MILD-mannered travelling salesman David Mann (Dennis Weaver) finds himself and his car the innocent targets of a gigantic Petetbilt 351 truck and its maniacal driver.

Along a huge stretch of freeway, Mann is shunted, raced, overtaken and terrified by the immensely menacing looking truck.

We are never shown the face of the truck's driver, which adds to the wonderful suspense which Steven Speilberg builds to a superb crescendo in his first full-length movie.

The title of this film is slightly misleading as only in the last few minutes is there really a duel in the true sense of the word.

Mann is an innocent person, battling a beast much more powerful than himself which is driven by an unknown assailant with a thirst for destruction.

But in the end, Mann does appear to become a worthy opponent.

The film was originally released in 1971 but this special edition DVD is a must for any fans of Spielberg's early work as there is plenty of interesting information to be gleaned from bonus material.

Duel started off as a short story by Richard Matheson in Playboy magazine but so much interest was shown in the tale of suspense, he readily agreed to turn it into a screenplay.

HC