Watch Trailer
Add to List
Request Correction
Write Plot
Write Review Movie Information
Full Reviews
Movie Lists
Movie Talk
Quick Movie Reviews
Rating of
2.5/4
Yojimbo - wrote on 06/25/2012
Like The Birds before it, this film is more about the director's skill at cultivating a sense of menace and tension rather than any form of plot development. In that spirit, a travelling salesman inadvertantly pisses off the driver of a huge semi truck, who then pursues him in a gripping game of cat and mouse down the highway. It may not sound like much, but Spielberg's abilities as a storyteller are obvious even at this early stage in his career. Weaver also deserves a nod as he has to carry the movie pretty much by himself being the only human combatant to be seen!
Rating of
3.5/4
Unknown - wrote on 12/08/2011
A straight-up 90 min. car battle over long stretches of highway. On that level, this movie completely succeeds. The excellent plot and pacing make for an perfect escalation of tension. A small, furious motorists thriller. Surprisingly well made for being originally conceived as a television film. Huge promising start for legendary director Spielberg.
Rating of
3/4
mitchellyoung - wrote on 11/03/2011
You can see flashes of Spielberg's brilliance and knack for visual storytelling in his first feature effort. Made on a very low budget and with limited resources, the film does a lot with very little - using its grittiness and economy of characters to create a cat-and-mouse game that is tense from start to finish.
Rating of
3/4
Movie Maniac - wrote on 08/19/2008
Made for T.V. then extended, Duel becomes Spielberg's first feature length film. Personally i loved it. Although it is slow enough that i cant watch it very often, Spielberg really knows how to use the camera.
Rating of
3/4
TheWolf - wrote on 12/21/2007
"Duel" is an extremely simple plot: Dennis Weaver plays a businessman who, while traveling West on a series of lonely highways, suddenly becomes the target of a truck driver who seeks to punish him for a mistake he had made while driving near the truck.This is one of those films that you have to seriously ask youself "what would I do in this situation?" The thing that made this movie as suspenseful as it was, had to be the year that the film is happening. In the 1970 the word "cell phone" was not used in everyday speech, and no one had them. This is still one of my favorite Spielberg films yet.
