film review Duel

Duel is a Steven Spielberg film that is mainly based for a male audience, released in 1971. Its about road rage between a car driver and a truck driver, who takes revenge because the driver in the car decided to overtake because he was going to slow. "Duel was originally published in 1971 as a short story in Playboy magazine; inspired by an actual incident which was experienced first-hand by the story’s author; noted genre writer Richard Matheson" ( Moss, 2014) 

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Its a suspense film and every little part of the film you are sitting on the edge of your film wondering what's next and who the truck driver is. this film is like a bull fight. the truck being the ball and the car being the red cloth that the matador swings around. its a predator and prey film.

The film uses the necessary variety of shots and angles to maintain excitement while adhering to the schedule, Spielberg was meticulous in his planning – using multiple cameras and even going so far as to having a gigantic mural created depicting the action of the entire film from a bird’s eye’s perspective – which took up most of the wall space of his motel room for the duration of the shoot. (Moss, 2014) the angles in the film are a work of art and makes the film feel like your part of. with being part of the truck looking down to the side of the truck feeling like your the prey being chased down.

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The sound in the film are mainly of the trucks engine getting louder when it gets closer to the small red car. the music uses slashing strings and percussion to build tension. (Hitchcock never moved his camera the way Spielberg does, though.) The editing, by Frank Morriss, is wonderful – it flows directly from the images, as if wired to Spielberg’s brain. (Bord, 2015) The cinematography is crisp, when they use colour to make the action clear. Edwin S. Hall’s and Jerry Christian’s sound work is a work of art, They incorporate animal noises to make the truck more muscling and aggressive.  

illustrations

figure 1 The Red List , (1971), Duel [ONLINE]. Available at: http://theredlist.com/wiki-2-17-513-863-822-960-view-mystery-suspense-2-profile-1971-bduel-b.html [Accessed 1 March 2017].

figure 2 Ace Black, (2013), side truck [ONLINE]. Available at: http://www.theaceblackblog.com/2013/08/movie-review-duel-1971.html [Accessed 1 March 2017].

bibliography

Moss, Greg 2014, Moss films

https://mossfilm.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/steven-spielbergs-duel-feature-review/

Moss, Greg 2014, Moss films

https://mossfilm.wordpress.com/2014/12/18/steven-spielbergs-duel-feature-review/

Bord, Chris 2015 Moss Island Sound

https://mossislandsounds.com/2015/05/27/spielberg-film-by-film-duel-1971/