Duel (1971) - Film Review Can't seem to get rid off this re-occurring line?? Sorry!

Duel - 1971
The thriller film Duel was made in 1971 and directed by Steven Spielberg. This was only the second full feature film that Spielberg had made. Richard Matheson
originally wrote a shorter version of the film "Duel" for
Playboy Magazine. The story follows a man called David
Mann who leaves the city and then drives through the
Californian Desert, however a truck tanker
with an unknown driver decides to chase Mann through out
the film.

Duel (poster art) 

The film is completely suspense driven. Spielberg does this by using low angle shot of the truck itself. Making the audience feel really small compared to the size of the truck.  
"Spielberg slowly builds up the suspense, seemingly from thin air: the first time the truck appears, Spielberg's low angles and uncomfortable closeups of the truck's rusty grille and thick, rotted fenders already suggest something sinister." (Unknown, 23/02/11)

Not only that but when the camera gets close to the front of the truck we can almost picture a monstrous face, looking ready to chase its victim. Giving the ruck human like features.  

Some would say that the film reflected the masculinity of David Mann. For example he drove a car, which is much smaller compared to the huge tanker truck. David's car symbolizes the small amount of masculinity that he had. "A cherry red 1970 Plymouth Valiant which finds itself out its depth against the truck from hell." (Cowen N  and Patience H, 08/03/08)

Fig 2. Duel (film sill)

This dilemma of masculinity is also seen when David and his wife have a conversation on the phone: "They'd had an argument the night before because they'd been at a party where a friend or business associate had obviously been all over Mann's wife — "he practically raped me," she says, as the couple's two kids play innocently nearby — and Mann had done nothing to stop the harassment."Also the clue is in his name David "Mann", sounds like the word "Man".  (Unknown, 23/02/11)

Interestingly most of this scene is filmed through a door of washing Machine. Maybe it was showing us the "females perspective" from that time. "As for the nameless mother/hausfrau seen briefly in Duel, Nigel Morris notes how “Mann [in the Laundromat/phone call scene] is literally viewed through a female lens, this film repeatedly associating women, at the height of second-wave feminism, with household labour. His wife, her side of the conversation intercut, dusts the living room in a polka-dot frock and apron that parody 1950s commercials, with two children playing on the floor." (Schober A, December 2015) 

Fig 3. Duel (film still)

If not immediately we notice very quickly that the desert is not a safe place for David Mann compared to the city. However both places still challenged his masculinity, first of all from his wife and then the mysterious truck driver.

By the end of the film David Mann manages to redeem his masculinity when he manages to blow up the truck and watch it plunge off the cliff.

Illustration list:
Figure. 1 Duel (poster art) http://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/movieposters/543/p543_p_v8_aa.jpg
(accessed on 06/03/16)

Figure 2. Duel (film still) https://mossfilm.files.wordpress.com/2014/12/duel-train-crossing.jpg

(accessed on 06/03/16)

Figure 2. Duel (film still) http://sensesofcinema.com/2015/book-reviews/steven-spielbergs-duel/

(accessed on 06/03/16)

Bibliography:

Cowen N  and Patience H, 08/03/08 Wheels on Film: Duel [online] In: The Telegraph At: URL

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/wheelsonfilm/2751051/Wheels-On-Film-Duel.html (accessed on 06/03/16)

(Schober A, December 2015) Steven Spielberg’s Duel (1971) and the Road to Interpretation: Steven Spielberg and Duel: The Making of a Film Career by Steven Awalt [online] In: Senses Of Cinema At: URL: 
http://sensesofcinema.com/2015/book-reviews/steven-spielbergs-duel/ (accessed on 06/03/16)

Unknown, 23/02/11 Duel [online] In: Only The Cinema At: URL: http://seul-le-cinema.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/duel.html (accessed on 06/03/16)