Friday, March 20, 2009

Duel and SX4

Hope most of you would have seen the latest Maruti SX4 commercial, where the car takes on a truck. I for one, believe that this has been inspired by a great film made years ago.

'Duel' was Steven Spielberg's first directorial venture. Shot in 1971, Spielberg says he wanted to make a movie based on the 'fear of the unknown'. You can see genius at work here as Spielberg manages to do this with a car and a truck. Sounding familiar, isn't it?

The chap in the car is on a highway and the entire film deals with the ordeal he faces by this monstrous truck that tailgates, overtakes and almost kills him towards the end. The brilliant part of the film, lies in the fact that Speilberg doesn't show the truck driver at all. Neither is the motive explained. The film is over an hour long. And it's worth a watch.

There's an edited version of the movie on youtube by Mark Steensland that gives you a glimpse of Spielberg's genius. It's called Duel Recut. Since the link doesn't work currently, I'm not putting it up. But do check it out later. You'll agree that the 'Men are back' from watching this classic.

Posted by Murali.

1 comment:

Subramaniam Avinash said...

I'm surprised more people didn't know this. I thought the advertising crowd is quite familiar with 'Duel'.