Duel

Duel is a great movie from 1971. Steven Spielberg directed it, back when he was interesting and not just like the old guy Hammond from Jurassic Park, the guy who built the place just to watch it become a disaster, and he just sits back and counts his money. Ok, strange metaphor there.

Anyway, I love Duel. It used to be on tv all the time. It's about a guy driving somewhere out in the desert, and this tractor-trailer starts stalking him. Dennis Weaver is the star, and he has almost all of the dialogue. You never see the driver or figure out his motive, a bit like the shark in Jaws. It's been ripped off a number of times, but never all that well. It seems too difficult for movies to leave something so entirely unexplained.

Dennis Weaver just died, as did Don Knotts and the dad from A Christmas Story (also a great movie, but everyone knows that). It's a bad month for old white guys. I wonder if Dick Cheney's been in California recently...