Hacker Cinema
Duel
1971 · Film · 74 min
Directed by Steven Spielberg
Traveling businessman David Mann angers the driver of a rusty tanker while crossing the California desert. A simple trip turns deadly, as Mann struggles to stay on the road while the tanker plays cat and mouse with his life.
6 positive4 neutralfrom 10 commenters
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12 comments on Hacker News
Tried the same question with 30B llama got the following:
The Animorphs book series was a young adult science fiction series written by Katherine Applegate and her husband Michael Grant, under the name K. A. Applegate. The series is made up of fifty-four books, first published between June 1996 and May 2001. The series revolves around five children given the power to transform into animals (the ability to "morph") as they are thrust into a war with an alien species called Yeerks that are determined to take over Earth.
Duel is a television film directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Richard Matheson, based on his short story of the same name. It stars Dennis Weaver as David Mann, a middle-aged salesman driving on a business trip. While traveling down a two lane highway through remote California desert, he is taunted in a life or death duel by the unseen driver of a massive and monstrous Peterbilt 281 tanker truck.
---- You have to remember to prompt it right, since its based on autocorrect just as ChatGPT but a lot there is happening on the background before the text is sendt to the model.... My prompt and settings here was.
Repeat_penalty: 1.176 n_predict: 1000 temp: 0.7 top_k 40 top_p 0.1
--- Transcript of a dialog, where the User interacts with an Assistant named Bob. Bob is helpful, kind, honest, good at writing, and never fails to answer the User's requests immediately and with precision.
User: Hello, Bob. Bob: Hello. How may I help you today? User: Please tell me the largest city in Europe. Bob: Sure. The largest city in Europe is Moscow, the capital of Russia. User:Can you give separate summaries of the Animorphs book series and the film Duel? ----
Duel is a great film but requires patience compared to a lot of today's films. There's not much action for quite some time -- just a man driving through the desert. Even when things pick up, it's still slow pacing by today's standards. It's from another era, and I doubt anyone would make a film today with the same pacing.
ChatGPT 4 input:
> Can you give separate summaries of the Animorphs book series and the film Duel?
The reply:
> Animorphs Book Series Summary: The Animorphs series, written by K.A. Applegate, is a popular young adult science fiction book series spanning 54 books and several companion novels. The story revolves around five teenagers—Jake, Rachel, Tobias, Cassie, and Marco—who are granted the power to morph into any animal they touch by a dying alien named Elfangor. The teens, known as the Animorphs, use their new abilities to battle an evil alien race called the Yeerks, who are secretly invading Earth by taking control of humans' minds. Throughout the series, the Animorphs learn about the complexities of war, friendship, and sacrifice as they try to save humanity from the Yeerk invasion.
> Duel Film Summary: Duel is a 1971 television movie directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the short story by Richard Matheson. The film follows a mild-mannered traveling salesman named David Mann (played by Dennis Weaver), who unwittingly finds himself in a deadly game of cat and mouse on a remote California highway. Mann is pursued by a mysterious and relentless tanker truck driver, who seems determined to kill him for no apparent reason. With escalating tension and suspense, the film delves into themes of fear, paranoia, and the primal fight for survival. Duel is notable for being Spielberg's directorial debut, showcasing his skillful storytelling and unique visual style that would later become hallmarks of his career.
> Write me a fanfic where the Animorphs battle the truck from Duel, but in the style of Mark Twain
Whoa. I want to read this! Duel - what a great film. Twain - amazing writer. Animorphs - published after my teen years but sounds like a great story!
I was curious, since I have been watching the "100 Films To See before You Die" and so many older films seem to clock in under 90 minutes (to be sure there are plenty of exceptions).
Just a handful of films under 90 minutes:
"Toy Story", "High Noon", "Rashomon", "This is Spinal Tap", "Frankenstein" (and "Bride of"), "Umberto D", "My Neighbor Totoro", "Run Lola Run", "Duel", "Rope"...
The "Highway Patrol" TV series of the 1950s was a precursor of the car chase genre, as were some notable film noirs that elevated car pursuits as story lines i.e. High Sierra, White Heat. Agreed that Bullitt is exemplary, but don't forget The French Connection, Duel, Easy Rider, Two Lane Blacktop, and Vanishing Point and you have some great car/bike films of Bullitt's era. The hoaxy C'etait un Rendez-vous is likewise great if you don't do the time/distance math.
Steven Spielberg's first movie 'Duel' is visually dated but transfers surprisingly easily to a world of automated driving.
One of the earliest (and also one of the best) Columbo episodes ("Murder by the Book", 1971) was directed by Steven Spielberg. If you watch it, it is immediately clear (even during the initial shot) that this episode is simply in another league. Not only when compared to other Columbo episodes, but also when compared to other TV shows during that era (see for example this short documentary [0]). It is crazy to think that Spielberg was only 25 when he directed this.
If I remember correctly, the quality of that Columbo episode was what really started Spielberg's career. He got the offer to direct a TV movie afterwards, and he presented Duel [1] (also in 1971), which is simply a masterpiece and got a theatrical release after the TV success. It established Spielberg as a major film director. Just watch the title sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0707XtiFPs
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb62FxCH-Ks
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duel_(1971_film)
Go back and watch films from the early 70s - the comedies are farcically stupid and the serious films are violent and paranoid, because between Vietnam, Watergate, and other political issues, its was a tough time and people were angry, disillusioned, and pessimistic. Spielberg's first commercial film Duel is a very fine piece of cinema but it's far from being 'fun.' Likewise Lucas' early work like THX1138 or American Graffiti is shot through with anxiety about the future and lost innocence. Hitchcock could do great screwball comedies but he alternated them with nightmarish vortexes on taboo subjects.
What you want are optimistic films where people get into trouble but keep their sense of humor and eventually bounce back. That requires a social and cultural environment, and a showbusiness industry, in which people can do the same. Have you heard many stories lately where a talented director goes way over budget or even bombs but makes a great comeback because people are forgiving and want to support a real artist? You have not, because the arts are heavily professionalized these days and computers have made accountants very powerful.
I guess it’s just the premise.
Retiree transforms his life and solves all his problems by doing exactly what he was going before only... more carefully? And duel is certainly absurdist.
I enjoyed the film, but I think it’s intention is largely opposite what is being received here.
The trend to do ever more sequels, prequels, reboots, other stories in the same universe etc has a really awful side-effect that everything is always explained. There is no mystery in any of these things that won't eventually be explained in full and therefore no gaps left for the imagination of the viewer to fill in. The original Matrix film in my opinion would be significantly more interesting if all the loose ends hadn't been conveniently tied up in subsequent films.
Imagine if we hadn't seen how Anakin became Darth Vader? As a kid I imagined a much more terrifying journey that turned him to the dark side. The prequels could never live up to that.
Edit: ...and on the other hand, imagine a "Duel" prequel where we get to see the truck driver's backstory. Consider how dramatically this would reduce the stature of the original film. (p.s. If you haven't seen "duel" you should).
Well the Congressional Cinema Club could put on some special showings and ask for sponsorship
- Car Manufacturers Lobby: Bullit
- Anti Car Lobby: Duel
- Trans-Atlantic Airlines Lobby : Titanic
- Construction Lobby: Bridge over the River Kwai
- Elon Musk : Iron Man 1 or 3 (but not 2)
- The Hamptons Tourist Board: The wicker man
- The Banjo Players association of America: Deliverance
- Tesla Car Showrooms: Death of a salesman
- Climate Change Deniers Lobby: Some Like It Hot
- Liberal Atheists for a kinder America: Any Harry Potter