Duel

Year:  1971

Director:  Steven Spielberg

Screenplay:  Richard Matheson, based on the short story Duel by Richard Matheson 

Starring:  Dennis Weaver

Running Time:  90 minutes

Genre:  Action, thriller

Middle aged travelling salesman David Mann (Weaver) sets off on a long drive through rural California to meet a client, but the uneventful journey soon turns into a desperate battle for survival when Mann finds himself involved in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with a deranged truck driver (Carey Loftin).

Originally made as a television "Movie of the Week", this film is possibly most notable as the feature film debut from director Steven Spielberg, who at the time only had a few episodes of television shows under his belt, including episodes of Night Gallery and an episode of Columbo.  The original 74 minute TV movie was so successful with critics and audiences that the studio allowed Spielberg to shoot extra footage to increase the running time for a theatrical release.  Aside from several brief encounters with people he meets on his journey, the film almost entirely focusses solely on Mann.  The truck driver is almost entirely unseen, and never seen in full.  A couple of times we see a beefy forearm cocked out of the window, his hands on the steering wheel, and his booted feet, but that's all we see of the driver.  The antagonist becomes the huge, menacing truck itself, with its dirty windows, bellowing air horn and belching black fumes, like a vast mechanical dragon.  Aside from the anonymity of Mann's attacker, the randomness of the pursuit itself is scary, with Mann seemingly targeted for no reason.  Throughout the film, Mann seems almost painfully out of place, during the opening credits we travel from the comfortable suburbs, into the Californian deserts, and even when he is not in danger, Mann, in his suit and tie, seems to be uncomfortable in the blue-collar diners and truck stops where he finds himself.  In an early scene, he telephones his wife (Jacqueline Scott), providing the only glimpse we have of his home life, and she criticises him for not standing up for her against an offensive colleague of his at a party the previous night.  Ultimately, Mann has to shed his veneer of suburban civilisation to find a more primal survival instinct, if he is to defeat his enemy.  While the film doesn't entirely keep up its momentum throughout its entire running time, it is still a gripping suspense film, with plenty of excitement and a thrilling climax.

Keep on truckin':  Dennis Weaver in Duel

The Post

Year of Release:  2017
Director:  Steven Spielberg
Screenplay:  Liz Hannah and Josh Singer
Starring:  Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Sarah Paulson, Bob Odenkirk, Tracy Letts, Bradley Whitford, Bruce Greenwood, Matthew Rhys
Running Time:  116 minutes
Genre:  Drama, thriller

In 1971, the struggling Washington Post newspaper is owned by heiress Katherine Graham (Streep) with editor-in-chief Ben Bradlee (Hanks).  Graham has inherited the paper following the suicide of her husband, and has severe doubts as to her ability to run a paper, while Bradlee constantly sees the paper being left behind by other, larger newspapers, and is determined to break a big story.  When they become aware of a leak of thousands of pages of Top Secret documents from the Pentagon relating to America's involvement in the Vietnam war (the so-called "Pentagon Papers"), they are forced to decide whether or not to publish, even if it means severe consequences.

Based on a true story, this is definitely part of the "newspaper drama" subgenre, full of serious looking people running around corridors with files and large boxes, chattering typewriters, bustling newsrooms and stirring speeches about the integrity of the press.  Apparently the film was made while Spielberg was waiting for the special effects to be completed for Ready Player One (2018).  The echoes with current events cannot be ignored, at a time when the press and the veracity of news seems to be constantly under fire, this is a film about why journalists and editors cannot allow themselves to be bullied by governments and politicians.  The villain of the piece is then-President Richard Nixon who appears very briefly seen from the back through the White House windows, ranting and growling threats.  It's an intriguing film, which tells an interesting and relevant story with a real sense of urgency.  The performances are excellent, especially from Meryl Streep, who plays someone who is kind of in both camps.  She is someone who is very much part of the Washington establishment, she is friends with many of the politicians, many of whose careers, as she well knows, will be ruined by the publication of the Pentagon Papers.  She is also someone who is perpetually patronised, overlooked and belittled by people who are technically her employees.  An early scene shows her at a board meeting where the all-male board talk over her, ignore her and sometimes repeat exactly what she's just said. 

Compulsive viewing at The Post               

Jaws

Year of Release:  1975
Director:  Steven Spielberg
Screenplay:  Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb, based on the novel Jaws by Peter Benchley
Starring:  Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, Richard Dreyfuss, Lorraine Gary, Murray Hamilton
Running Time:  124 minutes
Genre:  Thriller, horror

This is one of the most popular and influential movies ever made.  When a late night swimmer is savagely killed in the waters off Amity Island, local Police Chief Martin Brody (Scheider) soon realises that there is a vicious shark in the waters.  However the mayor (Hamilton) refuses to close the beaches because the residents rely on the money brought in by summer tourists, especially with the Fourth of July weekend coming up, the island's busiest time of the year.  As the shark claims more victims, Brody enlists the aid of marine biologist Hooper (Dreyfuss), and grizzled old sea dog Quint (Shaw) to stop the terror.

This film pretty much started the summer blockbuster, having an unusually wide release for the time, backed by heavy advertising and merchandising, which helped it become the most successful film ever made, until Star Wars (1977) came along.  Based on the successful novel by Peter Benchley, who co-wrote the script and appears in the film as a TV interviewer, the film had a famously difficult production: it went hugely over budget and over schedule, there was tension between actors Robert Shaw and Richard Dreyfuss, and the model shark (nicknamed "Bruce" after Spielberg's lawyer)  looked completely fake.  However the shark problems proved to be a blessing in disguise.  Due to the fact that it looked so bad, Spielberg severely cut back on how often it appeared on screen, so that the shark is largely hinted at and suggested rather than shown in all it's glory.  This is part of what makes the film so effective, the underwater scenes where the camera glides along beneath unsuspecting victims accompanied by John Williams' famous score.  It's the basic fear that Jaws ties into.  When you're in the water, most of you is submerged, and you can't really see what is down there with you.  It could be anything.  Anything at all.

 Another strength that the film has is Spielberg's eye for the minutiae of every day life, the cluttered homes, boats and offices, the naturalistic dialogue and performances.

It is one of the great Hollywood thrillers, exciting, often witty and quotable dialogue and also surprisingly gruesome.

  Roy Scheider is going to need a bigger boat in Jaws

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Year:  1981
Director:   Steven Spielberg
Screenplay:  Lawrence Kasdan, from a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman
Starring:  Harrison Ford, Karen Allen, Paul Freeman, Ronald Lacey, John Rhys-Davies, Denholm Elliott
Running Time:  115 minutes
Genre:  Adventure, action,

This film is one of the most successful and best-loved movies in modern cinema, and introduced one of it's most popular icons.  The film is set in 1936.  After a dangerous mission to Peru to retrieve a golden idol from a booby-trap laden tomb ends in failure at the hands of his arch-rival Rene Bellocq (Freeman), archeologist and adventurer Doctor Indiana Jones (Ford) returns to his day job of teaching archeology in an American college.  Jones is contacted by Army Intelligence who have received reports that the Nazis are conducting a large scale archological dig in Egypt, and that a noted American archeologist and one-time friend of Jones is involved.  Immediately Jones and his friend and mentor Marcus Brody (Elliott) realise that the Nazis are searching for the fabled lost Ark of the Covenant, the chest in which Moses stored the stone tablets on which were written the Ten Commandments.  The Ark is reputed to contain devestating supernatural power and an army which marches with it would be completely unstoppable.  Jones sets off on a  perilous, globe-trotting quest to find the Ark before the Nazis.  He is aided by his ex-girlfriend, Marion Ravenwood (Allen), who posesses an old medallion, which can be used to locate a clue which can reveal the Ark's whereabouts.  The Nazis are being aided by Bellocq, the only archeologist who is Jones' match.

The film was originally conceived by film-maker George Lucas as a tribute to the adventure serials of the 1930s and 1940s.  It rolls along with action, exotic locations, high adventure and wit to create a fantastically entertaining film, that still holds up brilliantly after 30 years.  It was the first film to feature the roguish, charismatic adventurer Indiana Jones.  Lucas was originally reluctant to cast Harrison Ford due to the fact that he had already appeared in a number of Lucas's films and he did not want Ford to become his "Bobby DeNiro" (a reference to Martin Scorsese who made a number of films with Robert DeNiro).  In the end Tom Selleck was cast as Indiana Jones but was unable to get out of his commitment to the TV series Magnum P.I. (1980 - 1988).  In the end the producers and Spielberg were impressed by Ford's performance in The Empire Strikes Back (1980)  and persuaded Lucas to cast him with three weeks left until the start of filming.  Ford gives a brilliant performance delivering humour and charisma as well as the action.  The film is full of memorable moments, from the giant boulder chasing Jones in the opening of the film, to the closing images which references Citizen Kane (1941).  Karen Allen also impresses as the sharp-tongued Marion and her verbal sparring with Jones provides many humourous moments.  The film is surprisingly violent and gruesome in many ways for a family film, it has quite a high body count and there are numorous rotting corpses and skeletons, as well as the memorable climax which provided nightmares for many an 80s kid.  This is an unashamed piece of escapist entertainment which carries it's viewers along on a rollercoaster ride of thrills, spills, shocks and laughs.

Harrison Ford returned to the chracter of Indiana Jones in three sequels to date:  Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).  There was also a television prequel called The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles (1992 - 1996).

Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark


    

Poltergeist

Year: 1982
Director: Tobe Hooper
Screenplay: Steven Spielberg, Michael Grais and Mark Victor, from a story by Steven Spielberg
Starring: Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins, Heather O'Rourke, Martin Casella, Richard Lawson, Zelda Rubinstein
Running Time: 114 minutes
Genre: Horror, supernatural

Summary: The Freeling family, estate agent Steve (Nelson) his homemaker wife Diane (Williams) and their children sixteen year old Dana (Dunne), eight year old Robbie (Robins) and five year old Carole-Anne (O'Rourke), live in a bland quiet California suburb where kids play with remote control cars on the streets, guys have their friends round to drink beer and watch the game, family breakfasts resemble a warzone and the parents indulge in a nice relaxing toke of weed when the kids are in bed.
However, Carole-Anne seems preoccupied by the ghostly "TV People" which only she can see and hear in the static of the family's television sets. Eventually the seemingly benevolent ghosts emerge from the TV set and enter the structure of the house. However one night, during a thunder storm, Robbie is attacked by the strange old tree in the front lawn and the ghosts snatch Carole-Anne, taking her through a portal in her closet. However, her family can still hear Carole-Anne's echoing voice through the static of their TV set.
With the family constantly plagued by a barrage of supernatural forces they become increasingly desperate in their attempts to save their daughter and put an end to the strange events.

Opinions: This movie is credited as being directed by Tobe Hooper (best known as the director of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)) however it is widely believed that the film's co-writer and co-producer Steven Spielberg also acted as co-director. Over the years members of the film's cast and crew have claimed different things as to how much of the film, if any, was directed by Spielberg and how much was Hooper's. Whatever the truth of the matter, this is a Steven Spielberg film. Everything about it has his stamp: The cluttered seemingly safe suburban environment, the mix of sentiment and horror, the sense of playfulness with the thrills, the otherworldly forces being viewed with a genuine sense of wonder as well as fear and also the John Williams score. In fact the film could be seen as a darker companion piece to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), another Steven Spielberg film about an otherworldly visitor encountering a suburban family, however while the alien in E.T. is friendly, the ghosts in Poltergeist most definitely aren't. In fact the two films were released a week apart in June 1982.
This is horror as a ghost-train ride. It's fun, there's intentional humour, there are plenty of thrills. The special effects are good and it's scary enough for the duration of the movie, but it's unlikely to prey on anyone's mind much once the credits have rolled. Also, although there is some gore, things never get too nasty (presumably due to Spielberg's influence). In fact, possibly the most Tobe Hooper sequence is the one where rotting cadavers and skeletons pop up out of the ground.
The film's storyline bears some slight similarity to a 1962 episode of The Twilight Zone called "Little Girl Lost" written by Richard Matheson, about a young girl who slips into another dimension and, in her house, her parents can hear her calling, but can't find her.
Part of why the film is effective is the fact that the long opening passage, before the supernatural elements kick in, while a little too cutesy, does establish the background and the family dynamic. The film was a huge success, and in my opinion part of the success was due, as with Stephen King novels, to the fact that the horror elements were moved to an instantly relateable and recognisable world. Instead of a creepy, decaying old mansion, the haunted house here was an ordinary non-descript suburban family home in a new, pleasantly dull housing development.
The film has become notorious for being supposedly cursed after several cast members of this film and it's two sequels, including Dominique Dunne and Heather O'Rourke, met untimely deaths. Some have attributed the curse to the fact that real skeletons were used in a scene. Of course it is all more likely to be just a tragic coincidence.
Howeverm the film remains an enjoyable and entertaining chill ride for fans and non-horror fans alike.



Zelda Rubinstein prepares to face a nasty Poltergeist