Steven Spielberg - Duel

0:00 So we all love Toho Monster movies, right, absolutely. Godzilla was a huge part of a lot of our childhood growing up, at least it was for me. Well that is what we were talking about today. Sort of just take Godzilla and swap him out with an eighteen wheeler tanker truck and you will have a film by Steven Spielberg in his nineteen seventy one underrated film Duel. Hello and welcome back. I'm David Burns, I'm Jeff Johnson, and I'm Wayne Whiten, and this is a film by podcast.

1:03 Welcome everybody. Jeff. I know we love to do shout outs here before we get things rolling. What do we have today, Dave, I want to call it two of our listeners who are always hooking us up with great feedback. So today's episode is a week late because we kind of did an impromptu Val Kilmer episode last week. We did well and yeah, well definitely well worth. It had a huge response to it. There's two guys I want to shout out though. Jason Coslet contacted us. I got I'll uh, he's got. He's got one heck of a top ten because you know that's what we did. We did kind of like a valcomer.

1:43 Top ten. Jason Coslet wrote, good afternoon, finally getting to your Val Kilmer tribute episode, thank you. Val Kilmer was an actor that I loved, grew up with, and just respected so much. Admittedly had to be consoled by my wife for a while. She knew because I speak of him often. Okay, my favorite Rules I'm just gonna say here and now. I first saw vow in Real Genius as Chris Knight and will always sentimentally be my favorite Val Kilmer movie. Next would be The Doors Val as Jim Morrison Jesus Christ enough said, Third would be Tombstone I'm in my prime. Four would be Thunderheart. I fucking love this movie, always have, always will. Sam Shepherd and Graham Green were also great in this movie. Five is vow and true romance as the mentor Elvis. Six is Batman Forever, the only other Batman I like other than Keaton.

2:37 Wow Wow Okay. Seven is top gun Iceman Rules. Eight is top secret and underrated classic. We didn't even mention that one. I don't we didn't. It does a good pick. Yeah. Nine is Mad Martigan and Willow. Ten is gonna be the Ghost in the Darkness, another underrated classic. Thank you again, rest in peace, Val Kilmer. Jason fantastic. Yeah, uh top ten there, and thank you for reaching out and letting us so our buddy, our Patreon producer, friend of the show. He's been on the show once or twice. James Buckley had this to say, Kilmer's passing was a tragedy and this spur of the moment episode was a noteworthy tribute. I cannot fault any of their selections or their placement. The breath of this man's work was pretty astounding.

3:27 As for the quotes, I have to side with Doc. It's hard to go against a guy who wins a Latin off against Kyle Reese. That's right. See thank you, Jim, Yeah yeah. And Dave's that's that's kind of the tip of the iceberg. There's a lot of people that reached out and gave us some feedback on the valcolmra episode. And I don't want to make this the Valcilmer episode recap, but I just want to point those two guys out because they always give us great feedback. So so, Jason, James, thank you very much. Yes, thank you very much. Thank you. All right, guys, So have you ever had road rage enough to take a semi and try and run someone down? I can tell you driving the highway every day and I drive at what fifty and the thought crosses my mind.

4:13 You know, I had no word? How about you, Wayne? Oh, definitely every day, every day. Just an hour ago I thought the same thing, that I want to run this guy off the road. Yeah, well, I mean that has something to do with we're talking about today, that is for sure. I gotta see, guys, I'm very excited to finally be discussing a film from Steven Spielberg, a guy that I have idolized, that wanted to be when I was growing up, still do actually still yeah, the man that has given us so many gifts over the years and truly changed Hollywood on many occasions with his talent and envision. And here we are discussing one of his very early works. And when you look at it, you can see so much from Steven in this that just gives us hints of what's in store for us from this director in the future. Would you guys agree with that?

5:00 Yeah? It's it's amazing, it really, it really is. So when did this come up on radar? For you guys. For me, obviously, Raiders of the Lost Ark was the first one that I saw, and I watched more and more of until I got to know who Steven Spielberg would was. And later in my life then I went back and caught a lot of his older stuff. So I didn't catch this one until later in life. But again, this was came out before I was even born, so I didn't know much about it. But when I did watch it, I was very impressed by it. So what about you, guys. I think every film buff goes through their quote unquote college years where you grew up loving movies. You grew up loving maybe a certain actors movies or a certain director's movies. But then you get a little bit older, and that's when you start doing the research. You start going down the rabbit hole to find out all their other work and and and check it out. Yeah, Dave, like you, Spielberg is my all time favorite director. I love.

5:58 I've loved everything he's done. And I want to say, probably like in my twenties, when I started like, oh he did some television, Oh he did this, you know, when I started doing the research and trying to find his old older stuff. That's when I found Duel. I believe the first time I saw Duel was The Sun Coast Years for Us, you know, showed up on it on the shelf and I was like, wait, it's a Steven Spielberg movie. Yeah, that I haven't seen, and I got excited, you know, so wait. What about you? Well, I mean I saw a lot of Spielberg's films during the eighties, but I really didn't get into his work until the early nineties. But I remember this movie playing frequently on television, and so I had seen parts of it. I mean, you know, there are parts of it is so memorable, but I don't think I saw the whole film in its entirety until about like ninety one or ninety two, was right after Hook, because that's when I just first discovered Spielberg and started watching all this other stuff. And I think I watched it on amc IS when they played it. But you know, it's brilliant.

6:59 It's a brilliant film, you know, like all of his work. Absolutely, and so young, you're just seeing what's coming. I mean at that time you didn't know, but you know, looking back now, you're like, wow, you could really see the Spielberg that we're going to get to know later on in the in those later years. Oh yeah, And since I watched it, I've went back and tried to watch all of his original TV work. I love his work, even his early stuff. Absolutely well, I'm let's go to talk about some of three facts trivia about the director and a quote. Since we started that with a film at forty five, and we've carried that on too, a film by which I love very much, So Jeff, thank you for bringing that onto a film by podcast. I love quotes, I really do. It's always easy when you're stealing film yourself. It is absolutely so. Stephen once screened Lawrence of Arabia with director David Lean, who gave a live director's commentary.

7:48 Spielberg said it was one of the best moments of his life, learning from a true master. Spielberg stated that it helped him make better pictures and that directly influenced every movie he made, since I just cannot imagine getting a live commentary from somebody that famous. That's like us sitting down next to Spielberg and him talking through an entire film, which would typically drive me insane. But I would love that my commentary by Steven Spielberg. You know'st to tell you. Yeah, absolutely absolutely. During filming of an episode of Night Gallery in nineteen sixty nine, Detroit Free Press reporter Shirley Etter was speaking with the famous Joan Crawford, who was in this particular episode, pointed out Steven Spielberg and said, go interview that kid, because he's gonna be the biggest director of all time. Boy, was she right? Guys?

8:46 Wow, what a compliment. Yes, and that young nineteen sixty nine, My goodness, man, coming from somebody like that, that caliber of an actress, Good grief, what a compliment. You just can't imagine. Well, have both of you in his Night Gallery pilot the first half he directed you, Jeff, Yeah, I mean it's it's different. It's very, very different from anything else on television at the time. Yeah, I agree, but it's just again shows you his vision. I think they were even taken aback bite a little bit because it was just out of the ordinary for them. Yeah. With the story I heard I remember reading in his biography is that the Serling loved it. The studio hated it. They said he went a little bit too artsy, and Serling took him off the side and because he still had more Night Gallery to direct, and told him that he needs to back off a little bit. Yeah, you know, go back and do the more normal, cookie cutter type of directing and and just give the studio what they want, because eventually they will give you what you want.

9:49 And he did. He backed off. It's still everything he's done is very Spielberg, but it's not nearly as as crazy or as wild as what he did the Night Gallery. But then Serling was right. I mean, he backed off for a while and then finally he got what he wants. And we're talking about that right now. Duel, Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Another thing I found interesting was he was very irritated when footage from his movie Duel was used as stock footage in an episode of The Incredible Hulk in nineteen or seventy seven. I forgot about that. What but yes, But since Universal Studios owned the rights to The Incredible Hawk and Duel, Spieberg couldn't do anything about it. He couldn't take any kind of legal action. But because of this, he made sure going forward everything in his contract made it had of clause that protected his material that couldn't be used a stock footage anymore.

10:38 I love the see now I want to go back and watch The Incredible Hulk and find the dual episode right that'dolok, it would be It would. Be so the quote that I found. I've actually live and breathed by this quote from Steven Spolberg. I've done it for quite a many years. It's a little lengthy, but just bear with me. He says. I get the same queasy, nervous, thrilling feeling every time I go to work that's never worn off since I was twelve years old with my dad's eight millimeter movie camera. The thrill hasn't changed at all. In fact, as I've gotten older, it's actually increased because now I appreciate the collaboration. When I was a kid, there was no collaboration. It's you with the camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself. My job was constantly to keep a movie family going. I'm blessed with the same thing that john Ford Howard Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock were blessed with a mini industry very similar to the one from the Golden era of Hollywood, where it was the same people making movies with you each and every time. And it makes life so much more enjoyable when you get to go home to your family and go to work with your other family.

11:52 Great quote, fantastic quote. Yeah, it makes me feel good. Like you know, when I go to make my little film, I get so nervous about a shot that day or whatever we're doing. To know that Steven Spielberg at his caliber, still gets nervous. I'm going making a film that's crazy to think about, isn't it? Absolutely? It is? All right, Well, let's get to duel. This is kind of awkward for me because this is a part that I am usually doing the synopsis. So Jeff tell us, for those listeners out there who don't know about this Spielberg film, give us what this synopsis is all about. Well, if I can paraphrase the Spielberg quote, you know, as far as appreciating the talent I'm surrounded with, Dave, I know I can't hold a candle to you, but I'll do my best. Okay, Okay, David Mann a businessman traveling a remote California highway and route to an appointment finds himself the unwilling participant in a deadly game of cat and mouse against a mysterious homicidal truck driver. His weapon of choice weathered menacing forty ton tanker truck that hammers down on the desperate motorist, escalating the terror with each passing mile marker. If Jaws made you wonder whether it was safe to go in the water, Steven Spielberg's duel will have you wondering whether it's safe to hit the open road.

13:17 You get the David Seal of approval that means a lot of done, well done, well done. Couldn't have said better at myself for sure. But you know you are right when you mentioned Jaws in this, because I mean, it's very It's got some similarities here. One of the things I love about this film is that you never see this driver. You get hints of him, you get like the arm the cowboy boots sometimes maybe like a little tiny of silhouette in the cab, but you don't ever see him, which makes this even creepier because it could be anyone mm hm. And the fact that this truck is here, and then it's gone, and then it's right on your bumper again. Yeah, it is absolutely a twenty five foot great white shark and it's just it's just on the on the on the blacktop. That's all. Yeah.

14:06 Absolutely, And how about them license plates on that bumper? You got so good? I was I was wondering and maybe maybe this is intended, but I kind of get the idea that this guy is just out on the road stalking people, and like it's like, yeah, he's like a trophy hunter. Like the plates are the cars the people that he's that he's murdered. Is that would that be the exactly that's what I read impression I got. Yeah, okay, absolutely, which makes that even scarier. Yeah, and there's just no way, no thank you. But I know that was part of Spielberg of working with this and coming up with this creation. And I kind of talked and talked about at the beginning of it calling this Godzilla but just with an eighteen wheeler.

14:47 Spielberg had that vision when he was making this. He know, he looked at it that way, and it works so well, uh in this film, and it's very visual, you know, there's very little words. If you look at this, you know, I mean, it's really a one man show. You get a little bit of other characters in this, but it's just fantastic. But we'll get to that a little bit. You guys, got anything else before we. Go to our first break. That's what I think is brilliant about this is that there's such a minimal cast to this. Really, I mean, Dennis Weaver's carrying the entire thing, and that's what makes it brilliant that, you know, a whole movie can be centered around one person and the suspense and the terror that he's experiencing. That's Spielberg and his finest.

15:30 In my opinion, absolutely, I couldn't agree more with you. When well, guys, let's go ahead and take our first break and we come back. We'll talk about the cast, we'll talk about Dennis Weaver, we'll be back. Welcome back, listeners to a Film by podcast where Wayne, Jeff and I are discussing Steven Spielberg's nineteen seventy one film Dule. As we said, this isn't a very big cast, almost a one man's show. But let's start talking about the man himself, David Man, that is played by Dennis Weaver. He did a lot of Westerns and stuff before this. I know he was in Gunsmoke, Is that correct, guys? He he was the deputy. I think Marshall Dyllon's deputy.

16:12 He was, That's right. I just think he was fantastic in this movie. And I know Dennis Weaver was a big fan of it because my understanding is he watched this twice a year. Oh wow, I can understand that. I could too, I mean, and the funny thing is, I know we recently got back from steel Fest. We met Clint Howard. He was in General Ben, the TV series which Dennis Weaver was also in Gentle Ben. So you know, I think it was perfect casting for this. He's got that everyday guy walking down the street vibe to him. Would you guys. Agree with that? Oh he's the everyman.

16:52 Yes, he is the everyman and he fits this part perfectly. And you know, seeing him in this film as the one man show, that's hard to do to pull that off, and he does it so well. I mean, you even hear him talking to himself in some of those scenes, the restaurant scene, you know, where you know he's trying to figure out is the guy in the bar with him or in that restaurant with him. What's he gonna do? How's he gonna talk to his way out of this? Maybe he should approach him, you know those kind of things that just that monologue that's going on in his head was just brilliant. Can I can I offer a little fun fact about Dennis Weaver. You mentioned you mentioned our buddy Clint Howard, who we were talking to recently. So in the mid nineteen forties, Dennis Weaver is a student studying drama at the University of Oklahoma in Norman. He's got a couple of theater friends that he introduces to one another. Those two friends guys were Gene Spiegel and Rance Howard, which means Dennis Weaver is the one who introduced Ron and Clint Howard's parents to one another.

18:03 That's crazy. How about that for going down the rabbit hole. There's a nugget for you. Man, Tell you them Howards are everywhere, aren't they? I love it. There are Oklahoma natives, those Howards's that's fantastic. I did not know that, Jeff Man, that is going down a deep hole to find some information. So well done. I knew I knew you'd love it, and any any kind of Oklahoma Norman Oklahoma trivia back and throwed for our good buddy Jason Colvin. You know I'm going to do that. That's right, throw it out there for him, no doubt. So we've got some other cast members in this who are not there very much. Jacqueline Scott plays missus Man, who is not very in this movie at all, except for that little tidbit that we see her at.

18:45 Home link and you miss her link and you miss her. Yes, the only thing I really know her from was the TV series of The Fugitive. That's the only thing I know her from. You I'm not too familiar with her. Yeah, you're right. I don't think she's done too much now. I know a lot of the people that you see in this movie did a lot of television. Obviously, Spielberg, you know, in that Worth getting his start with Night Gallery and all that kind of stuff. You know, he's meeting a lot of TV people, So it's probably where a lot of this was coming from. Eddie Firestone is the cafe owner. I know he was in Barbibie Jones in Glactica nineteen eighty, which is not the thing, but hey, still Blue Frizzle as the bus driver. Interesting thing about that scene, but I know we're going to talk about that a little bit later because there are a few other scenes that we could talk about yet. Jean Danarski as the man in the cafe. The reason why I bring this gentleman up is, as you guys know, I always talk about everything comes back to Star Trek.

19:46 You say that a lot. You're right. So Gene is in the original Star Trek and Star Trek the next generation, so there's that connection. He's also in Close Encounters of the Third Kind as Ike, because as you know, Steve's go breaking his quote says, he you know, it's like a family, keep bringing them with you, and he continues to do that with some of this cast. Jeff Lucille Benson as Lady at Snakerama. Do you know where she's from? I couldn't tell you. She is miss l Rod in Halloween two. Oh my lord, are you kidding me? No, I'm not. She is that sweet woman that was trying to make Harold a sandwich. Yes, that's her. Well, yep, that's where I knew her from.

20:28 Since the Star is like, oh, hey, I know where she's from. But yeah, Halloween too, And of course we have Carrie Lofton as the truck driver, who is probably one of the busiest Hollywood's stunt men. Up to this point, the man had three hundred and eighty four credits. Okay, he is known for motorcycles, cars, trucks, you name it. He has done the stunts for Hollywood in the sixties and the seventies. He's done the love Bug, Lit Vanishing Point, Diamonds or Forever, the French Connection, Thunderbolt, and Lightfoot, White Line Fever, just to name a fuel few, and of course Gold. You couldn't have gotten anybody better to be a stuntman in this movie. So Steven Spielberg obviously chose wisely when it came to the stuntman in this Dave.

21:20 This guy has sixty one years in the industry, and you mentioned some of his heavy hitters, you know, the Bullet, the French Connection, the idea that he is behind the wheel of Steve McQueen's sixty eight Ford Mustang GT fastback on those San Francisco streets. It's awesome, you know. You gotta remember his villainous driving can be seen in both Christine and Maximum Overdrive. This guy's behind the wheel of Christine and the Green Goblin truck. Yeah, that's unreal, man, I know. And in nineteen eighty four, at the age of sixty eight, he performed the car chase in a really good Jeff Bridges movie called Against All Odds. He was he was driving the Ferrari three eight because even at at that age his reputation was being the best carman in the business.

22:08 Well he was. He's a legend, absolutely legend, absolute. Legends, absolute legend. Yeah. I'm looking down his credits right now, and so many of these great films that he's been in, they're they're incredible. Yeah, I mean, you got somebody who does all of that. You know, he knows what he's doing. Clearly, when you need somebody to drive a big truck like that, that's you know, throughout the entire film that's gonna be doing some crazy stuff like it does. You didn't need somebody really good behind that wheel, somebody you can trust, and clearly he is the man for sure. All Right, let's talk about some of the inside of the film's background and production. Speaking of Kerry Lofton, I found this kind of interesting he approached Steven Spielberg and asked him, what is my motivation for tormenting this car driver? Spielberg looked at him and goes, you're a dirty, rotten, no good son of a bitch. Lofton replied, kid, you hired the right man. Good stuff there. According to Richard Matheson, who, as we know, wrote the original short story, do you guys know where how he got the idea for Duel?

23:12 I happen to know this one, God, Jeff, what is it? So? Matheson claimed he was inspired to write it after being tailgated by a menacing trucker on his way home on Highway one twenty six in California on November twenty second, nineteen sixty. Three, of all days of all day. Yeah, the same day as the jfk assassination. Yeah, that is just crazy to think about. Dave, I happen to know Matheson, you know this this short story? Mathison writes, The script obviously adapts his own short story. Do you know where that short story was originally published? I believe it's got some bunnies involved. Am I correcting this?

23:55 Well? Yeah, we're talking. We're talking about the April nineteen seventy one issue of Playboy magazine, which Wayne Wayne reads only for the articles. Uh oh yeah, get some of the great stories in there. They do. I gotta be honest, man, that'd be a great collector's item to have a Matheson story that's adapted into a Spielberg film. Yeah, gotta look that one up on eBay. I'd frame then hang on the wall. You know, Richard Matheson's he's a fantastic writer. I mean, he's written some of the my favorite episodes of the Twilight Zone. He wrote Outer Limits. He's just a great writer. And this this script shows just how well of a write good writer he is. Yeah, he is.

24:36 I gotta say, you know, because I love his I love his Twilight Zone work. But if I had to pick a favorite Matheson, I'm probably gonna go with the I Am Legend. Oh yeah, I think. I mean a movie that's been adapted three different times in three different generations. I don't think they've I don't think they've quite cracked it just yet. I'm still holding out. But we'll see. Yeah, we'll see. Well. Another thing that I found interesting and I mentioned earlier about the school bus Driver, this movie originally had a runtime of seventy four minutes and it was made for TV movie, which they wanted to release it in the theaters, but it was way too short to put that in the theater, so Universal had Steven Spielberg come back and shoot some additional scenes to make it a ninety minute film.

25:23 So he went back and he redid what Nott redid. He filmed some new scenes. One of those is the opening scenes that you see where he comes out of the garage and get all those POV shots going down the city with the credits rolling. He also did the scene where David phones his wife the school bus scene is obviously new, and added the other one that I was really amazed that they added, because I actually love the scene is the railroad crossing. That scene is just terrifying. Oh yeah, that's one of my favorite scenes of the film. Yes, and I cannot believe that was not in the original. Yeah. I never would have guessed that. No, I think it's amazing. We're talking about an ABC Movie of the Week that is so popular that Universal pays to go back into production film extra so they can get it out in theaters. Now that beginning, that opening that just feels like filler.

26:14 It does. It does, so I totally get that. But I'm I'm really surprised to know that the school bus scene and the railroad crossing scene weren't in the original story because there are two of the more terrifying moments, especially the school bus scene, where like you're just ratcheting up the tension. Yeah, and you see him at the out of the tunnel parking, just waiting, just waiting. Yeah, just oh man, just terrifying for sure. Here's the craziest thing that I found in researching this film. Do you know how long it took Steven Spielberg to make this film? To direct this film? Take a guess, well, I mean, if it's if the story is out in Playboy in April seventy one and this movie is nineteen seventy one, he had to have like probably what two three months of production time.

26:58 It took twelve days to film this Get Out of Here twelve days. Twelve days? It is it is Steven Spielberg's personal benchmark. Yeah, I guess, so that's some that's some gorilla filmmaking. Right, that's ed Wood. I couldn't imagine doing something like that in twelve days, there's just no way. Wow. Yeah, crazy stuff. But didn't he didn't he do like a an aerial map of the highway, like storyboarded out? I thought, I did? I read? Yeah? So I mean he had it really planned out. So maybe he had it so planned out that's why he moved so fast. It was crazy to think about.

27:43 Man, he's got those David Byrne storyboards. That's right, man, let's go move, move, move. Absolutely, But no, that's that's pretty cool to think about. All right, guys, Well, let's let's let's talk about something that we dina Wayne to talk about, and that, of course is the music to this film, which is not John Williams, even though he would come later on in life and follow Spielberg everywhere, but this is not one of them. So what can you tell us about who did this music? Wayne? The nineteen seventy one Universal telefilm Duel was the first of three made of for television movies and the first feature leaf movie directed by Steven Spielberg a few years before Jaws and bringing us a different kind of monster, a rust covered behemoth Peterbilt truck calling a massive tanker trailer full of gasoline. The film featured a suspensely played game of wits between the truck's insane murders driver and a panicky every man played by Dennis Weaver. Steven Spielberg was a fresh face and knew to the Hollywood directing game, and he turned to his friend and frequent composer on many of his works at the time, Billy Goldenberg. Spielberg had worked with Goldenberg since the beginning of his career on the director's first TV work, for the pilot episode of Rod Serling's Night Gallery. He also did the music for two of Spielberg's high profile series episodes, the Colombo episode Murdered by the Book and the Name of the Game episode La twenty seventeen. Duel was a different kind

29:13 of project for Steven Spielberg, his first film, one that allowed him to bust away from the by the numbers type of TV directing that he had been forced to follow and direct the way he wanted to direct. He knew that he needed a musical score that was his kind of difference, something outside the box, and he knew that Billy Goldenberg could deliver exactly that for him. Goldenberg succeeded in bringing this rust colored score to Life, one of his most abstract and experimental works of his career. It's a very different type of musical approach, jarring and harsh at times, but matching to Spielberg's visuals with perfection. There are certain tracks that burst into your ear, such as the second tract on the CD Passing the Truck, that immediately shows you the direction of what we're going to hear, with a sound of something like strings being twisted, repeating over and over, building such an intense feeling of terror that rides up the back of your neck. There is no way that it cannot get under your skin.

30:13 Goldenberg's music gets inside your brain of David Mann producing a portrait of terror as manstros to fight back against his unknown foe. Using a lot of strings throughout his score, Goldenberg was able to create some intense sounds before going full throttle, with screeching as well as slower and almost grating notes that create a wonderful and powerful audio impact. Also, with the use of cowbells, wind chimes, and some other metal banging sounds, it gives such a uniqueness that only Goldenberg could produce. Another track titled The Final Duel, is a perfect example of what he can do, running the gambuit from slower and softer sounding music and background sounds to a fast paced and screeching use of the strings, sending your pulse into overdrive. Well, there's so much I love about this score. The end titles, which is aptly named the Duel, is particularly noteworthy. After the dust settles, Goldenberg opts for incredibly stark and profound useages two tones from the synth and water phone, slowly reducing further to the sense that plays repeats and then ultimately fades to silence to accompany the memorable closing shot of the film, choosing to allow the actual credits to roll without music at all. It's a lovely and haunting finish to a high octane powered score. It's brilliant. Duel has remained the final project that Billy Goldenberg has scored for director Steven Spielberg, as only a few short years later Spielberg could find

31:44 another composer to join him in his theatrical film debut, Sugar Lane Express, and that is John Williams. Spielberg and Goldenberg's path would cross only once more, when in nineteen eighty five you join among the list of composers along with John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Danny Elfman, Bruce Brought and James Horner and many more, and scoring Spielberg's epic television series Amazing Stories, delivering some great music for the episodes of The Amazing Fallsworth, What Iff and Secret Cinema. Goldenberg passed away in August twenty twenty, leaving behind an incredible career in film and television for his fans to remember and enjoy. For over forty years, the music to Duel has remained unreleased and unavailable to all soundtrack collectors, and it wasn't until twenty fifteen that Introtter Records finally released the music of this film on CD for all to enjoy, containing the entire score in nineteen tracks with full length cues as Goldenberg originally composed and conducted them. This release has the full nine channel score beautifully remoused with crystal clarity, using all nine layers, and topping it off with three more with Bell's organ, guitar and an extra lay of synth.

32:53 This release also contains the four country music instrumentals scored by Goldenberg that were used as source music for the background radio heard only in brief fragments in the film, but presented here on the CD in full. But unfortunately the CD is now long out of print, available only in the secondary market like eBay or in your u CD bins. But if you're lucky enough to get a hold of a copy of Duel, snatch it up without thought and enjoy this on unique an unusual approach to music from a seriously underappreciated composer. I gotta say, I always love the scoring sessions you you you send us Wayne when we're doing episodes, But you know, this was kind of like the hey we're doing it's the your one. Are your network shows, your your favorite network shows? Where they went they did the live episode and to see to watch you just do it live and be that amazing at it. You've got you've got to You've got a you know, a full orchestra behind you playing music from Duel. It's it's pretty impressive, man, very impressive.

33:53 I was looking forward to doing this one. I really do like this score. It's very unusual. But I love Billy gold Bird's score. I have quite a few of his his his soundtracks. He's a phenomenal composer. I wish Spielberg would actually used Hi more. But I love John Williams. But yeah, he's got an incredible career. I mean, you're correct. The music just matches perfectly, especially when you get those close shots of the truck as it's moving along the road, you know, with the mountains and stuff moving behind it quickly as it's bearing down on man. I love it. It's a really good score. You're right. I would have liked to have seen more from him at Spielberg, but of course that would have mean we probably wouldn't have had Williams, and I can't have that exactly. All Right, Well, guys, let's let's talk about this film. I know we've been talking about it.

34:40 Let's kind of break it down to our pivotal moment of the film, some noteworthy scenes. Jeff, what do you got? Let's start with the gas station stop, because the question I have for you, guys, is do you do you actually stay? No? I'm getting the hell out of there, man. Yeah, we get that first look at the those those menacing cowboy boots and you know he's checking the tires. Like that's the time you get in your car and you haul ass down the highway. Man, go get some distance between you and this guy. I don't know what he's doing. If Paul isn't hanging out, I'm like, come on, man, let's go. Yeah, do any of those house says. Get it, get out, Let's not get into that.

35:26 But I think it. I think it segues to this, uh you know this amazing moment though, with the diner lineup with the cowboy boots, and I gotta say, this is this is Spielberg doing his best Alfred Hitchcock, right, it's a it's a it's such a tense scene, all the dudes sitting there eating a cheese sandwich and drinking some water, and I'm just on the edge of my seat, like, you know, get out of there, Like who is it? You know, our brown cowboy boots that popular in that area? Apparently apparently? Yeah, But then you get all the guys that are turning around and looking back at him as he's doing that inner monologue and stuff, and You're like, oh my god, who the hell is it? So yes, I agree with you.

36:13 It is definitely Spielberg putting on his Alfred his Cock hat here. And you mentioned it early, Dave the whole his whole rationalizing his inner monologue. You know, do I confront this guy, should just say hey, let me let me buy your beers with no hard feelings, and you know he for him to make the call that he does and like go on the offence and then you pick the wrong guy, damn dude. And I like how Spielberg's filmed that too though, Like when the guy left, he goes around the truck and it looks like he's getting. In, looks like he's getting in the truck. Yeah, and then another vehicle pulls out behind it. I love that. That was fantastic. Yeah, yeah, that's I think that might be one of the more scarier moments in the movie because we think, like we've just we've just come face to face with the truck driver. Yeah, here he is, and get hey, you know what he's not that he's not that intimidating.

37:02 But it's not him, right Yeah, man, dude, that's the thing. He could be anybody because you've not seen him, you don't know who this is. It says an added factor to this film that just makes it that much better. Is incredible. You know another thing that I really loved what Spielberg did here, and he did it with schendless list. He has the red car in this, the bright red car, which stands out among this the shots of the desert. And remember he did that with the little girl's coat. Yeah, yeah, the red the red coat. You know, I love his use of that because he really wanted that vehicle to stand out, and and it does. You have this big, this big semi who's just it's just rusted, falling apart and just looks like a monster up against this little red vehicle. I love the choices here that Spielberg did for this film.

37:48 Yeah, the fact that he is telling the production I don't care what kind of car drives. I don't. It just has to be bright, cherry red. Yeah, that's simple. And it pops, it pops against that that California desert. Yeah. You guys know me that I love good camera shots. I always talk about them and I try to pick them out of a lot of films, and Spielberg always has amazing camera shots. But the one that absolutely stands out to me that I absolutely love is the shot where you get the shots on this un man and then the camera just starts pulling forward, I guess on another vehicle goes past the semi and comes out in front of the semi all in one shot. That was amazing and that had Spielberg written all over it. It really did.

38:33 And think about this, it's technically it's his it's his theatrical film debut. It's nineteen seventy one, and we are just starting with this man's amazing career. Yeah, when you saw that and got some of those shots of the semi, Jeff, did you not think of the truck scene and Raiders of the Lost Arc? Oh? Absolutely. I Again, he's I kind of feel like he's cribbing some of his greatest hits from you know, it all comes back to duel because you see a lot of his work. You know, you if you don't watch this movie and see Jaws, I don't know what movie you're watching, but it's to your point with some of the more action oriented moments with the truck, like, yeah, it's it's definitely it's that. It's that German convoy truck that that Endies trying to take over.

39:20 Yeah. Absolutely. And you know, Spielberg is the master of building suspense and this is probably one of the best examples of it because this is really suspenseful and you know, like you said, we we have no idea who it is that's driving that truck. And that's the point, you know, we we relate with with Man because we don't know who he is and he doesn't know who he is. And it's that that build up of suspense. You know. We see that later in Jaws, we see that again Raiders, and and we see that in this Amazing Stories episode. You just he is so great with using camera angles and just simple silence and facial movements to create that suspension.

40:06 And he he put his fingerprint on Hollywood right away with this film. It's just I can't. I just love this film. Yeah, I love his work in it. It's a great film, and it's it's funny. One of these days that we're gonna have to watch this together and make it a drinking game to tell you how many times David Mann looked in the rearview mirror or over his shoulder, Because I can tell you David Man looked in the rearview mirror sixty five times and over his shoulder fifty four times. I don't blame him. It better be it better be light beer man, you know, because we're not gonna make it the all ninety minutes. No, we're not not at all.

40:47 I mean, I mean Marion would make it. You know, of course she would come on speaking to Marion. Can we can we talk about the phone booth Rundown? Oh yes, please do. And I say that because Dave Snakes, I know you're watching this and you're just your skin's growling. Dude. When when the table got knocked over and he got near one of the rattles things and it jumps out of dude, I forget jumped again. It's it's it's raiders right with with the with the snake jumping at him. I gotta be honest. It's one of the more terrifying moments though, because this truck is just out there, free range, ready to mow him down. The one place I don't want to be is a is a small steel box a phone booth next to a bunch of live snakes, Like, nope, what do you do with Get out of there?

41:39 Man? But that shot is great and we've seen that before, like where someone's in in a phone booth, even in the matrix, you know where someone's in a phone booth just seconds before it gets destroyed by an oncoming vehicle. Yeah, it's great, and you got to remember Spielberd did it first. Yeah, and he's he's touching into three you know, primal fear right there. You know, the snakes, the confined spaces, and the being stalked all there at once. That's just again good example of his building suspense. Yeah. Absolutely, there's so much to like about this film, and we can be sitting here talking forever about it, that's for sure. Jeff, I got a question for you, what do you think your pivotal moment of this film is.

42:20 It's a tough one for me, but I think the pivotal moment would be if we go back to the diner scene and he makes the decision. David Mann makes the decision to confront the truck driver, and he's taking the chance because he doesn't truly know which guy it is. But the fact that he it's a turning point for his character because he makes the stance that he's not going to be a victim. He's going to stand up. He's in a faces fear basically, because this is ninety minutes of fear, you know, wondering what did I do to upset this guy? Where is he? Why is he after me? Why is he trying to kill me? I mean, he's got his inner monologues going throughout the entire film, and he's asking himself these questions. But I like this moment because it's the moment where he decides he's not gonna be the victim. He's gonna be the hunter, becomes the hunter in essence, you know. And again years later, we're gonna sit it in Jaws. You know, we're seeing people terrorized by this shark until three guys decide, Nope, we're done with this. We're gonna go out on on the on the water. We're gonna get the shark.

43:23 Yeah. So that, for me, is the pivotal. Moment exactly, Wayne, What about you? What can you think is the pivotal moment for this film? I think for me it's the railroad track scene. You know, just that's always been a fear of mine. You know, when he's being stalked and you know he's he's trapped and the train, you know, are the the truck is pushing him closer and closer to the train. That freaks me out. That's just freaking me out. But it's I mean, I'll be honest, that's a fear of mine too, you know, it's just you know, his life's in danger, Yeah, he's it's it's now, you know, a battle of wits. You know. Really for me that that would be the scene. That's one of my favorite scenes too of the film.

44:07 It was a great scene and it's so hard to believe that it was not in the original. Well his my mind, I'm still blown. So Dave, you've heard, you've heard our choices. What would be your choice? What is the pivotal moment? So for me, it's actually the second time man makes a stand, and that's when he gets out of his car and starts walking towards the truck. You remember that scene where the truck is kind of playing with him, you know, he's just sitting there waiting on him, and David doesn't know where he wants, what he wants to do. So finally he gets fed up and starts walking towards the car, and the truck takes off. But of course you know where it's going to go with that, but it leads up to the Rambo moment what I like to call where he puts his glasses on, gets the seatbelt put in place, you know, prepares for that final showdown because he knows there's no way he's getting out of this. He's going to have to do something about it. Now, there's no way he's going to escape this truck. He's got to figure out a way to make that happen, and sure enough he does. So that's my What do you guys think about the sound of the truck going over the cliff? You guys okay with that?

45:13 Oh? I think it's rar sound. Oh yeah, yeah, it's a monster. Yeah, it's it's it's a monster. And then yeah, if the sound matches perfectly, I agree, you. Know, you you know, harkens back to you know, you open this with, you know, talk of Godzilla. M h. And it's one of those things like even in Jaws, when the shark, you know, explodes, and it's you hear that that fate roar. It's it's not that the shark can roar, it's not that the truck can roar. It's just it's the monster's sound, exact essence, the essence of the monster, I think, and I dig it. I think it's ready too. I'm glad. I'm glad he put it in there, because I think it's a nice at a touch. Speaking of sound though, Uh, am I wrong? But when he the scene where he stops the old couple, he's trying to get get help from him. Am I crazy?

46:01 Or are we getting a hint of the psycho theme? It does sound like it. I yes, it does kind of. See it does. The truck's backing up to the car. Yes, I was like, is that that psycho? I think we're getting a little bit of Bernard Herman there. Little taste. I think I think Goldenberg kind of touched on that too, you know. I mentioned that, you know, he heavily used strings at the time, and I think that's what he was going for. Really, Yeah, and it was very fitting for it. I mean it does have a little bit Hitscock going on in this film, so I mean it's very appropriate. Yeah, completely agree. All right, So let's go ahead and take another break and we come back. We would do the wrap up, Welcome back everybody, as we are going to finish our discussion of Steven Spielberg's nineteen seventy one film Dual. So, guys, I know this is probably going to be a tough one to talk about here. So for someone who's very unfamiliar with this director. I don't know how that's possible.

47:02 It's not, it's not. Which three films would you suggest they watch? Jeff, I'm gonna let you go first. I think, like a lot of people listening, it's really easy to come up with two choices immediately. Jaws and Raiders of the Lost Arc have got to be on your list. They just got to be. And the hard thing for me was was choosing that third from such an impressive body of word, because there really are no wrong answers. I gotta go with Saving Private Ryan. Good choice, Good choice Wayne. What about you? Well, I agree with Private Ryan. I think there's two completely different films, but in a way it's very similar to Duel in the fact that it uses sound in silence very effectively, you know, to portray it. It's the suspense of that film. But I'm going to include two more that I think you should watch, and of course one I think Everybody Is Seen Et because that is Spielberg's masterpiece when it comes to pulling at the hard strings.

48:07 That's probably one of the few films where I'm in tears at the end of that film. It's just so perfectly directed. But For my third one, I am going to go off to a little bit of a tangent and say that I think his episode of Amazing Stories called The Mission is also one of his finest work and sing right up with et. It's another example of building suspense between his directing and camera angles, the silence, and then Williams's score is just perfection. Yeah, it's it's hard because his body of work is just absolutely amazing. Raiders of Law of Sark obviously takes takes it for sure, Jaws absolutely because you get that fear of any any movie that you can get people to have, that fear of going into the water, You've done your job. You really, you really have SIMI prevarnother really really good choice, Jeff, and I had that one, but since you chose it, I'm going to pick another one, and that's Jurassic Park. The reason why I'm choosing Jurassic Park is because Steven Spielberg has been known to change Hollywood quite a bit. He did it again with Jurassic Park.

49:17 With it brought on CGI and changed Hollywood forever. Remember, he was going to do a lot of animatronics with that and it wasn't working and he needed to find a way to make that work. So he blended that with CGI and we got Jurassic Park, which is an outstanding film. All those movies are outstanding, don't get me wrong. So that's the reason why I'm going with Jurassic Park on that one, is just because once again in the nineties, he's changing Hollywood and pushing them forward. He's a master of that and he's been doing that for a very long time. I know he has another UFO movie coming out, and I'm hoping he does it again because I would love to see Steven Spielberg go back to his roots, and I'm hoping that's what we're going to get soon.

49:59 You know, we all know you pick Jurassic Park because you love dinosaurs. Dinosaurs, Yeah, you got it. Well, do we recommend seeing this film? Guys? I think we do right, Oh, yes, definitely. Well, you know it's available, it's available to rent on Prime. The four k Stel books should be on the shelf of any Spielberg fan. Yes, and you know Spielberg sadly, we're not gonna He's never done an audio commentary, but the one thing he does more often is like the behind the scenes documentary type stuff. Duel has an amazing behind the scenes documentary. Yeah, so I strongly urge you if you're a Spielberg fan, if you're a fan of Duel, pick this one up. It's on you know you can.

50:48 You can buy it pretty reasonably priced. It's like twenty bucks I think for a still book Blu Ray. One of the reasons why I really highly recommend this film, it's not just because it's a Spielberg film, but you're beginning to you're seeing the birth of a master. You're you're you're you're seeing cinema getting ready to be changed because of this guy. And you see those elements throughout this film. It is a fantastic film from beginning to end. So yes, I highly recommend it. Have you guys, either one of you seen the movie called The Car from nineteen seventy seven. Oh yeah, with James Boyd. Yeah, awesome.

51:30 It's funny because I recommend that film too. Not to get on tangent, but what reminded me when the truck was coming over the cliff and you're hearing that roaring sound, That's exactly what I got from the Car when it gets killed at the end of that film was that roar, so I recommend that film too. If you love Duel, go see the Car. Yeah sure, all right? So what do you listeners think of Duel? Have you seen it? Did we get this one wrong? I don't think we did. Let us know on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and check out www dot a Film by podcast dot com for film and TV articles and our entire library streaming free. Write to us at a Film by a Podcast at gmail dot com with your questions, comments and concerns.

52:14 We may just read your response to the show. As Jeff did today and send you some a film by swag Wayne. Jeff, thank you so much for joining me on this. It is always a pleasure to talk films. With you tuesus. Thank you for having me. Thank you for yeah, Dave, thank you for having me now. It's awkward. Doesn't been hosting this one, But yes, I loved it, Jeff. I I enjoyed it. It's nice to to you know, when you when you when you hop in the the forty ton tanker truck, it's nice to hop into the passenger side for a change and let someone else drive the episode. So thank you for being so homicidal. Dave. You're very welcome. It was my pleasure. It's all of you listening to the show, following us on social media, and subscribing to our Patreon. We thank you.