DUEL

US, 1972, 90 minutes, Colour.
Dennis Weaver.
Directed by Steven Spielberg.

Duel is an unexpectedly excellent film, a parable about modern man, relevant and unpretentious. David Mann, listening to a talk-back session about the American husband's place in the home, drives to a business appointment: modern man at his daily tasks. He is menaced and provoked by an unseen tanker-driver until he is a victim of his own irrational but credible fear and the lure of outwitting the danger and his opponent.

Reminiscent of Vanishing Point with its middle-aged hero driving the highway, but more reminiscent of Deliverance and the challenge of environment (very urban instead of rural), the film is a fairly gruelling experience, which touches all of us who drive. The end poses the Straw Dogs question of satisfaction in the violent warding off of danger.
Dennis Weaver, colour photography, direction and editing are all very effective. Worth seeing and discussing.

1. Was the title apt? What did it imply?

2. What kind of man was David Mann? As a person, character, family man, business man? (David Mann - David versus Goliath; Mann - mankind?).

3. What was the point of the talk-back session about who was the head of the family? Did it relate to David Mann? How?

4. Comment on the photography - the camera techniques and tricks, the sense of being one with Mann as the driver of the car. What did this contribute to the meaning and feeling of the film?

5. How exciting was the film? Why? Did it keep you tense?

6. flow well did you identify with Mann? At what moment particularly?

7. Why did the tanker driver start fooling with Mann? Was he malicious to begin with? How did the duel develop? Why?

8. What effect did it have on Mann? Audience feelings? What was the point of leaving the tanker driver as anonymous? Why did Mann want to find out who he was?

9. Should Mann have turned back? What did he want to prove by duelling - his sense of identity, virility, himself? Was it worth it? Why are we generally fascinated by this kind of conflict and challenge?

10. How afraid had Mann become by the time he came to Chuck's cafe? What was he afraid of? How afraid of the unknown was he? How rational was his fear?

11. How effective was the sequence at Chuck's cafe - Mann's sickness, suspicions, curiosity, fear? How did this give a balance to the structure of the film?

12. Why did Mann try to outwit the driver - how menacing had the tanker become? e.g. his sleeping, the bus incident, the snakerama incident (the violence of this), asking the couple for help, burning his engine?

13. How cunning did the danger make Mann? Were you glad of the final fall and the end of danger (even losing the car)? Why was he so glad? Should he have been? Was it easier because the driver was anonymous?

14. How had Mann been changed by this experience? Where did it leave him?

15. How was this a moral comment on modern, mobile, mechanised man, society, evil, America?