Popular reviews

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  Review by demi adejuyigbe ★★★★½ 15

  Just unbelievable. A proto-Christine automotive monster movie without any supernatural elements, but a villain whose lack of appearance makes his relatable-but-heightened psychopathy feel like an invincible force of nature. Truly thrilling, shot so fucking well and exciting– the kind of movie that could genuinely "never be made today" because its simplicity would be eschewed for an action star in the lead, replacing Dennis Weaver's perfectly desperate everyman with an ex-cop who's perfectly ripped for this scenario, and an insistence on stunt casting the villain for some big dumb reveal at the end where he's got a monologue and maybe escapes just in the nick of time to set up Duel 2.

  "Damn man, you sound so cynical and bitter. It's…

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  Review by Will Menaker ★★★★ 1

  Your manhood is on the line every second you're behind the wheel of a car.

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  Review by CinemaCl🎃wn ★★★★ 17

  Steven Spielberg's feature film debut is a highly underrated masterpiece which presents the then-new filmmaker making remarkable use of his talent, creativity & passion for storytelling to craft a mystery-thriller that remains nail-bitingly tense from start to finish, and is the first entry in what would later become one of the most celebrated film careers of all time.

  Initially conceived as a TV film & later turned into a full-length theatrical, Duel concerns a business commuter who is stalked & terrorized by a psychotic truck driver throughout the Californian desert highway for no specified reasons. The story is mostly narrated visually & makes minimal use of dialogues or music yet there is an eerie atmosphere it retains throughout its runtime which is brilliantly executed.…

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  Review by Josh Lewis ★★★★ 3

  spielberg paranoid, angry, unhinged. wish we got to see this side of him more.

  full discussion on episode 51 of my podcast SLEAZOIDS.

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  Review by Nakul ★★★★

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Spielberg’s unbelievably confident feature debut, originally a made-for-TV movie, DUEL is still one of the greatest displays of his talent and also a textbook example of what he can achieve even with modest resources. Just look at the absolutely impeccable framing & blocking of each shot, he's already able to add so much life to an image. Also this thing is a tightly controlled thrill ride that is a masterclass in sustained tension & suspense.

  
  ICYDK, the sound of the truck dying in the end was later used for the death of the shark in JAWS.

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  Review by Mark T ★★★★ 23

  Duel is probably the most literal example of "nightmare fuel" I have ever seen.

  Despite the TV movie limitations, Steven Spielberg has managed to convey an illogical yet completely visceral thriller better than most filmmakers today. And considering that this is widely recognized as his feature debut, that's even more impressive. The masterful editing, carefully planned shots, and insane premise create an engulfing atmosphere that only gets more tense as it goes along. Not to mention, the fact we never see the truck driver adds a sense of mystery to the proceedings, therefore placing the audience in the same point of view as our protagonist.

  Watching this, I got the impression that Spielberg wanted to create the perfect picture of…

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★½ 61

  “Duel” has the lean inner mechanics of a formula one car — tucked inside the body of a Plymouth Valiant. 

  Stephen Spielberg’s second feature-length film; “Duel” has an immense ambition of spirit. But its director doesn’t let his hunger get the better of him. He keeps “Duel’s” technicalities to a terrifying level of minimalism. 

  Not even complicating the narrative of the film with the intricacies of mortal vendettas, “Duel” is not a story of man vs. man, but man vs. truck. And that — is a beautiful and pure conceit. 

  That’s not to say Spielberg allows the original ‘movie of the week’ release format to dampen his devotion to building up stakes better than just the promises of explosions and…

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  Review by Elric Kane ★★★★½ 2

  Perfect time for a rewatch:

  We are all Dennis Weaver.
  Covid is the truck.
  Spielberg is the vaccine.

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  Review by merritt k ★★★★

  TRUCK VERSUS CUCK
  TRUCK VERSUS CUCK

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  Review by Rafael "Parker!!" Jovine ★★★★ 15

  Jaws...... on wheels!

  Well, talking about a great directorial debut and a film that stands above the many imitators that will come next. A film that will set, perhaps not the level of spectacle and ambition that will follow on Spielberg's career, but certainly his work as a skillful director.

  The tension is high and the sense of suspense increases as every minute goes by. I was genuinely at awe on how Steven was capable of using such a minimalistic and one-dimensional premise and raise it to higher grounds as I was bitting my nails, especially towards the final minutes where I was jumping off my seat.

  I also love how barely get to know or understand the reasoning behind…

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  Review by 𝙿𝚊𝚘𝚕𝚘 𝙼𝚊𝚌𝙶𝚞𝚏𝚏𝚒𝚗 | 🇮🇹 ★★★★½ 8

  Duel, which makes use of an excellent screenplay by Richard Matheson, is one of the most significant movies of 70s American cinema. A consideration not without irony if we consider that Steven Spielberg's film was born as a television product. A mixture of road movie, metaphysical tale and paranoid nightmare, Duel combines all these heterogeneous elements in a thriller of extraordinary emotional tension that lends itself to multiple readings in a metaphorical key, with references to both Melville and Kafka. At the center of the story is a harmless salesman, traveling along a desolate and dusty highway of the deep American province, haunted by an inexplicable and implacable threat. The man, in fact, is chased by a mammoth tanker, apparently…

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  Review by Scott Tobias ★★★★ 4

  Watched again for Guardian anniversary piece. Spielberg gets you from frame one of this thing.