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hungry shark. What Spielberg does so cleverly is to make us fear for David’s plight and we never
know if David will survive it. That Red Plymouth Valiant is no match for a grimy-looking gas
tanker truck emitting all sorts of exhaust into the atmosphere – a tree-hugging liberal’s
nightmare. But the environment is hardly what David cares about, it is the lack of control he has
over this unseen driver (only the driver’s boots and his arm are ever visible). When it is all over
after the truck plunges over a cliff, David feels victorious and jumps up and down. Then he
settles down and sits on the edge of a cliff, looking despondent. The nightmare may be over but
we never know what really stimulated the truck driver to aggressively attack David (the various
license plates in the truck’s front bumper certainly suggest that this driver has done this before).
There is calm and unease and the victory slowly dissipates. “Duel” is about a lonely man on a
lonely two-lane road who, by the end of the film, is more alone than ever. ###
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