Figure 1, Duel 1971 [Poster]

Duel (1971) was Steven Spielberg’s first film, it began as a TV show before being produced
as a film when Spielberg’s talent was spotted. This 1971 action/thriller film was based on an
article from a Playboy magazine, and is about a character named David Mann, an ordinary
guy in a little red car, battling a massive truck when they begin overtaking each other down
a highway. This is essentially the whole film, the truck chasing the car in a ‘duel’, a battle of
man against man, portrayed through man vs machine. This review will be looking at how the
truck is represented in the film and possibilities for what it could be representing using
sources such as: Steven Spielberg by J. McBridge.

Figure 2, The Truck [Still]

The truck was cast from 7 different auditioned trucks, Spielberg was looking for just the
right character for Duel, Spielberg chose a battered Peterbilt gasoline tanker truck, which he
described as ‘the smallest one, but the only one that had a great snout.’ (McBridge, 1997).
The truck was large, brown, beaten up and rusty; creating the perfect representation for the
bad guy in Duel. ‘I thought that with some re-modelling we could really get it to look human.
I had the art director add two tanks to both sides of the doors – they’re hydraulic tanks, but
you ordinarily wouldn’t have two. They were like the ears of the truck.’ It had to have some
human elements in order to avoid ever needing an actual driver, to keep the audience in the
dark, left with a lot of tension and suspense.

There are several theories online about what fans believe the truck could be representing,
this includes ‘The truck and trucker in question represents his thoughts on his marriage as
he's driving home. It's slowly killing him. The scene where he finally defeats the trucker, he
bursts in to laughter, which turns into him sitting down on the edge of the cliff to have an
introspective stare off into the sunset as the credits roll. This is the scene where I believe he
comes to terms with his dying marriage and realizes his marriage is dead. He's somewhat
relieved but perplexed.' (FanTheories, 2017). This theory would provide an explanation for
why the audience never sees the truck driver, and only the truck represented as a
mechanical force of nature, or a complete figment of his imagination; a manifest of his dying
marriage. Another large theory about the truck as a manifestation from David’s brain Is the
theory that it is a manifest of his desire to be masculine.

Figure 3, The Truck and Car [Still]

Spielberg has been interviewed about the truck, and one of its meaning to him personally
was that he had been bullied in his youth, and the truck resembled that to him. "The thing
that got me to really push to get hired to do "Duel" was because I had been bullied, and all
of my friends in my little circle of friends had also been bullied, and I knew what it felt like,"
Spielberg said. "And even though I tried really hard to anthropomorphize the truck, as an
extension of a kind of evil, bullying force, without too much regard for who was driving the
truck, it did represent something that made me feel that I knew the material.” (The Editors,
2014). Spielberg took the challenge of making the truck into a villain with no actual face, no
human and no voice. He completely anthropomorphised the truck to appear like a
humanised machine; like another actor in itself. He did this so effectively that the audience
could have feelings or fear around it. Spielberg used these typical stereotypes of bullies to
make the truck recognisable as a bully; it was bigger, meaner, angry looking, darker colours
were used to emphasise the evil qualities that the truck beholds. When looking at the
contrast between the truck and the car, the roles become very obvious: A huge brown truck
against a tiny red car- the bully and the victim theory becomes very clear to an audience-
even if it’s more of a subconscious realisation. This is why Spielberg took on Duel with so
much passion as his first project. ‘Mann is powerless. Stuck in 1970s America, he has no
horsepower, no muscle power, no respect from others, and no respect for himself. It’s easy
to see that Mann represents the (stereo)typical American man of the era: best on all sides by
high fuel prices, an invasive, untrustworthy government, increasingly empowered and shrill
women, and a war that defies all reasonable expectation. Any parallel with the modern era,
by the way, is strictly prescient on Spielberg’s part. Mann, as played by Dennis Weaver, is no
DeNiro or Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, and he has no way to muscle, fight, or bully his way
out of the situation.’ (Baruth, J. 2011) Mann can be the stereotypical ideal for a victim of
bullying, he is much smaller than the truck and doesn’t resort to violence until the very end
of the film where the battle took place and he triumphed.

In conclusion, the Truck in Duel could be representing a bully as Spielberg says it could, but
also part of a Spielberg film is having the suspense of not knowing why this is happening,
and this makes the film have a lot more tension, and frightening aspects. The audience
never get to find out the reason for the trucks constant abuse toward Mann- and this in
itself provides most of the tension within the film, the audience are in the dark and waiting
to find out something that is never revealed. So, while all these theories about the trucks
meaning are interesting, they may not necessarily be true, or needed at all. The film doesn’t
really need an explanation for the truck, it’s more frightening without one, not knowing is
even scarier and makes it a much more interesting analysis.

Illustrations:
Fig.1 – Duel 1971 [Poster] [Online] At:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0067023/mediaviewer/rm52241920 Accessed on: 10/02/19
Fig.2- The Truck [Still] At: http://www.autofoundry.com/5772/the-truck-from-the-movie-
duel/ Accessed on: 10/02/19
Fig.3- Figure _ The Truck and Car At: https://www.hagerty.com/articles-
videos/articles/2018/04/20/road- rage-in-the-rearview-rewatching-duel Accessed on:
07/02/19

Bibliography:
Baruth, J. 2011 [Online] At: https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2011/09/ttac-at-the-
movies-duel/ Accessed on: 07/02/19
FanTheories, 2017. [Online]
https://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/4hzbo6/duel_1971_spoilers/ Accessed
on: 07/02/19
McBridge, J. 1997. Steven Spielberg. USA. Faber and Faber Accessed on:
The Editors, 2014. [Online] At: https://www.rogerebert.com/balder-and-dash/book-excerpt-
steven-
Page, P. 2018 [Online] At: https://www.hagerty.com/articles-
videos/articles/2018/04/20/road-rage- in-the-rearview-rewatching-duel Accessed on:
07/02/19