-forward 35, 40 years (to about 15 minutes ago). 60 Minutes had a cool interview with Steven Spielberg. He started making movies with a small camera gifted to him, and his first paid commercial effort was a made-for-TV movie called... "Duel"! I recognized it immediately, and need to see if its on one of my free movie sites or Amazon Prime.

One main point about the interview was that Steven Scubaberg had a falling-out with his Dad (mistakenly) and that made its way into most of his earlier movies (dad as evil). He finally cleared the air with Dad, and it showed up immediately in his subsequent movies (dad as hero).

I'd forgotten that Schindler's List was his, the most depressing movie I've ever seen but should be required viewing by every human on the planet; he also produced American Graffiti but that wasn't mentioned in the 60 Minutes clip.

 

[jomari]

i remembered that movie.

simply because it was tense man, the whole flippin time.

amazing use of it, and little if not any dialogue was used too.

awesome flick.

 

[Rope]

Same year as Duel a film, Vanishing Point, was released which I believe is based on the same premise.

Rope

 

[Deacon]

When I saw the title of this thread I immediately thought of the movie but figured it was about something else. So now I can say this thread is exactly what I thought it would be.

 

[Huey]

Thanks for posting this Botch, and it might answer a question I have always had about Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It has always bothered me that Richard Dreyfus's character could leave his children, probably to be never seen again, so easily. Knowing that Spielberg had issues with his father, that kind of makes sense now.